The West Indian And Black American Origins Of Many 19th Century Shanties (Part II: Comments from Mudcat Folk Music Forum)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part II of a two part pancocojams series about West Indian and Black American origins of many 19th century sea shanties.

The content in this post is quoted from two selected internet articles that quote various sources.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/09/the-west-indian-and-black-american.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. That post includes some comments from various Mudcat folk music forum discussion threads on this subject. 

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, and educational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the unknown composers of these sea shanties and thanks to the collectors of these work songs. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.
-snip-
Some of the content of this pancocojams post is included in the 2022 pancocojams post entitled "Information About Sea Shanty Collector Stan Hugill And Information About Harding, A West Indian Man Who Was The Source For A Number Of Shanties." 

https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/03/information-about-sea-shanty-collector.html

These posts are part of an ongoing pancocojams series on African Americans and West Indians chanties (shanties). Click the tags given below for previous posts and subsequent posts on this subject. 

****
DISCLAIMER
This post isn't meant to be comprehensive. Please read these entire Mudcat discussion threads (which I believe are still open for comments as of the September 2026 date of this pancocojams post. Also, read other online and off-line sources about this subject.

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTES

Some sources about sea shanties include the referent "negro" spelled with a lower case "n".

That referent for Black people -spelled with the lower case "n" or spelled with an upper case "n") is outdated and and has been considered to be very offensive for a number of decades.

That said, the use of that referent by some non-Black people in the past may not have been meant to be offensive, at least not has offensive as it is considered now (in the 2020s). 

**
The Mudcat folk music forum member whose screen name is "Gib Sahib" is the same person who is identified in Part I, Source #2 of this pancocojams series as Dr. Gibb Schreffler from the Department of Music at Claremont California's Pomona College.
  
****
COMMENTS ABOUT BLACK ORIGINS OF MANY 19TH CENTURY SEA SHANTIES
From https://mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=7810  

1. 

Subject: RE: Where am I to go From Barry Finn Date: 23 Jul 98 - 02:46 PM "Enter into the search box, Where Am I To Go Me Johnnies*, & you'll find it there along with midi music. Hugill doesn't say much about this halyard shanty except that he got it from a fellow shantyman, Harding the Barbarian from Barbadoes, a Black sailor who had shipped on Yankee, Brittish, Bluenose & West Indian vessels, a fine shantyman & a 1st rate sailor. He also says he never seen it in print. Barry"

****
From https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=46147

1. Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Huckleberry Hunting (Pumping Chantey)
Subject: RE: Rare' Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 02:01 PM

… "I did once read through Hugill with an eye to which shanties were from Harding, but I didn't keep a strict list. My goal at the time was to sketch a rough picture of the percentages of what chanteys came from where. Needless to say, that is impossible to say with any accuracy since as many people would disagree on the origins (or dismiss the effort as rather pointless). The number of course will also vary widely depending on what you count variations. For whatever it's worth though, here are some of my stats:

Total number of shanties, not including textual variants or little "sing outs," is about 181. Usually I counted each different tune as a different chantey. "Blow the Man Down" was counted as a single chantey, despite there being "Flying Fish" version, "Blackballer" version, etc.

Of these, 78 were of "Black" origin. Out of those 78, I filed 47 as Black American and 31 as Caribbean. Keep in mind that this also includes minstrel song types, which are difficult to distinguish from authentic African-American songs of the period. Also, the Caribbean number may seem low because many of the chantey, even if learned from Harding, seemed to originate in the Southern U.S., as minstrel songs, etc.

 14 were "Irish" or Irish-American. This does not include the minstrel songs, which are often a sort of Black-Irish combo. As already noted, I included those under "Black"--a bias in my count, I guess.

8 were "American," exclusive of "Black" or "Irish."

"All Others," an undifferentiated category, numbered 80.

I did not note which were "English" specifically, though that number was comparatively few. Moreover, many of these are forebitters that Hugill admitted into the collection on the criterium that he'd hear one person say they had been used as a capstan song. A contrary statement one could make is that they are all really "English," since it was Stan, an Englishman, who sang them!

Take those numbers with several teaspoons of salt.

Gibb"

****
From https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=119776

[Pancocojams Editor's Note:
Some comments from Gib Sahib include the word "here" as a hyperlink to a online source that isn't given in those comments. I haven't added those hyperlinks in this compilation. Please refer back to those comments in that original Mudcat thread and click on that word if you are interested in following through on those hyperlinks.] 

1.Subject: RE: Rare' Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: greg stephens
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 07:09 AM

"The Bahamian "The Captain Go Ashore" was recorded by Frederick McQueen, Andros Bahamas. And also by the Boat Band ("Take Me over the Tide, Harbourtown casette, 1990, to be reissued on CD May 1 2009 hint hint).

This is one of the shanties mentioned by Dana in "Two years before the mast", as being sung on American ships in thne 1850's. Hugill(introduction to "Shanties of the Seven Seas") thought the song was lost, but luckily Fwederick McQueen(and the Boat Band!) knew otherwise"

**
2. Subject: RE: Rare' Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 10:47 AM

"Specifics, as always, are welcome. Thanks, guys.

It is not so much that these chanteys (not just the few I've listed so far, but the larger category) have "never" been performed, but rather that they have been performed so infrequently (or within such a limited area, as Ross suggested) that they are very poorly known to the chantey audience at large. The second part to this is, again, the issues of how the performances were created, i.e. whether they are imagined, as best as possible, from written text. I would guess that most of these recordings that one finds are recreations of the text.

The Bahamian recordings by Lomax present us with a slightly reverse scenario. We have these "authentic" versions, recorded for posterity and there is not so much of an issue of knowing what they are like (although more than one version is always helpful). Moreover, in several cases these recordings have been seized upon by revival singers and have since become both fairly well known and based on an aural source.

Abrahams' book is obviously the best source so far if we are just looking for Caribbean shanties, in conjunction with the more recent performances by the Barrouallie Whalers. But there are plenty of other chanteys that seem to have been popular back in the day, collected by Hugill, Bullen, Terry, Sharp, & Harlow that don't appear in these.

Out of the few listed so far, "Round the Corner, Sally" is definitely the most common, but I'm not sure if Hugill's significantly unique West Indian version is a part of that knowledge.

As a related note, one book that I don't seem to ever see mentioned, but which should accompany Abrahams', is Horace Beck's FOLKLORE AND THE SEA. He prints the following chanteys, having covered (in an albeit much more sketchy way) a similar ground as Abrahams:

Yado

Sam Gone Away

Ring Down Below

Ding Well

Mountains so High (related to Poor Lucy Anna / Louisiana)

Drive Her Captain Drive Her

Stormalong ("Yankee John" version)

Long Time Ago

Blow Boys Blow

Bulldog

Man o' War Sailor

Hilo

Rosabella

Old Moses

Pappy You Done Dead

 

Those being noted, the focus (for me) is not on "Caribbean" chanteys per se, it just happens that many of these chanteys in this category have been sourced from West Indian singers."

** 

3.
Subject: RE: Rare' Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 11:03 AM

"So here is a summary so far of sources for the songs listed.

Mudder Dinah (Hugill's version A)

Print: Hugill, SEVEN SEAS; Bullen, SEA LABOUR + SEA WAIF

Performers: Rika Ruebsaat (?); Chris Roe /Broadside/St. Elmo's Choir

 

Mudder Dinah (version B)

Print: Hugill, SEVEN SEAS; Sharp, FOLK-CHANTEYS; Colcord (copy of Sharp)

Performers: Rika Ruebsaat (?)

 

Shinbone Al

Print:Hugill, SEVEN SEAS; Bullen; Harlow

Performers: Theresa Tooley

 

Round the Corner, Sally

Print: Hugill (a different version sung by Harding); Sharp; Terry; Dana (title only)

Performers: Paul Clayton; Theresa Tooley; more..."

**
4.
Subject: RE: "Rare" Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 11:45 AM

"In my last post I forgot to list:

 

Mudder Dinah (Version A)

Performer: Pint & Dale

 

Round the Corner Sally

Performer: Pint & Dale

 

These two seem to have used Hugill's text as a source for non-chantey style music. 

Tom Lewis also performs "Round the Corner," but in his own, new version.

Johnson Girls and Forebitter do "Roun' de Corn," a plantation song with a related phrase."

**
5. 
Subject: RE: Rare' Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Padre
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 12:12 PM

"Roger D. Abraham's book is called, "Deep the Water, Shallow the Shore (Three Essays on Shantying in the West Indies)" Published for the American Folklore Society by the University of Texas Press in 1974.

It contains the following songs:

 

A Coolie is Nobody

All through the rain and Squally Weather (Blow My Bully Boy, Blow my Blow)

Bear Away Yankee, Bear Away Boy

Blackbird Get Up

Blow the Man Down

Bully Long Time Ago

Caesar Boy, Caesar

Caesar oh Caesar

Dan-Dan-Oh

Do my Jolly Boy

Feeny Brown

Fine Time o' Day

Fire Down Below

Georgy, Me Neck-a-Broke

Gray Goose Gone Home

Haul Away, Haul Away

Hey, Bully Monday

Jane and Louisa

John,John the Water Man

Johnny Come Down with a Hilo

Judiano

Lee-Lee-o, Lee-Lee

Little Boy Lonzo

Long Time Ago

Man-o-War Sailor

Michael Row the Boat Ashore

Oh, Louisiana

Oh, Mr. Cobeau

Oh, My Rolling River (Solid fas')

Pull away Me Boy

Royo Groun'

Shub Her Down

Sintali

St. Peter Down at Courland Bay

Those Girls From Bermuda

Tinnego

We Are Bound Down South Alabama

When You Go, Tell Julia

who No Been Out

Woman Belly Ful o' Hair

Yankee John, Stormalong

Yard-o

 

The Boarding Party sang several of these songs:

Yard-o

Solid Fas'

Blackbird Get Up

Caesar, Oh Caesar"

** 
6.
Subject: RE: Rare' Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 05:10 PM

"Here's another of this category:

"Walkalong, Miss Susiana Brown."

Print: Hugill; Colcord

Performance: William Fender (on Folktrax CD)

Some notes:

It is a halyard chantey. Hugill doesn't mention whom he learned it from; one presumes either Harding or "Harry Lauder."

The phrase "walkalong" is reminiscent of Gulf port cotton stowing songs, including the phamous "General Taylor / Walk-'em-along John" variant of the Stormalong theme.

The other collector who gives a version of this one is Joanna Colcord, who files it under the title "Juley." In her version, the name Susiana appears as Juliana.

There is a version of this recorded on cylinder in the James Madison Carpenter collection, by a William Fender, who notes to have learned it from a stevedore in the West Indies in 1888. It goes by the name "Saucy Anna," and though I've not heard it, I'm reasonably sure it is a related song. Mudcatter dick greenhaus notes it's inclusion on a Folktrax CD, under the title "Walkalong, You Saucy Anna," here

I know a few people here have that CD; I wonder how they would compare it to Hugill or Colcord's noted version. Of course I'd also be interested to hear whether anyone out there has included this in their repertoire.

My unripe rendition is here

I've had to alter the rhythm in one part of Hugill's notation, where it didn't make much sense; again, his transcriber seems to have been defeated by syncopation or some other irregular rhythm. Also, the notation is plagued by a common problem in his text, where the durational values on notes suddenly become doubled for a phrase, then halved again in the next phrase. I used Colcord's version to get an idea, but ultimately it is just a guess about which rhythms were really intended.

**
7.
Subject: RE: Rare' Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 05:28 PM

"Jerry,

Thank you very much for your details on what Stan recorded off record. I find it interesting (but not surprising) that although his SEVEN SEAS is pretty much the largest collection of chanteys, he is only known for performing a relatively small set of those. In his later books (for numerous easy to guess reasons, I think) he trims off all these "Harding chanteys" (Perhaps that is a better way to group them!). I wonder to what extend he "knew" them them well (i.e. in order to perform them) or knew them just enough to log them in his very inclusive first book.

"John Kanaka" is a funny anomaly, since I'd put it in this category and yet Hugill evidently liked it and chose to popularize it. Maybe it was because he liked doing that yodel. Maybe the story of "samoan" lyrics was gimmicky. But for whatever reason, the very similar and probably more popular "Mobile Bay / John Come tell us as we haul away" hasn't made it to any kind of renown.

Also interesting is that the more recent, wonderful interest in Caribbean chanteying still does not quite fill the gap of what seems to be many Caribbean-or-Southern-U.S.-or-minstrel-based chanteys that were once actually well known by Euro-Americans. It's mostly a different repertoire (I think?) than that represented by Abrahams, the Nevis whalers, etc."

**
8.
Subject: RE: Rare' Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: doc.tom
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 05:48 PM

"A few related notes - if they help at all!

Horace Beck: FOLKLORE AND THE SEA - his Rosabella is not the one 'everybody' sings. That came from John Short (Yankee Jack) to me & BB, thence to Collins & Mageean, thence to the world. It is one of Short's that Sharp did not publish. Short is the ONLY source apart from two close singe-verse variants noted by Carpenter.

Gibb Sahib's reference to Round the Corner Sally, above, include Sharp & Terry as sources - they both published John Short's version. At the time of publication,SHARP says: "I do not know of any printed version of this chantey, nor have I myself collected any variants", and TERRY says: "I have not heard anyone save Mr. Short sing this shanty." HUGILL - "Mentioned by Dana in Two Years Before the Mast... Terry & Sharp are the only two collectors who give it and both had it from the same shantyman, Mr. Short… My version is one of Harding's."

Similarly, with Bully In The Alley, SHARP says: "I have no variants of this nor do I know of any printed version of it." HUGILL:"Another halyard shanty of negro origin which I came across in the West Indies is Bully In The Alley. Sharp gives a version sung to him by Mr. john Short of Watchet in which all the refrains are the same but I feel that this version has all the signs of being in a worn condition, as though Mr. Short's memory, in this case, didn't serve him well... This shanty may have been one used originally by cotton screwers." In fact, Short's version is structurally different to the one Stan gives (and everybody else subseqently sings), and does appear to be much closer to an original hoosier's chant then Stan's!

It's fascinating to find that, of those shanties that Sharp/Terry published from John Short, which were not in other publications, Stan almost invariably a his own version either from 'Harding the Barbadian' or 'picked up in the West Indies'. Makes you wonder!

As to who sings them now, well, all John Short's versions of shanties (57 in all) will be newly recorded in the next 12 months in the 'Short Sharp Shanty' projects - see www.umbermusic.co.uk/s&aprojects.htm

I shall follow this thread with interest - thanks for starting it.

TomB"

**
9.
Subject: RE: Rare' Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: JeffB
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 06:31 PM

"Some years ago Johnny Collins and Jim Mageean recorded "Coming of Age" (Columns Disc/ Universal Productions), a cracking good collection of 21 favourite shanties to celebrate 21 years singing together. If you can get hold of it, you will hear a number of WI shanties in fine style. Quoting their sleeve notes :-

Bully in the Alley - (WI halyards) One of several negro shanties referring to the place Shinbone Alley (geographical or anatomical?).

John Dead - (WI whaling) Collected in Barouvalie, St Vincent, by Roger Abrahams. It was used for calling out any 'chicken' negro whaler (Grey Goose [so-called in the shanty]) to come out and hunt "Mr Fox" (the whale). Brought to our attention by the fine Scottish shantyman Rob Mhacgregor.

Blackbird get up [mentioned by Padre above] - (WI whaling shanty) A shanty from Roger Abraham's collection "Deep the Water, Shallow the Shore", from the negro whalers of Barouvalie, St Vincent, who always sang this shanty when being rained upon.

The CD has a number of other shanties collected from black crews, but not necessarily Caribbean.

Not sure if you would include Florida for your purposes, but the CD also includes "Johnson girls", which the notes say was collected in 1940 from the crew of the Menhaden fishing vessel "The Boys", working out of Mayport.

A. L. Lloyd's version of "Emma let me be (Sail 'er down the bay to Julianna)" is well known, but Lloyd apparently altered the distinctive cadence of the song. Would like to know what it sounded like in the mouth of a WI shantyman. Subtle changes by collectors can be really significant, as any who can compare the "standard" version of "Sailboat Malachi" with the original recording of Frederick McQueen ("The Real Bahamas") will appreciate.

Not sure if you could strictly call it a shanty, maybe more of a stevedores' song, is "Fire Marengo".

I'm told that people of mixed race in the Caribeban in 19th cent were called "cholas", so perhaps "Shallow Brown" could be included. Admittedly, not at all rare.

Do you want to draw a line between Caribbean shanties and those sung by black American crews? If so, things could get tricky, but you would be able to include "Shiny-o", which had a
thread to itself last year."

**
10.
Subject: RE: Rare' Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 02:01 PM

"Tom,
I was going to go through which of John Short's shanties were 'covered' by Stan as Harding/WestIndies - but it'll be a few weeks yet: will post when it's done. From the other direction, has anyone listed the 'Harding shanties' from Seven Seas? (or the 'picked up' for that matter).

That would be very insightful, good idea.

I did once read through Hugill with an eye to which shanties were from Harding, but I didn't keep a strict list. My goal at the time was to sketch a rough picture of the percentages of what chanteys came from where. Needless to say, that is impossible to say with any accuracy since as many people would disagree on the origins (or dismiss the effort as rather pointless). The number of course will also vary widely depending on what you count variations. For whatever it's worth though, here are some of my stats:

Total number of shanties, not including textual variants or little "sing outs," is about 181. Usually I counted each different tune as a different chantey. "Blow the Man Down" was counted as a single chantey, despite there being "Flying Fish" version, "Blackballer" version, etc.

Of these,

78 were of "Black" origin. Out of those 78, I filed 47 as Black American and 31 as Caribbean. Keep in mind that this also includes minstrel song types, which are difficult to distinguish from authentic African-American songs of the period. Also, the Caribbean number may seem low because many of the chantey, even if learned from Harding, seemed to originate in the Southern U.S., as minstrel songs, etc.

14 were "Irish" or Irish-American. This does not include the minstrel songs, which are often a sort of Black-Irish combo. As already noted, I included those under "Black"--a bias in my count, I guess.

8 were "American," exclusive of "Black" or "Irish."

"All Others," an undifferentiated category, numbered 80.

I did not note which were "English" specifically, though that number was comparatively few. Moreover, many of these are forebitters that Hugill admitted into the collection on the criterium that he'd hear one person say they had been used as a capstan song. A contrary statement one could make is that they are all really "English," since it was Stan, an Englishman, who sang them!

Take those numbers with several teaspoons of salt.

Gibb"

**
11.
Subject: RE: Rare' Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 03:17 PM

"I'm going to try to make a few notes on some of the chanteys that have been mentioned.

I don't think many of the Caribbean chanteys that appear in Abrahams' book (to the extent that he also made recordings of them), or that we find reintroduced by the Nevisian whalers or in Lomax's recordings represent a broken link in oral tradition -- precisely because we have these as aural sources directly from an oral source. Many of them are indeed less known (though note the fact that, for example, that Lomax's recordings in the Bahamas, mentioned by Fred above, were drawn from by early folk revival groups). While they are less known, we have a chance of knowing them directly from an oral source.

That not only Hugill, who by happenstance got many chanteys from Black chanteymen in the Caribbean, but also Sharp, Terry, etc. collected some of the same chanteys (by name, at least) from Englishmen suggests that these were a stock of chanteys that were widely known among the international set of sailors. This may be a bit different than localized chanteys like "Feeney Brown" and such. It's the former set that I think is "extinct" or "endangered," despite us having them in print.

Then there is the category of really "lost" chanteys that we don't have much knowledge about because they have only been named in books, without many lyrics and without melody. greg stephens brought up the example of one of these that seems to have been rediscovered. Here is his thread on that topic. "Fire Maringo" would be another that could fit into that category. The issue with these is that, unless and until they are rediscovered, they remain as vague references. By contrast, the many less-known chanteys in Hugill et.al. are at least notated out.

So adding some of the chanteys that have been mentioned…

*************

"Coal Black Rose"

Print: Hugill

Performers: Tom Sullivan (recorded on "Salt Atlantic Chanteys); Finn & Haddie (here)

Notes:

Learned by Stan Hugill from Harding. It is another one of those chanteys which can be presumed to be developed from a snatch of a popular minstrel song. In this case, the song "Coal Black Rose" is believed to be one of the earliest minstrel songs, popularized by George Washington Dixon by 1829 and henceforth part of the standard repertoire of blackface performers. A copy of the sheet music to the song can be seen here

 

The opening phrases, especially about the banjo, with the onomatopoeia (as well as some of the melodic contour, I think) are similar enough to make it probable the chantey is partly derived from the popular song.

*******

"Come Down, You Bunch of Roses"

Print: Hugill, in several books; Doerflinger

Performers: hmm…very many, but few. See below

 

Notes:

Despite it being apparently very well known, I think this one belongs to this category of broken-oral-link chanteys. Doerflinger's printed version comes from another text. Hugill's come from the oral source, Harding, but so far as I know he hasn't passed that version on orally to others. In fact, he appears to later forsake Harding's version (in SEVEN SEAS) in favor of a popular revival version.

 

I've tried to analyze what I think is the trajectory of this chantey, since the end of sail, here. The gist of my argument is that Bert Lloyd refashioned the song, from who knows what, and that his version became so ubiquitous that even Hugill adopted it.

 

Now, we do have those Caribbean recordings of a sibling or parent version of the song, as noted by Fred and Barry. So there is an oral source. One question would be whether these are the same as the developed chantey.

 

I've made an attempt to recreate Hugill's original/Harding's version here

 

********

"Bully in the Alley"

 

Note that this is different than the "Shinbone Al" mentioned earlier in the thread.

 

At first glance, one might not include this one among the "broken link" chanteys of this thread, simply because Hugill recorded it. It is available to many, and many have learned it. In fact, it is so well known (in a form) that it has reached the level of Disney-fication, here and here

 

However, two points. One is that Hugill's notation of this chantey in SEVEN SEAS is significantly different from the popular versions. I don't have his recording, so I can't tell if the popular versions are based on that (which differs from text) or if they derive from someone's reworking of it. Second, see TomB's points, above, that John Short's rendition had some significant differences. So there is a case for saying that the oral tradition of this chantey has been broken, or at least that the way most people know it now is "off." Who popularized the current version going around (was it Starboard List, as Lighter mentions)?

 

Regardless, it is similar to a lot of these other chanteys.

 

*****

"Lowlands Low"

 

Print: Hugill

Performers: Ian Cambell; Mystic Seaport Chanteymen; Roll & Go

 

Revived in the 60s by Ian Campbell and Co.? This is post-SEVEN SEAS, but I don't know if he learned it from print or oral.

Incidentally, there are a number of recordings, by revival singers in the 60s-70s, that are recreated from text. Often they have "mistakes" in them, imperfect readings of the texts, and through their spread on record they've spread these off versions. An example might be Louis Killen's version of "Hilo Johnny Brown" which seems it must derive from Hugill but has too many inaccuracies. It may well be that he learned it from Hugill directly, in which case – sadly all too often the case—it's Hugill's notation that is way off."

**
12.
Subject: RE: 'Rare' Caribbean shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 11:26 PM

...."This time regarding Hugill's Caribbean sources. Note: these do not correspond to all of his shanties that he believed were of Caribbean origin. Rather, they're those that he learned from men in or of the Caribbean.

There are 55 in total, at my count -- I may have missed some. So, a good third of the shanties in Hugill's text came from theses guys

From HARDING 'THE BARBARIAN' OF BARBADOS - 36 shanties:

Stormalong, John

'Way Stormalong John

Stormalong, Lads, Stormy

Sally Brown

Randy Dandy O!

High O, Come Roll Me Over

Where Am I to Go, M'Johnnies

Roll, Boys, Roll

The Codfish Shanty

Ranzo Ray (C)

Hilo, Come Down Below

Hello Somebody

Shallow Brown (B)

Can't Ye Hilo?

The Gal with the Blue Dress

Johnny Come Down the Backstay

Rise Me Up from Down Below

John Kanaka

Hooker John

Haul 'er Away (A)

Old Moke Pickin' on the Banjo

Gimme De Banjo

Haul Away, Boys, Haul Away

Walkalong, My Rosie

Coal Black Rose

Bunch o' Roses

'Way Me Susiana

Do Let Me Lone, Susan

Doodle Let Me Go

Sing Sally O (Mudder Dinah) (A)

Sing Sally O (B)

Round the Corner, Sally

Essequibo River

Alabama (John Cherokee)

Dan Dan

Hilonday

 

From "OLD SMITH" OF TOBAGO:

Lowlands Low

Walkalong You Sally Brown

Hilo Boys Hilo

Good Morning Ladies All (A)

Sing a Song, Blow Along (Dixie Land)

Tiddy High O

 

From HARRY LAUDER of ST. LUCIA:

Heave Away Boys, Heave Away (B)

Sister Susan (Shinbone Al)

Eki Dumah

Bulley In the Alley

 

From TRINIDAD, anonymous:

Roller Bowler

Miss Lucy Long

Miss Lucy Loo

 

From ST. LUCIA, anonymous:

Heave Away Boys, Heave Away (A)

 

WEST INDIES in general, anonymous:

Roll the Woodpile Down

Tommy's on the Tops'l yard

Haul 'er Away (B)

Good Morning Ladies All (B)

Won't Ye Go My Way?

If Hugill was writing his book in today's era of scholarship, Harding might be listed as a co-author!"

****
13.
Subject: RE: 'Rare' Caribbean shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Nov 23 - 07:40 PM

"Here's "Yella Gal" (Hugill/Harding's "Do Let Me Lone") from

Brathwaite, Percy A. and Serena Brathwaite. _Folk Songs of Guyana: Queh-Queh, Chanties and Plantation Themes._ [self-published: Georgetown?], 1967.

 

“Queh-Queh also sung as Chanty”

YELLA GAL

 

Refrain:

Do leh me lone, Lulu, do leh me lone,

        Hurray, me yella gal, do leh me lone

Do leh me lone, Lulu, do leh me lone,

        Hurray, me yella gal, do leh me lone

 

Solo: Put me face pon Lulu face, Lulu faint away, oh

Chorus: Hurray, me yella gal, Lulu faint away

 

Solo: Ah put me han’ pon Lulu head, Lulu faint away, oh.

Chorus: Hurray me yella gal, Lulu faint away.

 

Solo: Ah put me han’ roun’ Lulu neck / An’ she faint away, oh

Chorus: “then Refrain, etc.”

 

Solo: Ah put me han’ roun’ Lulu waist, “etc.”

Chorus: “then Refrain, etc.”

 

Includes notation, including a harmonized (4-part) refrain. However, there appear to be numerous errors in the transcription where the rhythm doesn't make sense."
-snip-
A "yella gal" ("yellow girl") is a light skinned Black female.

Note the comment that is given in #9 of this compilation that the Caribbean term "cholo" means "a person who is mixed" (of some Black/non-Black ancestry). Many- but not all-people who are "mixed" (contemporary term "biracial") identify as Black. Some of these people are light skinned and some aren't.  Also, some Black people appear to be first generation mixed, but aren't. 

**

This November 2023rd comment is the latest comment that is posted to that Mudcat discussion thread as of September 5, 2026 at 1:05 PM. That thread is still open for comments. 

****
This concludes Part II of this pancocojams series.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome. 

The West Indian And Black American Origins Of Many 19th Century Sea Shanties (Part I: Comments from Two Online Sources)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part I of a two part pancocojams series about West Indian and Black American origins of many 19th century sea shanties.

The content in this post is quoted from two selected internet articles that quote various sources.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/09/the-west-indian-and-black-american_0588412801.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. That post includes some comments from various Mudcat folk music forum discussion threads on this subject. 

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, and educational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the unknown composers of these sea shanties and thanks to the collectors of these work songs. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.
-snip-
Some of the content of this pancocojams post is included in the 2022 pancocojams post entitled "Information About Sea Shanty Collector Stan Hugill And Information About Harding, A West Indian Man Who Was The Source For A Number Of Shanties."

https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/03/information-about-sea-shanty-collector.html

These posts are part of an ongoing pancocojams series on African Americans and West Indians chanties (shanties). Click the tags given below for previous posts and subsequent posts on this subject. 

****
PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
Some sources about sea shanties include the referent "negro" spelled with a lower case "n".

That referent for Black people -spelled with the lower case "n" or spelled with an upper case "n") is outdated and and has been considered to be very offensive for a number of decades.

That said, the use of that referent by some non-Black people in the past may not have been meant to be offensive, at least not has offensive as it is considered now (in the 2020s). 

****
COMMENTS ABOUT THE WEST INDIAN AND BLACK AMERICAN ORIGINS OF MANY 19TH CENTURY SHANTIES (from two internet sources)

These sources are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.

SOURCE #1
From https://www.jimmageean.co.uk/post/the-black-origins-of-sea-shanties "The Black Origins of Sea Shanties" 
Writer: Jim Mageean
Oct 23, 2021
Updated: Jun 24, 2022

"The past year has seen a huge renewed interest in sea songs worldwide, largely due to a traditional New Zealand forebitter 'Wellerman' becoming a number one chart success on both sides of the Atlantic.

The year has also seen the publication of several new books on sea shanties. These include Gibb Schreffler's 'Boxing the Compass', Gerry Smyth's 'Sailor Song' and my own trilogy 'Haul Away', 'Heave Away', 'Sail Away'.

Research is beginning to show that what we have always thought about the history of sea shanties (being predominanty of white British origin) is not true and that many (possibly most) of them have their origins in black work songs, plantation songs and even slave songs from the American South and the West Indies.

 I think a look into the origins of these wonderful songs is long overdue.

 Sea shanties, as we know them today, are very much a 19th Century phenomenon. They were sung by sailors aboard merchant vessels (not Navy ships where they were discouraged) and had their heyday from the 1830’s to the 1880’s’ However they were still being collected from oral sources well into the 20th Century.

They must have existed since ancient times and in fact are mentioned in print from ancient Greek manuscripts to texts from the 15th and 16th Century. There is little mention of them in the 17th Century and none at all in the 18th Century. The reason for this is almost certainly warfare.   

From 1700 to 1815 Britain was almost constantly at war and hence singing aboard ship would not be encouraged for fear of alerting any enemy ships. British merchant ships were also overmanned at this time for protection from piracy.  During the same period, however, America was only at war for about 10 years (1775-1783 and 1812-1814) so shanties may have continued to develop on that side of the Atlantic.

What we know about shanties we have learned from written sources giving 'eye-witness' and ‘ear-witness’ accounts of their being sung at sea. These were published in books or magazine articles in the UK and USA. Apart from the ancient texts mentioned above the earliest reference to shanty singing is in 1811 in Robert Hay’s memoirs ‘Landsman Hay’. On a voyage to Jamaica in the merchant vessel ‘Edward’ he heard negroes singing the shanties:   ‘OH, HURO, ME BOYS’ and ‘GROG TIME OF DAY’ (both now sadly lost).

In 1815 Captain James Carr descibed 'cotton-screwing' whilst loading a ship from Charleston to Liverpool:  ''...for five days I had four pair of jackscrews and four gangs of five men at each at work on board ship stowing cotton - I was in the midst of them - it often happened that they all had their throats open at the same time as loud as they could bawl...''

Carr gives specimens of the 'African work-songs' he heard in Charleston with choruses of 'HIGHLAND A', 'HOORA, HOORA, SING TALIO', CAESAR BOY,CAESAR' (later collected in Newcastle, Nevis by Roger Abrahamas) and 'HUZZA MY JOLLY BOYS, TIS GROG TIME A DAY' (this last probably as heard by Robert Hay four years earlier). Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia were the main cotton ports at this time but in the 1820's Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans, Loisiana superceded them.

[...]

In ‘Two Years Before the Mast’ Richard Dana heard shanties sung aboard the American ships ‘Pilgrim’ and ‘Alert’ between 1834 and 1836 where he says: 'the crew was a mixture of ‘English, Scotch, German, French, African, South Sea Islands plus a few Boston and Cape Cod boys’ (a very multi-ethnic crew!). He mentions the singing of 10 shanties, all now seemingly lost apart from ‘CHEERILY MEN’, 'CHEER UP SAM, ‘ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT’ and ‘ROUND THE CORNER (SALLY?)’ the last three of these being of negro extraction.

 Gosse gives a version of 'FIRE MARENGO' with lyrics that evoke the War of 1812 and a chorus line of 'Fire the Ringo, Fire away!' and mentions General Jackson and 'black cocks flying away to Canada'  to escape slavery.

A Boston sailor. F.Stanhope Hill saw cotton-screwing in Mobile in 1844 observing: ''In the process of stowing by the stevedores, with very powerful jackscrews, each operated by a gang of four men, one of them the 'shantier', as he was called. this man's sole duty was to lead in the rude songs, largely improvised, to the music of which his companions screwed the bales into their places. a really good shantier received larger pay than the other men in the gang, although his work was much less laborious''.

[...]

Another American sailor, Charles Low, on his ship's arrival in London in 1845 observed: 'the crew was made up of the hardest kind of men, they were called 'hoosiers', working in New Orleans or Mobile during the winter at stowing ships with cotton, and in the summer sailing in the packet ships. They were all good chanty men, that is, they could all sing at their work''. This skill transferred to efficient shipboard labour pracice: ''We could reef and hoist all three topsails at once, with a different song for each one''. So, Low concluded, it was the seamen who had experienced the work of cotton-screwing ashore who adapted the practice to shipboard tasks. The 'hoosiers' were, in effect, white men incorpoated into doing black men's work and singing black men's songs. 

[...]

Of course, many of our shanties are European in origin particularly from the British Isles. However, it must be acknowledged that a very large portion, possibly the majority, hail from black African-American and West Indian sources. These were predominantly slave songs, plantation songs and songs of black stevedores and hoosiers loading ships manned by white sailors who copied and developed them: ‘Since the blacks used their own jabber … the borrowers fitted their own words to the catchy tunes … often ribald and obscene’ (Frank Shaw). It seems increasingly obvious that shanties have arisen from and devolved from black work songs. Indeed, the American folklorist Stuart Frank remarked that:  'The practice of shantying on shipboard is descended from West African work songs’.
 

Many 20th Century collectors including the folklorist Alan Lomax have ‘discovered’ pulling shanties from black sources in Florida, Georgia Sea Islands and the Bahamas including such favourites as ‘SAILBOAT MALARKEY’ and ‘LONG SUMMERS DAY’  (both collected from Frederick McQueen on Andros, Bahamas). Also, the shanties of the black menhaden fishermen from the USA’s East Coast (mainly Virginia and North Carolina) have yielded such gems as ‘JOHNSON GIRLS’, DRINKING THAT WINE’  and 'WON'T YOU HELP ME TO RAISE 'EM'. 

There have also been several studies of ‘Caribbean’ shanties, the best known being the collection of essays ‘Deep the Water, Shallow the Shore’ by Roger David Abrahams in the early 1960’s. He noted that the use of shanties was ‘everywhere’ in the Caribbean and not just limited to ship-board work. Such shanties as ‘JOHN DEAD’ and ‘BLACKBIRD GET UP’ have become very popular with modern shanty singers from this collection. Abrahams recorded 'Foc'sle Songs and Shanties' with Paul Clayton and Dave Van Ronk for Folkways in 1959 and collected shanties with Lomax on St. Kitts in 1962
 

Our greatest shanty collector Stan Hugill ascribed about 120 of the shanties from his ‘bible’ ‘Shanties from the Seven Seas’ (1961) to Black American and Caribbean origins. These were mostly collected from his West Indian informants Harding the Barbadian, Tobago Smith and ‘Harry Lauder’ from the Island of St. Lucia. He even tried to imitate the yelps and ‘hitches’ these black shantymen put into their singing of the shanties. Many of these had never appeared in a shanty collection before including 'ESSEQUIBO RIVER', ROLL,BOYS.ROLL' and 'WHERE AM I TO GO'. He also collected the great favourite South Sea Island shanty 'JOHN KANAKA' which he claimed was: 'one of a body of Poynesian shanties'. Stan also made frequent reference to his experience of 'chequerboard crews' (one watch black and one watch white) where shanty-swapping must have occurred. One shanty he paricularly attributed to 'chequerboard crews' was the tops'l halyard shanty 'HAUL 'ER AWAY' or 'SALLY RACKETT' learnt from Harding. 

Many of Stan's shanties had previously been put in print by British collectors without any mention of their negro origin. These include 'BULLY IN THE ALLEY' (Cecil Sharp), 'COME ROLL ME OVER' (John Masefield), 'HILO, BOYS, HILO' (Richard Runciman Terry) and 'PAY ME THE MONEY DOWN' (Laura Alexandrine Smith). Of course, Hugill was a shantyman himself and shipped as a common sailor in the fo’c’sle. Most of the other collectors did not have this experience."...

****
SOURCE #2
From https://www.southernfriedscience.com/soon-may-the-explainer-come-everything-youve-always-wanted-to-know-about-sea-shanties-but-were-afraid-to-ask/ "Soon may the explainer come: Everything you’ve always wanted to know about sea shanties but were afraid to ask"  ByDavid Shiffman Posted on November 22, 2022

...“A sea shanty is a song used to coordinate work and effort, especially rhythmic effort, onboard ship,” Craig Edwards, the former director of the Mystic Seaport Music Festival, told me. Basically, the songs would allow sailors to know exactly when to pull on a line, or whatever task they were assigned, so they could do it all at the same time and therefore concentrate their force.”  

[...]

According to Dr. Jamie Goodall, a staff historian at the US Army Center for Military History, there were a few main types of shanties. “Short haul shanties were sung when tasks required rapid and quick pulls in a short amount of time. Halyard shanties, or long-drag shanties, were used for heavier work that required more setup time between pulls. Capstan shanties were used for long, repetitive tasks that required a sustained rhythm. The songs had to be simple melodically and lyrically in order to keep everyone on beat and in sync.”

A key element of Shanties is the call and response format, Chris Koldeway, a music teacher who worked with Mystic Seaport’s Chantey staff, told me. “This means that a solo singer sings verses, and the response is a full chorus or short refrain from the crew,” he said.

[…]

The sea shanty has its roots in West African worksong

 […]

The sea shanty has its roots in West African worksong

Craig Edwards notes that in European history, most heavy lifting involved draft animals, and there weren’t songs for workers moving heavy slabs of stone to build cathedrals and castles because it was horses and mules doing much of that stuff. But these sorts of “worksongs” were very commonly used among many cultures in Sub-Saharan West Africa.

“Work song means a song sung while actually performing labor, as opposed to an ‘occupational song,’ which is a broader category that also includes songs about work or a particular working community,” Steven Winick, a specialist at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, told me. He notes that “Wellerman” is a sea song, a song about sailors, but not a song used to coordinate work about ship, and therefore not technically a sea shanty! He also notes that whaling vessels rarely used worksongs, because the act of whaling required so many people to help that worksongs coordinating effort was rarely needed.

Mary Mallory told me that these songs traveled with enslaved people to the Caribbean, where they became incorporated with work onboard ships. And as Black crews worked alongside white crews, it resulted in an amalgamation, with Anglo and Irish lyrics put to African rhythms. Craig Edwards notes that this resulted in a nationalistic myth, spread by British folklorist Cecil Sharpe, that shanties must be a long-standing English tradition. Rachel Elliott, the education director of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, told me that the historical role of Black sailors has not always been appropriately understood and valued.

Lately, there’s no doubt that African musical tradition was a major influence on sea shanties. And despite some criticism of whitewashing the history of shanties, “there has never been any real question that Black people were central to the development of this musical style,” Stephen Winick said. “Scholars have been arguing against this wrong impression, and for the central importance of Africans and African-Americans, for over 100 years.”

Dr. Gibb Schreffler of Pomona College’s Department of Music says that though sea shanties have a particular historical romanticization to them, this whole genre of music took place far more frequently on land than at sea. “We need to stop thinking about the sea and sailors to know chanties,” he told me. “One has to accept that the place of performance (sea) doesn’t define the genre. The same songs, and many more like them, were sung much more often in contexts outside of ships. Understand that there are comparatively few times during a sailing voyage to be singing chanties—keeping in mind that chanties aboard ships were sung with only certain work tasks. By contrasts, the people on shore singing these songs at their labor were doing so effectively all day.”

Dr. Schreffler noted that despite a sometimes-held (and false) aura of whiteness surrounding sea shanties, this isn’t really a case of cultural appropriation. “Non-Black singers in the historical period acculturated into chanty singing,” he told me. “It was not a case of stealing something and taking credit for it, but rather of white laborers assimilating into a cultural practice established by Black laborers.”

Indeed, Black sailors were common in the early United States. “Work as a sailor was especially appealing for free African-Americans,” Roger Bailey, a professor of history at the US Naval Academy, told me. “As many as 1/5 of sailors in the early 1800s were Black. There was still racism, but the ship’s hierarchy placed black men on more even footing than they would have enjoyed on land.  Plus, as a sailor you could learn a skilled trade and eventually make relatively good pay compared to the limited opportunities available ashore to black men. The whaling industry in particular placed a premium on a sailor’s skill at hunting whales, so it wasn’t uncommon to see talented African Americans, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders serving as mates and petty officers aboard whalers. All this is to say that current and former slaves were an integral part of the maritime community, and there’s no doubt that African Americans were a major influence on sea shanties.”

Craig Edwards notes that in European history, most heavy lifting involved draft animals, and there weren’t songs for workers moving heavy slabs of stone to build cathedrals and castles because it was horses and mules doing much of that stuff. But these sorts of “worksongs” were very commonly used among many cultures in Sub-Saharan West Africa.

“Work song means a song sung while actually performing labor, as opposed to an ‘occupational song,’ which is a broader category that also includes songs about work or a particular working community,” Steven Winick, a specialist at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, told me. He notes that “Wellerman” is a sea song, a song about sailors, but not a song used to coordinate work about ship, and therefore not technically a sea shanty! He also notes that whaling vessels rarely used worksongs, because the act of whaling required so many people to help that worksongs coordinating effort was rarely needed.

Mary Mallory told me that these songs traveled with enslaved people to the Caribbean, where they became incorporated with work onboard ships. And as Black crews worked alongside white crews, it resulted in an amalgamation, with Anglo and Irish lyrics put to African rhythms. Craig Edwards notes that this resulted in a nationalistic myth, spread by British folklorist Cecil Sharpe, that shanties must be a long-standing English tradition. Rachel Elliott, the education director of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, told me that the historical role of Black sailors has not always been appropriately understood and valued.

Lately, there’s no doubt that African musical tradition was a major influence on sea shanties. And despite some criticism of whitewashing the history of shanties, “there has never been any real question that Black people were central to the development of this musical style,” Stephen Winick said. “Scholars have been arguing against this wrong impression, and for the central importance of Africans and African-Americans, for over 100 years.”

Dr. Gibb Schreffler of Pomona College’s Department of Music says that though sea shanties have a particular historical romanticization to them, this whole genre of music took place far more frequently on land than at sea. “We need to stop thinking about the sea and sailors to know chanties,” he told me. “One has to accept that the place of performance (sea) doesn’t define the genre. The same songs, and many more like them, were sung much more often in contexts outside of ships. Understand that there are comparatively few times during a sailing voyage to be singing chanties—keeping in mind that chanties aboard ships were sung with only certain work tasks. By contrasts, the people on shore singing these songs at their labor were doing so effectively all day.”

Dr. Schreffler noted that despite a sometimes-held (and false) aura of whiteness surrounding sea shanties, this isn’t really a case of cultural appropriation. “Non-Black singers in the historical period acculturated into chanty singing,” he told me. “It was not a case of stealing something and taking credit for it, but rather of white laborers assimilating into a cultural practice established by Black laborers.”

Indeed, Black sailors were common in the early United States. “Work as a sailor was especially appealing for free African-Americans,” Roger Bailey, a professor of history at the US Naval Academy, told me. “As many as 1/5 of sailors in the early 1800s were Black. There was still racism, but the ship’s hierarchy placed black men on more even footing than they would have enjoyed on land.  Plus, as a sailor you could learn a skilled trade and eventually make relatively good pay compared to the limited opportunities available ashore to black men. The whaling industry in particular placed a premium on a sailor’s skill at hunting whales, so it wasn’t uncommon to see talented African Americans, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders serving as mates and petty officers aboard whalers. All this is to say that current and former slaves were an integral part of the maritime community, and there’s no doubt that African Americans were a major influence on sea shanties.”...

****
This concludes Part I of this two part pancocojams series.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitors comments are welcome.

Bamboula Dance and Music - Then & Now, Part 2 (complete 2026 reprint of a 2012 post)

Edited by Azizi Powell

[This is a complete reprint of Part II of a four part 2012 pancocojams series of posts on the African roots, and the music & dance traditions of the Bamboula in the Caribbean, and in the United States. All of the 2012 posts in this series are still available on this blog.]

This post focuses on descriptions of the Bamboula dance in the Caribbean, and features several videos of the Bomba, which is considered to be similar to the Bamboula.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/09/bamboula-dance-and-music-then-now-part.html for a 2026 complete reprint of Part I of this series that was published in 2012. That post provides an overview of the Bamboula, and features several videos of dance traditions from a few African ethnic groups in West Africa, the region from which most Black people who were enslaved in the Caribbean and the Americas came.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/01/bamboula-dance-and-music-then-now-part_10.html for Part 3 of this series. That series focuses on the Bamboula in the United States, features a 19th century sound file entitled "Bamboula", features selected videos of contemporary gatherings in Congo Square in New Orleans, Louisiana. 
Part IV focuses on showcasing selected videos of music that was inspired by the Bamboula and/or Congo Square.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/01/bamboula-dance-and-music-then-now-part_2616.html for Part 4 of this series. That post showcases videos of records that are inspired by the Bamboula and/or by New Orleans' Congo Square.

These posts are presented for historical, folkloric, educational, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and all those who are featured in these videos. Thanks also to all the publishers of these videos on YouTube. 

****
Part II

DESCRIPTION OF THE BAMBOULA DANCE IN THE CARIBBEAN & SOUTH AMERICA
From http://virginvoices.vi/Dancing_the_bamboula
"Drums and heartbeats by Ella Laloba

The bamboula a dance, and music and drumming tradition, with African origins, is cousin to the "bomba,” a folkloric tradition, which still thrives in Puerto Rico. Brought to the Caribbean by enslaved Africans, the bamboula is a dramatic dance of rebellion and determination.

Versions have survived in Guadeloupe, St. Lucia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Marked by swaying hips, trembling of the body and dramatic drum accents, the bamboula dance can go on for hours, with audience members joining in.
A traditional heartbeat played on the drum speeds up and inspires the dancers’ movements, which accelerate and climax in response to the drums.

Chenzira Kahina, managing director of Per Ankh Institute in St. Croix in the Virgin Islands dances the bamboula at cultural events and teaches it too. She says it’s a powerful dance, where the dancers and drummers are both animated, and "the dancers are fully engaged with feet, shoulders, waist, hips and breasts."
-snip-
From "Candombe, African Nations, and the Africanity of Uruguay" by Tomas Olivene Chirimini in African Roots/American Cultures: Africa In The Creation Of The Americas (Shiela S. Walker, ed.; London, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.,2001; p. 262)
"The bamboula, based on a syncopated 2/4 beat, was similar to the calenda, the choreography typically picking up speed toward the end of the song. A group of women dancers circled around the musicians and around one or more male solo dancers, who sometimes executed athltic flips. The dancer's ankle bells provided additional layers of rhythmic complexity.

The chica or congo was also performed in much of African America. The basic moves, characterized by early chroniclers as erotic, were made with the shoulders, hips, and arms, while the rest of the body remained immobile evidencing the bodily isolation characteristic of much Central African and related African Diaspora dance styles. The dance continued to be dance out of the view of whites in th same way that so many other African cultural expressions prohibited by white ecclesastical and political authorities continued to exist in various guises. The semba or zamba was an evolution of the calenda, bambula, and chica, with a slower rhythm and cadence. Sembam in Kimbunda, means navel, referring to the coming together of navels in the pelvic thrust."
-snip-
Also, read the comments in Part 1 of this series about the Bamboula and the Chica which are quoted from Lynne Fauley Emery's book Black Dance from 1619 to Today.
-snip-
Similar to what I wrote in the first post of this series, if researchers believe that the Bamboula dance might have be similar to the Bomba or other Caribbean (and South American) folk dances, wouldn't it make sense to familiarize ourselves with those dances? The few videos below are interesting and-for me-aesthetically pleasing examples of what the Bamboula dance might have been like.

****
VIDEOS OF THE BOMBA DANCE
[Videos in this series of posts are numbered in consecutive order throughout the entire series. No order of preference is given to these selected videos.]

Video Example #5: BOMBA (Puerto Rico)



Uploaded by disk0ne on Jun 25, 2007
-snip-
A commentor on this video's viewer comment thread wrote that this clip was filmed in 1957.

****
Video Example #6: Bomba in Loiza, Puerto Rico #1 (Puerto Rico)



Uploaded by gyenyamesankofa on Aug 9, 2008

This is one of several videos that I will be posting from my trip to Puerto Rico in July 2008.

This clip features Bomba drummers and dancers at Raul Ayala's house in Loiza, during La Fiesta de Santiago Apostol.

****
Video Example #7: JAM YARD-Brukkins Dance Falmouth Jamaica March 2011 [Jamaica]



Uploaded by JAMYARDVIDEOS on Apr 15, 2011

This Dance is called Brukkin- its a traditional folk Dance,check out the musical instrument,and movements of the Dancers.
JAM YARD sharing a piece of our Jamaican culture with u.

****
Video Example #8: Batuque de Umbigada Revelando São Paulo [Brazil]



Nascimento Ferr, Uploaded on Sep 20, 2009

****
Comments from the 2012 version of this post.

El PolacoJune 28, 2013 at 12:54 AM

Of interest here for you - within Puerto Rican bomba, there are included a number of distinct rhythm/song/dance forms, all with their own names and the majority of which are shared with other cultures across Afro-America - particularly territories influenced by the French slave trade such as Haiti, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Trinidad, St Lucia, Eastern Cuba, and New Orleans. In the first above clip, from Ponce, PR, is an example of the son de bomba "Leró", and the second video from Loiza is of a rhythm called "rulé". To this day in Puerto Rico the terms calindá (kalenda), sicá (chica), yubá (djouba), cunyá (Kounjaille), and bambula/bambulaé (bamboula) among many others are alive and well, as designations for specific sub-styles of bomba. Thank you for posting these clips from PR in this context. Due to the influence of colonized mindsets, people tend to classify PR as an essentially "Hispanic" country, yet of course history, culture, and lineage tie the island strongly to Africa, its non-Hispanic West Indian neighbors, and the broader Afro-Atlantic...
cunyajelemue@gmail.com

ReplyDelete

Replies

1. 
   Azizi PowellJune 28, 2013 at 8:49 AM

   Thank you, cunyajelemue for sharing that information.
   
   I appreciate it!

   Delete

**** 

This concludes Part II of this pancocojams series.
 
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

Bamboula Dance and Music - Then & Now, Part I (2026 reprint of a 2012 post)

Edited by Azizi Powell

[This is a complete reprint of Part I of a four part pancocojams series.  Part II is also a complete reprint. Both of these posts and the other two posts are still available on this blog.

I reprinted only these two parts of this series because they focus on the history and origins of the Bamboula and other dance traditions in New Orleans. The information about and videos of contemporary New Orleans second lining in Part III and Part IV are available in other more recent pancocojams posts.]

****
This is Part I of a four part series of pancocojams posts on the African roots, and the music & dance traditions of the Bamboula in the Caribbean & in the United States.

Part I of this series provides a general overview of the Bamboula dance, and features several videos of dance traditions from a few African ethnic groups in West Africa, the region from which most Black people who were enslaved in the Caribbean and the Americas came.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/09/bamboula-dance-and-music-then-now-part_01914410303.html for Part II of this series. That post focuses on descriptions of the Bamboula dance in the Caribbean, and features several videos of the Bomba, which is considered to be similar to the Bamboula.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/01/bamboula-dance-and-music-then-now-part_10.html for Part III of this series. That post focuses on the Bamboula in the United States, features a 19th century sound file entitled "Bamboula", features selected videos of contemporary gatherings in Congo Square in New Orleans, Louisiana. 

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/01/bamboula-dance-and-music-then-now-part_2616.html for Part 4 of this series. That post focuses on showcasing selected videos of music that was inspired by the Bamboula and/or Congo Square.

These posts are presented for historical, folkloric, educational, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and all those who are featured in these videos.

Thanks also to the publishers of these videos on YouTube. 

****
Part I

OVERVIEW OF THE BAMBOULA
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboula
"A bamboula is a kind of drum made from a section of giant bamboo with skin stretched over the ends. It is also a secular dance accompanied by the drums. Both were brought to the Americas (notably New Orleans and the Virgin Islands) by African slaves."

In her now classic book Black Dance from 1619 to Today Lynne Fauley Emery writes this about the bamboula:
"One of the drums used to accompany the Chica [dance] was known as the baboula. The dance called the Bamboula undoubtedly derived its name from this drum. This dance is discussed by a few authors, but a careful examination of the descriptions leads to the conclusion that the Bamboula is in fact another name for the Chica.

In his 1823 book J. Stewart wrote of a dance performed by a man and woman inside a ring. "When two dancers have fatigued themselves", he said, "another couple enter the ring." (Princeton Book Company, second edition, p. 26)"

Lynne Fauley Emery reports that in 1774 Edward Long wrote this about the Chica or the Calenda, a similar dance done by Black Jamaicans:
"The female dancer is all languishing, and easy in her motions; the man, all action, fire, and gesture; his whole person is variously turned and writhed every moment, and his limbs agitated with such lively exertions, as serve to display before his partner the vigour and elasticity of his muscles (op.cit, p. 25)."

In 2008 a blogger using the screen name "knight" wrote on Yahoo's Answer page for the UK & Ireland asking "Which part of africa do most jamaicans descend from?". Here's an excerpt of the comment written by dadude70 which knight ranked as the best answer:
"The majority of the slave trade was conducted along the West african coast in what is the coastal areas of the modern african countries of Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Cameroun, Nigeria, Benin, Sierre Leone, Togo, Ghana, Congo and Angola.

Some of the biggest linguistic groups within these areas are the Yoruba, Ibo, Ijaw in Modern Nigeria the Ga, Fa, Twi of Togo and Ghana as well others. These will be the main constituents of the country of Jamaica.http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090328161833AANoSPq"
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If (or because) the Bamboula very likely originated in West Africa and/or Central Africa, it seems to me that some hints about the Bamboula might be gleaned by researching the traditional music and dances that are still performed among those populations from those African regions. The videos that follow provide a hint of that study.

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VIDEOS OF TRADITIONAL AFRICAN DANCES
Videos in this series of posts are numbered in consecutive order throughout the entire series. No order of preference is given to these selected videos. The selection and presentation of these videos aren't meant to infer that I think that any of those dances are necessarily a precusor to the Bamboula or any other 18th or 19th century Caribbean or American dance.

Video #1: Atilogu / Atilogwu Dancers (Nigeria)



uploaded by zookat; July 04, 2008

Atilogu/Atilogwu Dancers as filmed by famous Cream drummer Ginger Baker & crew at Ikoyi, Lagos-Nigeria, 1971

The Atilogu dance is perhaps the most intense African cultural dance form performed as a group.

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Video #2: Vulolo (Ghana)



Uploaded by zotorglo on Mar 9, 2009

Sample clip from an upcoming DVD featuring the dance-drumming of the Dunenyo Haborbor of Three Town, Denu. For more details see our website: www.cepafrica.org

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Video #3: Benin-Alekpehanhou- nou wa boyi mè [Benin]



Uploaded by EHUZU1 on Mar 23, 2008

Zinli traditional music from benin

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Video #4 (Senegal)



Uploaded by diattacounda on Nov 15, 2007

Fête célébrant la fin des luttes. Sport national du Sénégal qui rayonne jusqu'en Guinée Bissau et au délà dans toute l'Afrique de l'Ouest.
-snip-
Here's some information in English about this video. (I'm combining two comments from the same writer):
"i will try and explain a few things. i am from Casamance and some of my roots are related the Cabrousse people. Cabrousse is one component of the wider Diola nation which is made up of over 60 sub groups.

The Diola have a number of celebrations which all involve singing, dancing, bombolong and drums playing (bombolong being a tree trunk with an internal excavation that emits particular sounds). in this video, you have a mix of drum and bombolong. This here is celebration of the harvest."
-jongandal; 2010
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Could the "bombolong" drum be the father (or mother) of the "baboula" drum that Lynne Fauley Emery wrote about? Could the Bomba dance be a folk etymology form of the Senegalese word bombolong? Inquiring minds want to know but we might have to settle for speculation.

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This concludes Part I of this four part pancocojams series.

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