I’m goin’ up north where they say,
money grows on trees.
I don’t give a doggone if ma black soul leaves
COW COW DAVENPORT
Back to the sun-drenched cotton fields, where slaves communicated with each other or vented their feelings in formless and sometimes wordless cries, calls, field hollers, and arhoolies . . . .
Back to the railroad gangs, roustabouts, turpentine camps, and prison chain gangs where the call-and-response of worksongs and the percussive rhythms of hammers, axes, and tampers energized and “lightened” work . . . .
Back to the churches where spirituals served as overt expressions of religious fervor and covert songs of protest and freedom . . .
And on and on. The African-American diaspora was and is alive and well in the countless forms and formats of the Blues. All of these sounds and rhythms figure in the development of Rhythm ‘n’ Blues (and later Rock ‘n’ Roll).