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Using Sheet Music to Investigate the ReconstructionBy Donna B. LevenePublished on 01/10/2009 Previously in The Source, a high school lesson featured the American Memory Timeline as a tool for learning about the Civil War and Reconstruction. Using that lesson as a foundation, this article describes how students can learn about the same period using covers and lyrics of sheet music as their primary sources. The popular songs of the day reflect the attitudes of the people who wrote and bought the music. Who was the sheet music audience, and what does this music tell us about the lives of African-Americans during the Reconstruction Period? The following sections of the American Memory Timeline are of particular help as background information in exploring the life of African-Americans during the Reconstruction: The Freedmen, Reconstruction and Rights, and The Travails of Reconstruction. The American Memory Collections include three sheet music collections that contain a number of songs from the Reconstruction Period:
Students can use these collections to examine a variety of sheet music to determine attitudes toward African-Americans during this period. The sheet music includes popular songs written by both blacks and whites and spirituals performed by the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Fisk University was established by the Freedman’s Bureau as a school for training African-American teachers, and the Fisk Jubilee Singers toured the United States to raise money for their school. Their concerts popularized spirituals or jubilee songs and provided white Americans with a view of African-Americans that was different from the one they received from minstrel shows. Consider this paragraph from "Historical Analysis and Interpretation: Minstrel Songs" from the Critical Thinking section of the Collection Connection of Music for the Nation. Minstrel troupes often performed spirituals and jubilee songs that were written during the era of slavery. By presenting these works alongside contemporary pieces, minstrels transferred the songs from the plantation to the stage. Students can compare the differences between stock comic characters of the minstrel show, who nostalgically look back on the past, and voices from jubilee songs and spirituals, looking toward a better future. By identifying the author of the documents (even in terms of distinguishing between a song written by a popular African-American songwriter such as James A. Bland and an anonymous spiritual), students can assess the credibility of these historical documents and differentiate between historical facts and historical interpretations. Begin the lesson with samples of various sheet music covers. Provide handouts of the sheet music covers. Ask students working in groups to examine the covers, considering the following:
After discussing the covers, direct the students to search for these songs and others using the keywords listed below. Remind them of the dates of the Reconstruction. Students are to read the lyrics and note the following:
African-American Sheet Music, 1850-1920 Subject: Afro-American composers Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920 Subject: Legacies of Racism and Discrimination--Stereotypes--Afro-Americans Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1870-1885 Search "jubilee singers" and plantation Subject: Afro-Americans—Music Provide the students with more information about the sheet music industry of the period and the Fisk Jubilee Singers from the following online and print sources.
As a culminating activity, assign each student a reflection paper that considers what the sheet music of the Reconstruction period tells about the condition of African-Americans after emancipation. The essay should include a comparison of the minstrel songs with the spirituals as sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Do the songs indicate whether the former slaves have achieved a better life? Discuss whether there are differences between songs written by whites and blacks. Why would blacks compose and publish minstrel songs? [send article to a friend] [print full article] [return to front page] |
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