Hearing Moral Reform: Abolitionists and Slave Music, 1838-1870 by Karl Byrn A thesis submitted to Sonoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS III History Dr. Steve Estes r Z- /Li ,/zO rL Date Copyright 2012 By Karl Bym ii AUTHORIZATION FOR REPRODUCTION OF MASTER'S THESIS/PROJECT I grant permission for the reproduction ofparts ofthis thesis without further authorization from me, on the condition that the person or agency requesting reproduction absorb the cost and provide proper acknowledgement of authorship. Permission to reproduce this thesis in its entirety must be obtained from me. iii Hearing Moral Reform: Abolitionists and Slave Music, 1838-1870 Thesis by Karl Byrn ABSTRACT Purpose ofthe Study: The purpose of this study is to analyze commentary on slave music written by certain abolitionists during the American antebellum and Civil War periods. The analysis is not intended to follow existing scholarship regarding the origins and meanings of African-American music, but rather to treat this music commentary as a new source for understanding the abolitionist movement. By treating abolitionists' reports of slave music as records of their own culture, this study will identify larger intellectual and cultural currents that determined their listening conditions and reactions. Procedure: The primary sources involved in this study included journals, diaries, letters, articles, and books written before, during, and after the American Civil War. I found, in these sources, that the responses by abolitionists to the music of slaves and freedmen revealed complex ideologies and motivations driven by religious and reform traditions, antebellum musical cultures, and contemporary racial and social thinking. In order to establish more specific historical frameworks for these influences, I surveyed secondary sources on several related topics of nineteenth-century intellectual, cultural, and reform histories. This research included established as well as more recent scholarship on these topics, and where possible, a reading of biographical material on the individual subjects of this study. Because this thesis involved inquiry into how the responses ofindividual listeners followed larger historical patterns of thought and action, each chapter focused on a particular aspect ofreform culture and posited the music reports of a specific reformer or reformers as examples of that cultural influence. Findings: Abolitionists who heard slave music had agendas for moral reform action when they first encountered slaves and former slaves. The music they heard often seemed indescribable; however, they became involved with this music as they "heard" moral arguments that inspired them to take action in relation to the music. These actions became confirmations of abolitionist commitments. By taking actions towards slave music, abolitionists formed connections between that culture and their own moral traditions. These reform actions followed two primary paths: efforts to change or improve slave music, and efforts to share or promote the value ofthat music. iv Conclusions: The abolitionists in this study "heard" moral reform in slave music when that music triggered moral responses based on their reform agendas. Involvement with slave music became, for these abolitionists, a way to fulfill their self-appointed mission of stewardship ofslaves and freedmen, and a way to advocate for African-American culture in the post-war society. Rather than being confused by or detached from slave music, abolitionists become involved with slave music in order to respond to their generational crises. The abolitionists' process of hearing music as an argument for moral reform action additionally suggests further inquiry into "moral" listening and involvement by later folklorists and musicologists. Chair: Signa re MA Program: History Sonoma State University Date: r 2. / <-/­ v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my thesis committee at Sonoma State University, Dr. Amy Kittelstrom, Dr. Steve Estes, and Dr. Michelle Jolly, for valuable guidance during the completion ofthis project. I profited from their insights into the diverse topics covered in this study, from their recommended readings, and from their directions on ways to strengthen my writing and my argument. Additionally, I would like to thank Dr. Kathleen Noonan and Dr. Lynne Morrow for providing insights into the subjects and processes of my work. Thanks are also due to Karen Kukil and the staff at the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith Col1ege in Northampton, Massachusetts, for assistance with my archival research with primary documents. Final thanks belong to my wife, Frances Byrn, for providing inspiration to pursue and complete this work. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: Hearing Moral Reform: Abolitionists and Slave Music, 1838-1870 ...................1 I. "Displeased me not a little": Frances Anne Kemble and the Moral Imperative Against Slavery ......................................................24 II. "Would catch the ear ofany musician": Lucy McKim, Dwight's Journal ofMusic, and the Shared Culture ofAntebellum Music ..............................54 III. "When the grown people wanted to 'shout,' I would not let them": Port Royal Educators and the Ring Shout.. ............................................91 IV. "They are all natural Transcendentalists": Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Spiritual Activism ...................................................... 113 V. "Civilized in its Character": William Francis Allen and Racial Thinking....................................................................................137 VI. Conclusion...........,.....................................................................161 Bibliography.............................................................................. 166 vii 1 Hearing Moral Reform: Abolitionists and Slave Music, 1838 to 1870 When Northern abolitionists encountered slaves on plantations during the antebellum and Civil War periods, they took a particular interest in the music they heard. In the spirituals, folk songs, and "ring shouts" of slave communities, Anglo-American abolitionists heard something they found to be strange yet somehow familiar, something they considered "barbaric" yet "beautiful," something full of "noise" yet also full of "genius." Most abolitionists had never heard plantation music or encountered enslaved African-Americans prior to this contact. However, just as abolitionist literature had encouraged them to imagine the degraded conditions of slavery, contemporary religious awakenings and lingering Enlightenment ideals had inspired them to imagine a place for African-Americans in an egalitarian and moral society. Slave music in many ways challenged abolitionists to realize these ideals. Northern abolitionists documented slave music during the years surrounding the war in part to process newly experienced cultural sounds. They also felt that slave music demanded not just commentary, but attention and action. These reformers brought an agenda for moral reform action to their contact with slaves, and engaging with their musical culture became one way that abolitionists came to terms with slavery as well as their own hopes for the freedmen. Abolitionists who heard slave music in the years surrounding the Civil War became more personally involved with that music than the casual and dismissive observers of the colonial and early Federal periods. Before the nineteenth century, listeners such as itinerant evangelical clergymen, European travelers, ship captains, travelling schoolmasters, and plantation owners recorded sporadic and fragmentary 2 observations of slave music. Eighteenth century Anglo-American listeners tended to marginalize slave music along the poles of "savage noise," or if heard in church, "wonderful singing," and these earlier accounts showed little interest in an active relationship with the music. I By the antebellum era, however, listening conditions had changed. Revivalism and expanded transportation had increased racial integration in the new nation's religious and social spheres, antislavery activism had accelerated, popular and sacred music styles had become interconnected, and slave music itself had evolved into a reflection of shared spiritual and musical cultures. The generation of reformers who heard slave music in the war years had been trained to advocate for the civic potential of African-Americans, and they had a clearer familiarity with a shared musical vocabulary. Rather than continuing the clerical disdain and cultural indifference that had previously been paid to African-American music, these abolitionists connected that musical culture to their own moral culture. As they became involved with African-American music, they found ways to confirm their beliefs about slaves and freedmen as well as ways to act on their convictions. What moral reform agendas did abolitionists bring to their encounters with slave music? How did their listening experiences stimulate those values and intentions, and how did they become "morally" involved with this music? Witnessing and hearing what they often found to be "indescribable," these Anglo-American abolitionists initiall¥ confronted the same challenge previous listeners had of finding rational terms for I An extensive bibliography of primary sources containing comments on slave music from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries is available in Dena Epstein, Sinfit! Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil