The Master, Roger D. Abrahams : The Nature of Slavery

As Abrahams shows, this festival was as much a form of theater as it was an subprogram for harvesting corn, and the interaction between knuckle down and master that was most(prenominal) common in these festivals was that the slave would provide the entertainment comprehended by the masters. He shows how the blacks would make use of their vocalizing and spring both to express their inner agonies at their plight and at their separation from their homeland while also expres gabble their inner happiness. The planters received much from these occasions, including entertainment, a means of controlling the slaves, and improved work conditions with greater productivity from the slaves harvesting the corn.

Clearly, the slave culture was tag by the existence side-by-side of two societies, one white and dominant, the another(prenominal) black and subordinate. The corn-shucking festival is described by Abrahams as a slaves' holiday, and there was a duality about this as healthy in that the slaves both worked and played and did both for their masters. The service was considered voluntary, tho few would refuse to attend. Abrahams details the different activities of the festival and the time-table for from each one and shows how this constituted a pattern that was repeated at grove after plantation. The entire festival has the air of a massive ceremony where everyone k at one times their role and place and fulfills that ro

Comm notwithstanding, signifying word play has been regarded as defensive, allusive behavior in the face of otherwise overpowering societal forces. . . But these signifying practices could give out very pointed and particular (110-111).

The slaves, as noted, alleviated the monotony of slave life through the festivals and also performed their form of drama in the ceremony and in the various kinships that constituted the festival and its surroundings. Abrahams sees the festival as a key element in the breeding of what he calls the African American style.

The style, ticker, and social and aesthetic brass of the festival he traces to sub-Saharan Africa, the original homeland of the slaves, and he sees the resulting festivities as owing much to the mindset and expressive talents of the blacks now enslaved in the New World. He sees the corn-shucking as embodying an attitude toward the relationship among singing, dancing, work, and celebration all derived from the homeland. The festival was first of all a theme activity, and the blacks always organized themselves into cooperative groups not only for the festival but for other activities as well. A authorized sort of labor team emerged in plantation life, and the group would sing as its members worked in a form of singing mirroring the call-response style seen in corn-shucking ceremonies. The subject matter of the work songs and the songs at the festival were the same--the slaves sang about their work, their togetherness, and the world around them. They would sing about inequities and pain as well. They would make fun of the actions and attitudes of more or less of the planters. The office of the songs in the festival was the same as the purpose of the songs in work situations--to "get happy" and to keep the spirit up in the face of all the troubles of the world:

For the planters, it build on the everyday scenes of work and play in which the slaves were the feature performers. For the slaves, it was an opportunit
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