Field Hollers And Freedom Songs: The Anthology

The essays in this book make an eloquent plea for celebrating the resilience and creativity of generations of men and women who, in response to the hardship, hostility and deprivation of their lives sharecropping and picking cotton in the Mississippi Delta, built on their African roots to create a distinctive, dynamic and life-affirming culture, much of it expressed through the music which has become, in the words of one author, the “soul of America.”

Stephanie Deutsch

author 'You Need a Schoolhouse, Booker T. Washington, Julius Rosenwald and the Building of Schools for the Segregated South'

All over the continent of Africa, the beauty, the cultures, radiate out to all people as a drumbeat, a musical tapestry that found its way to the cotton fields. It is the heart of where we get the blues. The fortitude of Africans in America has been one of innovation and creativity against unimaginable odds. Lasting way too long, enslaved people and sharecroppers have journeyed through physical oppression, economic inequities, and racial denigration. This book helps readers recognize models for change in the sense that we can look at the journey as a forced expedition with all of its dangers, twists and turns. It is through the dialogue found in this book that the echo can be heard over, across, and onto the other side of misunderstandings, into a state of compassion, landing in the valley of truth. This book educates the reader on the reconstruction of thought, and the process of rising up and out of the situation sharecroppers experienced. Holistically, we can possibly find ourselves more compassionate towards the resilience in the DNA of the surviving descendants of sharecroppers.

[…] A satisfying read -- one can feel the songs, the hollers, and the music’s journey while getting a sense of cruel labor without benefit or profit. The articles found in “Field Hollers and Freedom Songs” echo with a resounding blast of truth.

Diane Williams

author of “The Life and Legacy of B.B. King: A Mississippi Blues Icon”