A Very Reverend Vision of the Ol' Banjo

From Pictures of Slavery in Church and State;
Including Personal Reminiscences, Biographical Sketches,
Anecdotes, etc. etc.
by Rev. John Dixon Long, 1817-1894:

The plantation slaves often suffer with hunger. Despite the common boasts of the slaveholder, the Allwise only knows how much penury and starvation wear out the lives of the slaves. Dancing is one of their favorite amusements. I have often looked at their dances during their different holidays. The banjo is of all instruments the best adapted to the lowest class of slaves. It is the very symbol of their savage degradation. They talk to it, and a skillful performer can excite the most diverse passions among the dancers. Generally, however, they have no instruments, but dance to the tunes and words of a leader, keeping time by striking their hands against the thighs, and patting the right foot, to the words of

                         " 'Juber,' 'Cesar boy,'
                         Ash-cake in de fire,
                         'Possum up de gum tree,
                         Raccoon in de holler."

I have seen males and females dancing, rapidly whirling round, whooping and yelling with brutal delight, alike unmindful of the past and future. I have never known, in a single instance, of a colored man of any moral tone who was fond of the banjo or common dance.

I don't know what these people expect. They suffer from a failure of imagination. In one breath he's describing the anxiety of anticipating starvation, on the other he's questioning the desire to obliterate, for a moment, the past and the future, in a triumph of body and imagination. You might think these arguments have long been settled, but actually, he sounds like the new Pope

However, this seems to also be Austin Steward's view of such entertainments. He seems to have been a pretty temperate guy.

(btw, the work from which this quote is taken, along with the autobiography of Austin Steward, is the property of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text.)