Slave Songs of the United States

By William Francis Allen

Originally published in 1867, this book is a collection of songs of African-American slaves. A few of the songs were written after the emancipation, but all were inspired by slavery. The wild, sad songs capture the feelings of their creators perfectly; of crushed hopes, keen sorrow and a dull daily misery, which covered them as hopelessly as the fog from the rice swamps. On the other hand the words breathe a trusting faith in the life after to which their eyes seem constantly turned

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Apr 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781447486435

William Francis Allen

William Francis Allen, the chief editor and author of the introduction to Slave Songs of the United States, was born in Massachusetts in 1830, studied at Harvard and in Europe, worked for the Freedmen's Aid Commission on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, during the Civil War, and after the war became chair of ancient languages at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.