Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War (Music in American Life)

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Summary: Wonderful History of the Music of Africans in the New World
Review: Epstein expertly culls available documentary evidence, including contemporary accounts as well as such sources as runaway slave notices mentioning that the slave in question was a fiddler, to fill in a lot of gaps in our knowledge of how African music developed when it was transplanted to North America. The book is well-written and full of groundbreaking research. It's absolutely essential if you are interested in this subject.