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

This title is awarded both the Chicago Folklore Prize and the Simkins Prize of the Southern Historical Association. From the plaintive tunes of woe sung by exiled kings and queens of Africa to the spirited work songs and "shouts" of freedmen, in "Sinful Tunes and Spirituals" Dena J. Epstein traces the course of early black folk music in all its guises. This classic work is being reissued with a new author's preface on the silver anniversary of its original publication.