Pardon me for buttin' in here but want to offer this regarding drums and drumming: there is a portion of the African American peoples who live in north Mississippi who still know how to make drums from goat skins and cattle hides. Jessie Mae Hemphill,(who died last weekend) was one of them and she learned how to do it as a small child, from her great-grandfather and grandfather. They were sharecroppers for the most part and would obtain the hide of an animal butchered by the plantation owner and Jessie told of scraping and curing the skin to make drums. This is the same small community that fife and drum masters, Napolean Strickland and Othar Turner came from. Also, Fred MacDowell, R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Ranie Burnette and others.   

These folks' ancestors came west from Georgia and the Carolinas after the Louisiana Purchase opened up the territory and they brought the musical skills with them and were able to continue building drums and burning out river cane to make fifes. (fices)

Anyhow, some African Americans were able to make and beat drums out in the country uninterrupted and call their friends and neighbors over for picnics and yard dances. Drum beats carry pretty far out there on still nights.