Now this reference is a comment on slaves of African descent on the island of St. Vincent, in 1833.

1834[1833]        "Manners of West India Slaves." _Chambers' Edinburgh Journal_ no.101 (4 Jan. 1834): 387-8.

It's one of those pieces that shows a European's impression that Africans were making music "all the time."

The verse it quotes, one for entertainment, seems to have the same meter as a typical chanty, and the author says that the same type as shared between different contexts, including work.

The bit on nautical songs is interesting. Why would the author need to compare them to the "Canadian boat song" if, not far away, Newcastle sailors were also using capstan songs? I reason that there must have been something significantly different about the style of song.

I am not sure how to read "Our negro sailors, too, have their nautical songs..." Does me mean that they have songs in addition to the nautical songs of White sailors? Or does he mean that in addition to all the other Black songs I have been naming, they have nautical ones? The fact that he needs to elaborate on what that entails *may* mean the latter was intended.

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A gentleman, resident in St Vincent's, has sent us a large mass of interesting original information on the condition and character of the slaves on one of the estates in that island; but from the controversial nature of the subject, we are prevented from inserting any portion of the details in our Journal, except that which relates to the manners and customs of the negroes.

"In their manners (says our correspondent) they are more polite than many would be inclined to credit:….
…They are passionately fond of music, and very readily acquire any tune they hear, turning every circumstance or important event into such rude verses as those sung on the day after my arrival at Grand Sable Estate, when they had holiday given them, and something to make merry.

'My Lady Brisbane gone away, 

Massa come and give us holiday.
    Huzza! huzza!'

And these you hear repeated over and over again, as they pass along the road, or down the cane-rows at work. On another occasion, when returning from an excursion, I was amused as well as surprised by hearing a negro boy as he approached me whistling, with great accuracy and precision, and at the same time with some melody and execution, the hunting-song in Der Freischutz. The adult negroes, when working in the fields, have their favourite songs, in which the whole gang unite, iterating or bringing down together a long line of glittering hoes in exact time; the delicate and attenuated voices of the females, blended sweetly and prettily with the full deep tones of the male performers. Our negro sailors, too, have their nautical songs, similar to the 'Canadian boat-song,' and ply the oar, or pull upon the hawser and capstan, adapting the measure to the slowness or rapidity of their movements. Nay, even the little Creole gang of children have some favourite choruses; and a leader, a little improvisature, who composes as he goes along, drawing from the stores of his own imagination, or forming rude verses from the ideas suggested by passing objects: first comes the solo of their leader, and then his little band of followers, joining in one simultaneous and merry chorus, beating the time with their hands or upon their little breakfast tins..."
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