New Books Network John Minton, "Folk Music and Song in the WPA Ex-Slave Narratives" (UP of Mississippi, 2025)
Oct 9, 2025
John Minton, a scholar and author, dives into the fascinating world of African American folk music through the lens of the WPA ex-slave narratives. He explores how these interviews reveal the cultural richness of enslaved people's lives, detailing various musical forms like work songs, spirituals, and recreational music. Minton discusses the influence of African musical traditions, adaptations of European instruments, and the interplay between minstrelsy and Black music. The podcast offers insights into how music served not just as an art form, but also as a means of expression and resistance.
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Scope Of The WPA Ex‑Slave Narratives
- The WPA Federal Writers Project recorded ~3,500 ex-slave interviews totaling ~20,000 pages of typescript.
- John Minton found the collection indispensable for tracing Black folk music to antebellum contexts.
Hidden Archive To Essential Corpus
- Much of the material stayed in state archives and only later became widely available in Raywick's multi‑volume edition.
- Minton read the entire corpus multiple times to systematically catalogue musical references.
Why Folklore, Not Conventional History
- Minton treats the narratives primarily as folklore because the culture was transmitted orally with low literacy.
- Oral transmission means stories morph over time and serve expressive or didactic purposes rather than strict factual history.
