Shout Because You're Free: The African American Ring Shout Tradition in Coastal Georgia

229 Pages·1998·10.76 MB·English

by  Art Rosenbaum, Margo Newmark Rosenbaum, Johann S. Buis

Shout Because You're Free

Shout Because You're Free
The African American Ring Shout
Tradition in Coastal Georgia
Text and Drawings by Art Rosenbaum
Photographs by Margo Newmark Rosenbaum
Musical Transcriptions and Historical Essay by Johann S. Buis
The University of Georgia Press \ Athens and London
© 1998 by the University of Georgia Press
Athens, Georgia 30602
Music and Lyrics © 1998 by McIntosh County Shouters (trademarked)
All rights reserved
Designed by Kathi Dailey Morgan
Set in New Caledonia by G&S Typesetters, Inc.
Printed and bound by Braun-Brumfield, Inc.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the
Council on Library Resources.

Printed in the United States of America
02 01 00 99 98 C 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Rosenbaum, Art.
Shout because you’re free : the African American ring shout tradition
in coastal Georgia / text and drawings by Art Rosenbaum ; photographs by
Margo Newmark Rosenbaum ; musical transcriptions and historical essay
by Johann S. Buis.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8203-1934-1 (alk. paper)
1. Afro-Americans – Georgia – McIntosh County – Social life and customs.
2. Afro-Americans – Georgia – McIntosh County – Religion.
3. Afro-Americans – Georgia – McIntosh County – Folklore.
4. McIntosh County (Ga.) – Social life and customs. 5. McIntosh County (Ga.) –
Religious life and customs. 6. Folklore – Georgia – McIntosh County.
I. Buis, Johann S. II. Title.
F292.M15R67 1998
305.896'0730758737—dc21 97-43833

British Library Cataloging in Publication Date available

Frontis: McIntosh County Shouters at Filming Session, 1985

ISBN for this digital edition: 978-0-8203-4361-7
The publisher and the authors gratefully acknowledge the support
of the Sapelo Foundation in the publication of this book.
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xvii
Introduction: "We Never Did Let It Go By" 1
1. "Kneebone in the Wilderness": The History of the Shout in America 17
2. "One Family of People": The Shouters of Bolden 53
3. Lawrence McKiver, Boss Songster 85
4. The Shout Songs 105
Jubilee 107
Blow, Gabriel 110
Move for Your Dyin' Savior 113
I Want to Die Like Weepin' Mary 114
Wade the Water to My Knees 116
Army Cross Over 118
Happy Angel 120
Move, Daniel 121
Drive Ol' Joe 124
I Come to Tell You 126
Kneebone Bend 127
Pharaoh s Host Got Lost 130
Hold the Baby 132
Religion, So Sweet 134
Time Drawin Nigh (I See the Sign) 137
Read 'em, John 139
In This Field We Mus' Die 142
Eve and Adam 144
Went to the Burial (Sinner Rock So) 146
John on the Island, I Hear Him Groan 150
Walk through the Valley in the Field 152
Ezekiel Saw That Little Stone 153
Lay Down, Body 155
Watch That Star 158
Farewell, Last Day Coin' 162
Transcribers Note 164
Historical Essay. The Ring Shout: Revisiting the Islamic and
African Issues of a Christian "Holy Dance" 167
Notes 173
Bibliography 183
Index 189
viii Contents
Preface
On a hot July afternoon in 1995, the annex building of the Mt. Cal-
vary Baptist Church in Bolden, Georgia, did not ring with the sound
of the shout songs or resound to the beating of a stick on the wood
floor; nor did that floor move to the force of a score of people mov-
ing counterclockwise in the ring shout, as we had seen it on four
Watch Night (or New Years) shouts in the only community where
the African American southeastern coastal ring shout is known to
have survived. Instead, this day several members of the group that
has become known as the Mclntosh County Shouters were sitting
down with us at long folding tables that usually hold church sup-
pers, to go over the manuscript of Shout Because You're Free.
Lawrence McKiver, patriarch and lead songster, was there along
with Odessa Young, the oldest of the women who currently perform
the compelling circling movements of the shout in public perfor-
mance. A woman of great dignity, Odessa Young had overcome her
reluctance to "talk" in order to help us tell the story of the shout cor-
rectly. Also there were Carletha Sullivan, a younger shouter who
handles the business side of the tricky task of presenting a precious
community tradition to the public, and Bettye Ector, an instructor
at Coastal Georgia Community College in Brunswick, who is kin
and neighbor to the shouters and who recently has become their
ix