ABSTRACT
The "Africanisms" of the slaves—even of the Gullah Negroes of the South Carolina sea islands—were mere vestiges of their old cultures. The slaves, having lost the bulk of their African heritage, were prevented from sharing in much of the best of southern white culture. Field-hands living on large plantations in isolated areas, such as the South Carolina and Georgia sea islands, doubtless preserved more "Africanisms" than slaves who were widely dispersed in relatively small holdings or who lived in their master's houses as domestics. The slaves seemed to welcome each holiday with great fervor, for they found in it an enormous relief from the boredom of their daily lives. The kinds of jigs and double shuffles that slaves indulged in were once described as "dancing all over"; they revealed an apparent capacity to "agitate every part of the body at the same time.".
