Field Hollers as well as
work songs were African American styles of music from before the
Civil War, this style of music is close related to
Spirituals in the sense that it expressed religious feelings and included subtle hints about ways of escaping slavery, among other things. Slaves in
New Orleans had a field area called
Congo Square in which they were allowed time on Sundays to dance and sing more freely than they could on the
plantations.
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