SINGING GAMES

Despite their wealth of folklore, the ex-slave narratives contain relatively few children's traditions, the reason being obvious: maintained mainly for child labor, most enslaved preadolescents enjoyed relatively little experiences resembling childhood. This also explains why most of the singing games that ex-slaves did recall were borrowed from whites. There are intimations of the famous African American clapping games and ring plays that appeared after 1900, but only intimations. Again, the cause is obvious: the average slave childhood was so constricted that most Black children found time to play their own way only after freedom. Then again, childcare was often the first and sometimes only work assigned to enslaved women, and many ex-slaves had spent their lives—during and after slavery—as nursemaids to white children besides their own. The ex-slaves also remembered many lullabies and nursery songs, but overall the narratives document the exploitation of slave children, not the joys of childhood.