“To Drum for the Fun of the Thing”

This chapter traces the beginnings of Black fife and drum music, which is not well documented. The general assumption is that its beginnings are the result of the similarity between certain flute and drum ensembles in West Africa and the early American military tradition of fifers and drummers. Indeed, the emergence of Black fifers and drummers is associated with their contact with the military traditions in colonial America. Black drummers were almost always mentioned in early American newspapers, even in the South, in conjunction with military activities. There are also accounts of Black drummers and fife and drum bands in the state of Tennessee, although the earliest dates associated with the phenomenon seem to occur in much later articles, in which residents are recalling the early history of their communities. After the first year of the Civil War, references to Black fifers and drummers almost disappear from the newspapers. Newspapers in Tennessee were silent about fife and drum bands until after Nashville had fallen to the Union.