Reading Post. FS

 It is interesting how so much has been accomplished by bringing African Americans slaves to the United States. For example, blues, something that made a big impact in the United States, had many of its influences by the slaves. However, what I found very interesting was the way African Americans were able to communicate through the sound and melodies of their music. Even the fact that the different instruments used can have meaning behind it. For instance, "In African language the meaning of a word can be changed simply by altering the pitch of the word, or changing its stress", which is something the slaves used to their advantage in order to communicate secretly without their masters figuring out what they were saying. I also found it interesting that many of the songs created helped the slaves made their tasks easier. Some songs helped the young men prepare for manhood and some songs helped them finish their jobs on the plantation. However, what I did not like reading was the changes that the African American slaves had to make throughout their experience in slavery. For example, they had to learn to remove some of their religious influences in their songs in order to please their 'masters'. The drum, an instrument used by many Africans, was banned from use because their masters believed that it was a very dangerous and thought provoking instruments. The masters were afraid that the drum can have their slaves runaway from their plantation and seek freedom. Lastly, I didn't like the change religiously that the whites had implemented because they saw 'hoodoo' as the devil's talk and implemented punishments like whipping and even murder. Because of the idea that 'hoodoo' was the devil's talk, white's made them change their religion to Christianity in order to be able to communicate better with them and clean their souls since they were seen as beasts. But many slaves didn’t have to be converted since the 'hoodoo' was banned from practice and it was punishable many had converted to Christianity on their own in order to avoid being punished and killed.