Enslaved people substituted spoon percussion for forbidden drums

Evidence

In many parts of the South, playing the drum was forbidden. To make music, enslaved men and women would use metal spoons, clapping and slapping their bodies in rhythmic patterns. Hambone was often accompanied by a scripted or improvised song that spoke of Black culture and the lived experiences of the formerly enslaved. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 33

Categorization

• CANDY: The drum ban forcing body-slapping and spoon music is a compact, vivid fact.
• SHARE: Someone interested in how bans reshape cultural practice would appreciate this.