Everyone knows that Wynton is my main man. However, although he is a great Jazz teacher, arranger, player and keeper of the faith, a historian, he is not. He shows a shallow Hollywood - like vision of slavery.
What's up with this drum ban stuff? I'll tell you. It's a myth, pushed by black people, to explain the lack of slave rebellions in this country. Nate Turner being the more obvious exception. He went on rampage and killed 60 or so white folks, but drums had nothing to do with it.
I.E. if we could have communicated with each other, we would have fought and won our freedom. BS of course.
The real reason is, they had enough sense to know that they were in a better place than the place they came from. And you can say the same about all the white groups in this country. New York was a lot better than York. And so on.....
Ask yourself this question: What, in practice, was the real difference between black slaves and white sharecroppers in the deep south. What's the real difference between slaves picking cotton and whites mining coal in KY and WV? Where, as the Tennessee Ernie Ford song says,"I owe my soul to the company store. i.e., when payday came, I owed, more than I had earned.
The difference? One group were slaves by law. The others were not, by law.
BTW, both groups created great music. Louis Armstrong once said, "if there had not been segregation in New Orleans, there would be no Jazz." All the black guys would have been in integrated bands playing Sousa. Ain't it the truth.
Cheers
