The complexities of non-written or "head syncopations" heard in rhythms of black slaves are addressed by music historian H. Wiley Hitchcock. He explains that the "...emphatic use of syncopation by American Negroes, partly derived from African drumming, partly derived from Afro-Caribbean dance rhythms." He then quotes from an 1835 letter to Edgar Allan Poe in which a friend describes a musical performance of some slaves in a practice known as "clapping Juba" ("Juba" is thought to refer to the English dance-name "jig.") The text is a remarkable testimony to the survival of syncopated elements in African drumming:
By the mid-1850s these ragged rhythms were finding their way into published banjo solos and methods. Much of this earlier published material came from the minstrel stage and was given an "Ethiopic" theme meant to evoke the plantation and the South. Not all Ethiopic themed music contained syncopation--quite a bit of it consisted of sentimental songs that evoked the themes of fondness for the South, the plantation, "Massa," and other aspects of slavery. But, syncopation rarely found its' way onto the printed page--a nod perhaps to the notion that it was difficult music to play unless you had an innate feeling for it.
grace jones slave to the rhythm rar
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