Sawney Freeman’s the Musicians Pocket Companion may be the earliest published music by a Black composer in the United States
An 1801 newspaper advertisement, a lost publication, and a hand-written copy book
This article was first published in the January 2025 issue of EMAg, the Magazine of Early Music America
When you think of slavery in the United States, the Northern states may not come to mind. However, the enslavement of Africans had a long history in New England before the Civil War. Equally long is the history of enslaved and free Black people in the U.S. making music.
The great majority of early Black American music was unwritten, with instrumental styles, songs, and performance practices passed from one generation to the next through oral traditions. The Western notion of “composer” has been an enduring, racialized category. As explored by Mary Caton Lingold and other scholars, this seemingly basic concept requires rethinking to account for music-making by people of color and from diverse cultures.
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Diane Orson is a special correspondent with Connecticut Public and a contributing reporter to National Public Radio. She reported and co-produced Unforgotten: Connecticut’s Hidden History of Slavery, which received the 2024 Connecticut Broadcasters Award for “Best Use of Digital Media.” She is also a freelance violinist and was involved in the first modern performance of Freeman’s music.
Musicologist and historical keyboardist Rebecca Cypess is Dean of the Undergraduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Yeshiva University. Her publications include Women and Musical Salons in the Enlightenment (2022) as well as articles on the 18th-century Black British composer Ignatius Sancho.
