Conclusion

In his book The Power of Black Music, Samuel Floyd writes that African musical traits and cultural traits not only survived but played a significant role in the development and elaboration of African American music and culture (Floyd 1995). Indeed, the expressions of the enslaved Africans are indelibly imprinted in American culture.

In more recent times, the word "shout" has been applied more loosely to both ecstatic dancing and singing, while in the work of some African American scholars, notably Sterling Stuckey (1987) and Samuel Floyd (1991, 1995), who applies Stuckey's approach specifically to music, the ring shout has taken on enhanced significance in discussions of survivals and essences, as an activity of "ancient African provenance" that became "central to the cultural convergence of African traditions in Afro-America" (Floyd 1991, 266-67).

As grapes are crushed to make fine wine, and diamonds are refined by fire, so were the enslaved people's souls in America strengthened by their plight. Their dance, rhythm, and song expressions serve as empirical documents of their resilience, spirituality, faith, and physical strivings. Historians have done their best to question the historical context and conditions under which this music originated. Few have truly valued its significance, the means by which it has survived, or examined the creative genius of the slave song.