Drums and Shadows is a book by Mary Granger published in 1940. The book is an account of oral folklore collected in Georgia from African-Americans, namely the Gullah people of the Sea Islands, many of whom had been slaves.
The main focus of the book is the set of beliefs gathered from these people, much of which today falls under the category of Hoodoo, including spirits, talismans, lucky and unlucky actions and omens. It also examines the use of drums and dancing during celebrations, funerals and baptisms, as well as other aspects of their folklore. Quotes from the interviewees are recorded in dialect.
Granger uses the information gathered, both from the former slaves interviewed and from African ethnographers and folklore-experts, to conclude that these beliefs originated in Africa. The publishing of the book was done through the Savannah Unit of the Georgia branch of the Federal Writers' Project, of which Granger was a District Supervisor. The copyright has not been renewed, and the work is now in the public domain.
Some of the stories in Drums and Shadows served as an inspiration for the central song in Toni Morrison's novel Song of Solomon.
Famous quotes containing the words drums and, drums and/or shadows:
“With drums and guns, and guns and drums
The enemy nearly slew ye,
My darling dear, you look so queer,
Och, Johnny, I hardly knew ye!”
—Unknown. Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye (l. Chorus.)
“It was soldiers went marching over the rocks
And still the birds came, came in watery flocks,
Because it was spring and the birds had to come.
No doubt that soldiers had to be marching
And that drums had to be rolling, rolling, rolling.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Ah, to build, to build!
That is the noblest art of all the arts.
Painting and sculpture are but images,
Are merely shadows cast by outward things
On stone or canvas, having in themselves
No separate existence. Architecture,
Existing in itself, and not in seeming
A something it is not, surpasses them
As substance shadow.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)