Slave Songs of the United States

The collectors of the songs were Northern abolitionists William Francis Allen, Lucy McKim Garrison, and Charles Pickard Ware.

[3] The group transcribed songs sung by the Gullah Geechee people of Saint Helena Island, South Carolina.

[4] These people were newly freed slaves who were living in a refugee camp when these songs were collected.

[10] The making of the book is described by Samuel Charters, with an emphasis on the role of Lucy McKim Garrison.

In the Dover edition, Harold Courlander contributes a new preface that evaluates the book's significance in both American musical and cultural history.