Thaddeus Russell – A Renegade History of the United States

““Dixie” and hundreds of songs like it gave voice not to a hatred of black people but to a love of blackness. And, as paradoxical as it seems, if we free our minds from modern morality, we can see that such a life-loving and infectious culture could only have been created by slaves. Free from the bondage of citizenship, is it any wonder that the slaves were able to enjoy themselves? Liberated from the responsibility of sustaining themselves and their offspring, should we be surprised that they sang and danced with a joy that was unknown to whites? Living outside the confines of American norms, was it a miracle that their descendants created America’s most important contribution to world culture – a music that operated outside and against Western musical structures with its celebration of improvisation and its rhythms that moved the body? Never fully a part of America, slaves were America’s original renegades.”

Thaddeus Russell, A Renegade History of the United States: How Drunks, Delinquents and Other Outcasts Made America (London: Simon & Schuster, 2011 [2010]), p. 76. Emphasis not added.