Tbe social mobility in the American scene
had permitted each wave of European immigrants to move up the
social ladder before it had time to develop into an American
peasant class. However, this mobility was not extended to the
Afro-American. Therefore, it was from the Afro-American peasant
class that an indigenous American folk culture was to emerge.
When minstrelsy and jazz spread around the world, they were seen
as American productions. They were, at the same time, Afro-
American creations.
The Afro-American folk culture must be seen as the product of
the African's experience in America rather than as an importation
into America of foreign, African elements. Although the content
of the Afro-American folk culture grew out of the American scene,
its style and flavor did have African roots. It was based on the
artistic sense which the slave brought with him--a highly
developed sense of rhythm which was passed from generation to
generation, and an understanding of art which conceived of it as an
integral part of the whole of life rather than as a beautiful
object set apart from mundane experience.
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