Culture, Drumming, and Enslaved Community

Music and dance were important cultural expressions for the enslaved women and men who congregated in woods, swamps, and abandoned outbuildings to participate in ceremonies beyond the gaze of free society. It is not difficult to picture the people owned by George Mason IV conducting their ritual and revelry in the forest surrounding Gunston Hall manor. It is equally possible to imagine that individuals like Dick, a "runaway" from Mason's plantation, first learned to play his drum at these gatherings.