Entry · catalog no. 1090
ring shout
/ /rɪŋ ʃaʊt/ /ring showt
noun · Georgia / South Carolina Sea Islands · 1860s
✓ Verified
1.
A religious ritual in which worshippers move counterclockwise in a circle, shuffling and never crossing the feet, to call-and-response song, hand-clapping, and a stick beating time on the floor. Among the oldest African American performance traditions still practiced.
“On Watch Night the elders led the ring shout until the new year came in.”
Origin & Attribution
Carried by enslaved West Africans to the coastal Sea Islands of Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida, and shaped within Gullah-Geechee culture. Drums were banned in slavery, so the rhythm was made with feet, hands, and a stick. Documented by outsiders during the Civil War and kept alive into the present by the McIntosh County Shouters.
slavery era
Practiced by enslaved West Africans on the Sea Islands
1861-65
First described in print by Civil War-era observers
1980
Living tradition in McIntosh County becomes widely known
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The South
Georgia / South Carolina Sea Islands · 1860s
Spoken by
Gullah-Geechee community
$RINGSHThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Faded165 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
50/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1861
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
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By region — how it actually sounds
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New Orleans, LA
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Houston, TX
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Citations & Sources
■
'Slave Songs of the United States,' which describes the shout — 1867
book · documented
■
+ Cite a sourceNew Georgia Encyclopedia, 'McIntosh County Shouters'
reference
See also