This extraordinary anthology of antebellum slave songs provides musical settings for 136 musical texts and variants, in the process devoting much commentary to the regional variations in black folk music, the social settings in which the songs were customarily performed, and the distinctiveness of the Negro singing style. It was "Slave Songs of the United States" that brought black folk music to widespread public attention, whetting the interest in collecting, studying, and performing black folk music that has not abated since 1867.