Page "Music history of the United States during the colonial era" Paragraph 46

Brought to the United States as early as 1619, African slaves were from a variety of tribes from West Africa, including the Ashanti, Yoruba, Bini, Congo and Dahomean tribes.

They spoke hundreds of languages ; some came from rival tribes, or isolated communities with little connection to anyone else until the arrival of the slave traders.

Some of the larger groups had extensive contact with the Muslims of North Africa and the distant cultures of East and Southern Africa.