An African Song or Chant from Barbados

An African Song or Chant from Barbados is a one-page manuscript of a work song sung by enslaved Africans in the sugar cane fields of the Caribbean. Dating from the late 18th century, it is the earliest known such song. It is also the oldest notation of a piece of music from Barbados. Hans Sloane had already written down three African songs in Jamaica in 1688, but these did not come from the context of forced work and are also incomplete.

There are three versions of the manuscript: two rough drafts and one final copy. These are kept in the Gloucestershire Archives in Gloucester, England with the shelf mark D3549/13/3/27. The manuscripts were added to the UNESCO Memory of the World international register, recognising documentary heritage of global importance, in 2017, nominated jointly by Barbados and the United Kingdom.