African American spirituals, also known as Negro spirituals or Black spirituals, represent a unique genre of Christian music deeply rooted in the experiences of African Americans. This music emerged by merging varied African cultural influences with the harsh realities of enslavement, initially during the transatlantic slave trade and continuing for centuries through the domestic slave trade.
The Fisk Jubilee Singers, who popularized Negro spirituals through their tours.
Prior to emancipation, spirituals were primarily an oral tradition, passed down through generations of enslaved people. Biblical stories were memorized and translated into song, serving as a means of education, worship, and covert communication. Following emancipation, the lyrics of spirituals were published in printed form, preserving this vital cultural heritage.
Origins and Development
The transatlantic slave trade, described by the United Nations as the largest forced migration in recorded human history, significantly shaped the demographics of the Americas. From 1501 to 1830, four Africans crossed the Atlantic for every one European, leading to a substantial African diaspora throughout the Americas. Approximately 6% of all enslaved Africans transported via the trans-Atlantic slave trade arrived in the United States, both before and after the colonial era; the remainder went to Brazil, the West Indies or other regions.
Transatlantic Slave Trade Routes
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The first African enslaved people in what is now the United States arrived in 1526, in present-day Winyah Bay, South Carolina. In 1619, the first slave ship carried twenty people from the west central African kingdom of Kongo to a life of enslavement in what is now, Mexico. For close to three centuries-from 1491 to 1750-the kingdom of Kongo had practiced Christianity and was an "independent [and] cosmopolitan realm."
The Role of Spirituals in Enslaved Communities
Spirituals embody the faith and heritage of a people who encountered the dehumanizing effects of slavery and racism. Despite the overwhelming despair, they never lost sight of their faith. As preservers of this dynamic faith and heritage, the spirituals helped sustain the enslaved community. They served not only as a means of education and worship but also as a way to express their deepest aspirations for freedom and social change. As a form of covert communication in the resistance struggle for liberation, the spirituals often signaled impending escapes or secret gatherings.
Enslaved Africans, prohibited from learning to read and write, passed on valuable life lessons from the Scriptures and other wisdom sources through the spirituals. Slaves learned these lessons in the fields as they labored from sunup to sundown, in the privacy of their living quarters, and in clandestine worship services. Indeed, for the masses of slaves who could not read, the “spirituals were their channel to the word of God.” The Bible in song highlighted the basic tenets of the Christian faith-love, hope, mercy, grace, justice, judgment, death, eternal life. And they still can.
Slave Songs of the United States, the first collection of Negro spirituals published in 1867.
Grounded in their understanding of the Bible, enslaved Africans employed a unique interpretation of God, Jesus, and human worth. Indeed, they saw themselves as full “children of God” despite their condition of slavery and despite slave owners’ teachings. Identifying closely with the children of Israel and the Exodus story, the slaves embraced a vision of God as the deliverer of the oppressed. They viewed Jesus not only as a suffering servant and friend who understood oppression but also as a conquering king who, through the power of his resurrection, could overcome even the most oppressive structures.
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Musical and Lyrical Characteristics
Spirituals were originally oral, but by 1867 the first compilation, entitled "Slave Songbook", was published. In the book's preface, one of the co-compilers, William Francis Allen, traced the "development of Negro Spirituals and cultural connections to Africa." The 1867 publication included spirituals that were well-known and regularly sung in American churches but whose origins in plantations, had not been acknowledged. Allen wrote that, it was almost impossible to convey the spirituals in print because of the inimitable quality of African American voices with its "intonations and delicate variations", where not "even one singer" can be "reproduced on paper".
According to Walter Pitt's 1996 book, spirituals are a musical form that is indigenous and specific to the religious experience African slaves and their descendants in the United States. In William Eleazar Barton's (1899-1972) Old Plantation Hymns, the author wrote that African American "hymns seldom make allusion to the Bible as a source of inspiration. They prefer "heart religion" to "book religion".
The lyrics of Christian spirituals reference symbolic aspects of Biblical images such as Moses and Israel's Exodus from Egypt in songs such as "Michael Row the Boat Ashore". There is also a duality in the lyrics of spirituals. The river Jordan in traditional African American religious song became a symbolic borderland not only between this world and the next.
The texts of folk spirituals drew from various sources, which the enslaved interpreted though the lens of their daily experience. Mixing native African words and African American dialect, songs might touch on biblical themes, the daily experiences of the enslaved, the desire for freedom and deliverance, protest, suffering and other topics. Biblical stories from the Old Testament and the book of Revelations from the New Testament, for example, provide thematic material for the majority of folk spirituals.
Influence and Legacy
African-American spirituals have associations with plantation songs, slave songs, freedom songs, and songs of the Underground Railway, and were oral until the end of the US Civil War. Following the Civil War and emancipation, there has been "extensive collection and preservation of spirituals as folk song tradition".
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The original Fisk Jubilee Singers, a touring a cappella male and female choir of nine students of the newly established Fisk school in Nashville, Tennessee who were active from 1871 to 1878, popularized Negro spirituals. The name "jubilee" referred to the "year of jubilee" in the Old Testament-a time of the emancipation of slaves.
African American composers-Harry Burleigh, R. Harry Burleigh's (1866-1949)-an African-American classical composer and baritone performed in many concert settings published Jubilee Songs of the United States in 1929, which made "spirituals available to solo concert singers as art songs for the first time". Burleigh arranged spirituals with a classical fo...
Collectively, African American spirituals privilege the “voice of the unwritten self” as an authentic voice of enslaved African Americans who were denied the ability to write down and thereby preserve their thoughts in physical documents. As a subjective discourse that existed outside of writing, African American spirituals were much more than an outlet for intense emotions.
The spirituals were a means of coping with the deepest despair and disappointment. Today, the African American community must confront a myriad of challenges that seem insurmountable, such as racism, classism, sexism, discrimination, poverty, unemployment, poor access to education and health care, economic and political disenfranchisement, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. However, the Bible in song still embodies a message of assurance, and confidence in the power to overcome hopelessness.
During the civil rights movement, African Americans transformed many spirituals into protest and freedom songs that empowered the African American community to struggle against racism, injustice, and discrimination. Continuing to reinterpret the spirituals for contemporary African Americans, they can be a way to engage critical issues facing the African American church and community.
Examples of Spirituals and Their Significance
Several spirituals have become iconic representations of the African American experience during slavery. These songs often carried coded messages and provided hope for liberation.
- "Go Down Moses": This spiritual refers to the biblical story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt. In the context of slavery, it symbolized Harriet Tubman, who helped slaves escape to freedom.
- "Steal Away": This song alerted slaves to the presence of someone who would lead them to freedom. The lyrics warned that the journey would begin immediately upon receiving a signal that the path was clear.
- "Follow the Drinking Gourd": This spiritual, referring to the Big Dipper constellation, described landmarks such as rivers and mountains that marked a path from Mobile, Alabama, to the Ohio River, guiding slaves to freedom.
The African American Christian experience reflects a history of survival, resistance, protest, and resilience. The spirituals, carrying biblical themes that still resonate with the black Christian community, embody that legacy.
The Enduring Power of Spirituals
The spirituals embody various educational elements (e.g., dialogue, imagination, spontaneity, rhythm, narrative, nature, and ritual) that can enhance the overall educational experience. In fact, the spirituals embody various educational elements (e.g., dialogue, imagination, spontaneity, rhythm, narrative, nature, and ritual) that can enhance the overall educational experience.
Spirituals played a major role of buoying the spirits of protesters during the Civil Rights Era of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Whether in a concert performance, joined in congregational singing, or just singing to oneself, spirituals must be sung with an understanding of what forced such powerful songs to rise up from the souls of the men and women who created them.
Today, Black spiritual music continues to evolve through its influence on contemporary R&B and hip-hop. Many of the songs performed in Choir Boy come from the tradition of African American spirituals.
The African American spirituals remain a vital part of American history and culture, preserving the stories, faith, and resilience of a people who overcame immense adversity. Their melodies and messages continue to inspire and resonate with audiences of all backgrounds.