African American Spirituals

     As an African American woman I have always felt slightly out of touch with my history as we only know bits and piece of what truly happened, seeing that the text book teaching of it leaves out many important details. One thing I've recently learned is that during the days of slavery African Americans participated in folksongs known as Negro Spirituals, aka an African American Spiritual. 

    African American Spirituals are simply the act of singing whatever melody your heart leads you to to the lord. They were often used s forms of communication that those who lacked color could not understand. These songs came about when Slave owners began banning the gathering of slaves. While in the fields salves would sing these spirituals using a call and response form. This meant that majority of these songs were more a-cappella style with no beat or instrument to accompany them at first. They sang of power and hope with deep lyrics that spoke of ways in which people of color would overcome this rough patch of life.

Some examples of these folksongs are "Wade in the Water," "Deep down in my heart," and "Go down, Moses." While many of you may have never heard of these, if you have it was probably at a middle or high school choir concert as they try to teach you about it then. They are also commonly sung by fraternities and step teams as they love to show their pride for their history. Both Chorus and Step introduced me to these songs at an early age. 

. 

When African American Spirituals were first introduced to a larger crowd they were known as Jubilee Songs, which allowed African American Solo singers to begin singing them. These songs did not formally get introduced into the world until the 20th century, when composers such as Harry Burleigh and Nathaniel Dett brought spirituals to the stage. Although they added their own twist to it, they began the era of singing spirituals for large crowds as many people liked to keep it sacred out of respect for their ancestors. The greatest exposure, came in 1999 when Ahthur Jones founded “The Spirituals Project,” to help keep the meaning of these songs alive and heard, brining them out the South and to the concert halls in the North. 

      Many of these songs being sang in the church, caused them to become more of a religious folk song type music. This created ties between the spirituals and gospel music, which then transformed into more styles of music we see today such as the blues. This is why you see similarities in the call response form within African American spirituals and gospel, as the spirituals are a base for many types of music today.

While many African Americans stopped passing these spirituals down and singing them after the abolishment of slavery, some still sing these songs and even teach it to the generation of kids being born today. 

https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200197495/#:~:text=A%20spiritual%20is%20a%20type,legalized%20slavery%20in%20the%201860s. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirituals#Collections_of_lyrics_of_the_spirituals

https://digital.library.sc.edu/exhibits/southernafricanamericanmusic/spirituals-and-gospel/