Negro
Spirituals
Songs of Praise
Songs of Protest
Origins
Slave holders did not allow singing or
dancing.
Slaves met in secret to share and sing.
These “camp meetings” or “bush
meetings” were the precursors of revivals.
The songs sung were the early form of the
spiritual, called “corn ditties.”
“Shouts”
These spirituals, inspired by African music, were
accompanied with dancing, hand clapping, and
foot tapping. Shouts were banned by educated
ministers.
After a regular prayer service, congregations
would stay afterwards for a “ring shout” in which
members would arrange themselves in a ring.
The music would start, perhaps with a spiritual,
and the ring would begin to move, slowly, then
faster and faster. The same musical phrase
was repeated over and over for hours. Women
screamed and fell. Men, exhausted, dropped
out of the ring.
Work Songs
Slaves were allowed to sing “chain gang” songs to
help coordinate efforts for hauling a fallen tree or
moving a heavy load.
“Quiet” songs were allowed as long as the lyrics were
not anti-slave owner.
Spirituals and the UGRR
“Wade in the Water”,
“The Gospel Train”,
and “Swing Low,
Sweet Chariot”
directly refer to the
Underground
Railroad. The lyrics
were “code” to allow
the slaves to
communicate about
escaping without
suspicion from the
authorities.
“Wade in the Water”
Fugitive slaves could escape in several
ways. First, they had to walk at night,
using hand lights and moonlight.
To hide the
scent of their
tracks from
the hounds,
they walked
through or
“waded” in
water.
“Gospel Train”
The places where slaves were
dropped off and transferred to safe
havens were called “stations.” The
references to trains in spirituals
represent travelling to freedom.
“Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”
This song refers to Ripley, a “station” of the
Underground Railroad.
Ripley was atop a hill by the Ohio River,
which was difficult to cross. The slaves
referred to the Ohio as the Jordan, and
had to wait for others to come and help
them. Thus, the line, “I looked over
Jordan and what did I see? A band of
angels coming after me.”
References to the Promised Land, “Sweet
Caanan” or home indicate a free, safe,
happy country in which to live.
Types of Spirituals
Dr. Watts
Call and Response Chant
Slow, sustained long-phrase melody
Syncopated melody
Dr. Watts
An English minister, Dr. Watts’ hymns were
embraced by the black religious
community leaders who wanted slaves to
move into more sophisticated music than
“non-sensical chants, catches, and
hallelujah” songs. The Watts style hymn
was slow, and punctuated after each
praise by the leader’s intoning the next line
of the hymn. The deacon or cantor set the
pitch and reminded the words in halfsinging, half-chanting tones.
Call and Response
For a Call and Response chant, the
preacher or leader sings one verse and
the congregation (chorus) answers him
with another verse. “Swing Low, Sweet
Chariot” is an example of a Call and
Response chant hymn.
Slow, sustained, long phrase
melody
A long phrase melody is exactly that: the
lines of the hymn are lengthy and the
rhythm is slow. “There is a Balm in
Gilead” is an example of the slow,
sustained, long phrase melody.
Syncopated Melody
This type of hymn is usually fast and the rhythm
features a “swing.” These hymns are sung by a
group (not a soloist) and the rhythm is based on
the swinging of head and body. The swaying of
the body marks the regular beat, but more or
less strict in time. The singer takes the basic
beat, almost monotonously, with his left hand
while he juggles it with his right hand. “Old Time
Religion” and “Standin’ in the Need of Prayer”
are examples of Syncopated Melody.
Continued Tradition
Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. uses the Call and
Response cadence of
the spiritual to build his
“I Have a Dream”
speech. He
incorporates figurative
and literal meanings in
the text, using the
anaphoric “call” to get
the audience’s
“reponse.”
“I Have a Dream”
“So let freedom ring from the
prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let
freedom ring from the mighty mountains of
New York. Let freedom ring from the
heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped
Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring
from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that – let freedom ring from
Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring
from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let
freedom ring from every hill and molehill of
Mississippi – from every mountainside!
When we let freedom ring, when we let it
ring from every village and every hamlet,
from every state and every city, we will be
able to speed up that day when all of God’s
children, black men and white men, Jews and
Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be
able to join hands and sing in the words of
the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last, free at
last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at
last!”
The lyrics of Negro
spirituals were tightly linked
with the lives of their
authors: slaves. While
work songs dealt only with
their daily lives, spirituals
were inspired by the
message of Jesus and his
Good News (gospel) of the
Bible, “You can be saved.”
They are different from
hymns and psalms
because they were a way
of sharing the hard
condition of being a slave.
Today
Hip Hop, Rap, and Chant continue
the tradition of the spiritual:
Hip Hop follows the classic Call and
Respond structure.
Rap reflects the Syncopated Melodies.
Chant allows for meditation with its long,
slow melody and repetitive phrasing.