A Journey and Hardship Told Through Song Negro spirituals AND THIER Impact on society
By 1860, there are roughly 4 million enslaved African Americans in the United States. Transported to a new territory, they have brought their heritage with them including songs. Music became their form of telling their experiences and making it through the hard labor. These men and women sang for survival. They had to sing about their condition. They had to sing about being separated from their family. They had to sing to make it through the times.
Plantation owners forced slaves to go to church to hear the message of Christianity that justified slavery, but the enslaved men and women took this new language and created their own spirituals. Songs that contained hidden messages, messages of hope and at times, visions of escaping the lives that they're living.
Slavery was abolished in 1865, and shortly after African Americans became dishonored by their once beloved tunes. They did not want to remember their days of suffering and hard ship in slavery. But around the 1890's composers began to take these traditional melodies and compose them in a way similar to classical European songs, with harmonies and choral arraignments.
The soul and passion that was poured out in the creations of spirituals stays alive today in a new form. Spirituals have lead to the creation of the Blues, Gospel, and Jazz. These new genres of music have allowed the new generations to continue to express their hard times and their deepest emotions and passions through song. The inspiration for pieces comes from the rawest of emotions that began with spirituals being written for survival and optimism.
Today spirituals still serve to inspire those in need of a little hope, and as a remembrance of what African American's have been through and their strive towards equality and a better life. Although spirituals are kept alive in religious events and Sunday church, they are also kept alive in choral settings and have been a great asset to connecting history with music and keeping the memories existent.
It is our duty and honor to sing the past stories of the African American's who were able to become living proof that through song and through God, all things are possible.
