One of the most significant forms of American folklore, which laid the foundation for such musical genres as gospel, blues, and jazz, was the spiritual chants of African Americans. The ancestors of African Americans were forcibly separated from their homes and brought to the United States to work on the plantations of the Old South. Descendants of hundreds of different tribes in Africa brought distinctive musical traditions that were destined to have a global impact on world culture. Spirituals were generally considered religious music, but they carried a much deeper meaning to the people who composed and performed them. African Americans faced severe restrictions even in arts and music. White planters tried to split the communities to prevent riots, and sometimes slaves were forbidden to speak their native language (Music for emancipation of African Americans, 2016-2017). Music has become a primary way of expressing inner feelings, grief, sorrow, and a sense of oneness with brothers and sisters in distress. It is a story about the strength of the human spirit, pure reverence for ancestors, and faith in the future.
Frederick Douglas was born in 1818 in the US state of Maryland into a family of slaves. He despised American slave laws and actively tried to shed light on the terrifying events taking place in the country. Frederick Douglas’s lifelong goal was to fight slavery in all its forms, advocate total emancipation, and raise the moral standards of society. He perceived musical creativity as a way of raising spirits, prosperous fighting for a hopeful future, and a manifestation of cultural pride. Slave owners often did not understand the true meaning of this art and demanded the slaves sing for entertainment. Frederick Douglas documented in his autobiography how compulsory singing oppressed him in childhood and how different it was from singing from the heart (Music for emancipation of African Americans, 2016-2017). In an endless sense of homesickness and grief over the cruel perspective of the planters, music became an origin of the declaration of Blacks’ beliefs and transmissions into the world. Exploring Douglas’ work and the history of African American culture requires saving these ideas in mind to better understand the origins of the music and its message to the world.
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was a prominent American historian, sociologist, and public figure. He was born into an impoverished family of farmers, but his extraordinary talents helped him lift himself out of poverty and become the first black graduate of Harvard University. He was the author of numerous books and articles on the history of peoples of African descent and their struggle against racism, slavery, and the slave trade. His works include visions for independence and the development of the prosperous traditions of African culture, stories, and plays about the life of African Americans. In the music, he saw the true feelings of his ancestors, but precisely through the prism of the Christian religion. A serious analysis of spirituals began primarily with the works of Du Bois, his final chapter of The Souls of the Black Folk, named The Sorrow Songs (Music for emancipation of African Americans, 2016-2017). He viewed spirituals as anthems of self-determination and an expression of divine religious faith, messaged to God. It is a slightly different approach to the perception of African slave music, more revealing the religious aspect and its background.
It is important to comprehend that one of the reasons people voluntarily converted to Christianity was the uncovered parallel in biblical stories with their real lives. The words were biblical, but the implications and meanings in songs were deeply personal. People could express their inner pain, protests, and the urging sense of the lack of justice. Gradually the Christian faith became the spiritual support of the slaves, which can be traced in the writer’s works regarding African American culture. The music of African slaves can be perceived from different angles, focusing on religion or, on the contrary, considering it solely a way to veil the true meaning from tyrants. The principal idea is unshakable: this is a monumental cultural heritage and the commencement of the prosperous crusade for freedom and equality.
Reference
Music for emancipation of African Americans. (2016–2017). UNIVERSITÉ D’ANGERS – FacultĂ© des lettres. Web.