How important were spirituals & folk songs for the life of enslaved African Americans in the antebellum South?

“Through all the sorrow of the Sorrow Songs there breathes a hope – a faith in the ultimate justice of things. The minor cadences of despair change often to triumph and calm confidence. Sometimes it is faith in life, sometimes a faith in death, sometimes assurance of boundless justice in some fair world beyond. But whichever it is, the meaning is always clear: that sometime, somewhere, men will judge men by their souls and not by their skins.”

W. E. B. Du Bois – The Souls of Black Folk^[1]

Every study of the culture of black people in America inevitably reveals statements about the relationship between black and white Americans. In this essay this will not be a side effect but intended. On the following pages I want to put up the question whether spirituals – songs of black Christian Afro-Americans – can be simply seen as sorrow songs (as stated above) that only had one aim: to create a platform for black people to express their feelings, fears and their pain; or whether those songs can be interpreted as a motor for the black mass to draw the attention on the deficiency of a whole community, and eventually to achieve cultural, social and political changes. The subject of my investigation, then, is the social function of black music in America before the Civil War.

Black music cannot – in contrast to music in a European context – be discussed in terms of entertainment but rather as an important piece of history for the black people in America: as a kind of language. It is the language of a culture on which white oppressors did not have any influence and which became an epitome for freedom. Therefore ‘black music’, as a general term for gospel music, work songs, Jazz, Blues, Bebop and spirituals, is the artistic combination of musical tradition and social issues.

The oral culture of Afro-Americans in the United States was overshadowed by the literate culture^[2] of white Americans for centuries and was therefore able to develop secretly because it did not encounter resistance. Members of an oral culture experience their world much more intense compared to member of a western culture who emphasise exclusion of apperception. Apperception is the quintessence of oral culture and opposed to literate culture it needs one thing: the presence of others. Members of an oral culture completely merge in their music; they become a part of the rhythm, the harmony and the vocals:

„Of the minority groups in this country [USA], blacks are the only one having no language of their own. Language serves to insulate a group and protect it from outsiders. [...] [The black] has another language, and that language is rhythm. This has been recognized by black people for some time, and they call it ‘soul’.”^[3]

The rhythm of black music is quite complex due to the fact that it is spontaneous. The native African freedom of rhythm was restricted due to slavery but the gradual reactivation of rhythm also meant a reactivation of black consciousness. In that sense black music must be seen as the basis for black social organisation. An idea has to be communicated before politically implemented. In case of black music the idea is action and action is idea: “Communication and elaboration is one.”^[4] If a group dances in the same rhythm they will build up solidarity and confidence which seems essential for surviving slavery. The lack of rhythmic freedom in the work songs was matched by a lack of social freedom, and it is interesting to note that both freedoms, rhythmic a social, developed simultaneously several generations after the work songs.^[5]

Due to slavery black people did not have political power and were therefore not able to pronounce their opinion, respectively to reveal social nuisances. That is why most of their songs had an ambiguous meaning and dealt with anger, grief, resignation, humour, protest or cries for help. Those songs were an anodyne for the soul, a relief of anger and rage but were also driving force to protest against the authority.

Work songs are a kind of genre that developed through oppression. It is in an old and deeply rooted tradition and was particularly sung by railroad gangs, roustabouts, woodcutters, fishermen, and prison road gangs.^[6] The slaves tried to digest their emotions and strengthened their individuality. The oppressors even encouraged them to sing those songs because slave work became more efficient when people were singing. Due to their consistent rhythm labour in groups became more fertile, weariness was easier to be avoided and it helped to establish the community of the plantation workers. The substance of the gang songs ranges from the ribald to the devout, from the humorous to the sad, from the gentle to the biting, and from the tolerant to the unforgiving.^[7] The vital thing about work songs is that they were an act of communication that was performed in a community that lacked any kind of mass activity as a result of prohibition.^[8] Only with the emergence of a Christian tradition within the black community of the United States African-based music was taken a step further to be then known as spirituals.

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^[1] As cited in: Genoves, Eugene: Roll, Jordan, Roll : The World The Slaves Made. New York: Pantheon Books, 1974: p. 249.

^[2] Terms used by: Sidran, Ben. Black Talk. Edinburgh: Payback Press, 1995.

^[3] Lester, Julius. Look Out, Whitey! Black Power´s Gon´ Get Your Mama !. Peter Smith: New York, 1968: p. 90 f.

^[4] Williams, Raymond. The Long Revolution. London: Chatto and Windus, 1961: p.55.

^[5] Sidran (1995): p. 16.

^[6] Courlander, Harold. Negro Folk Musik U.S.A. New York: Columbia University Press, 1970: p. 89.

^[7] Ibid.

^[8] Cf. Epstein, Dena. Sinful Tunes and Spirituals : Black Folk Music to the Civil War. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2003: p. 68 ff.