Origins of the Spirituals
Craig von Buseck
CBN.com Contributing Writer
- The following is an excerpt from the upcoming narrative biography, "The
Lamplighter: Harry T. Burleigh and the Birth of American Music."
time, southern slaves developed plantation songs that also carried coded messages.
Only the slaves knew their meaning. It was through these songs that important
information was passed along a system of communication throughout the South. Coded
songs conveyed messages about rebellions or escapes through the Underground Railroad.
They were also a way for the slave to "sass the Massa" without fear of retribution.
The plantation owners and overseers never suspected their smiling chattel who
sang such simple songs - or so they thought.
There was one final group
of haunting melodies, rich with emotion, and deeply moving. They were songs of
hope and anticipation. Some folks called them the sorrow songs - eventually, they
would come to be known as spirituals. They were the soul-cry of the black slave,
longing for freedom. They were born in the fields, among the hoed rows of cotton
and tobacco. They sprang to life among the salty wharves of the Atlantic harbor
and the Mississippi bayou. These songs rose to heaven above the whine of the sawmill
and the roar of the waterfalls that drove them. From the painful cries of the
slave wench, enduring yet another violation by the master, these ballads arose.
They issued forth from the sweat and heartache of a lifetime of unrewarded toil.
Most of the time they had their start in the fervent heat of a backwoods
religious meeting. Slaves gathered secretly to encourage one another and to cry
out to God for freedom. This activity was against the law, and they knew that
a severe beating or even death could face them if they were caught. But the joy
and peace that they received from heaven in these meetings made it worth the risk
they faced here on earth. The atmosphere in midst of the woods was always charged
with emotion. As they mourned their wretched existence, songs would develop spontaneously
-- psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. In time, these melodies were memorized
and passed along from plantation to plantation.
Like a captive eagle, a
man's spirit cries out under the tethers of oppression. In the same way that a
caged bird yearns for freedom, the black slaves cried in anguish under their captivity
- and the spirituals were born from those cries. As the lashes came down on their
backs, the pleas to God for justice and a homeland of freedom across the Jordan
rose from their bellies. The spirituals became a bloodline, bringing the vital
flow of hope and faith to the emotional and spiritual heart of the slave. Through
these melodies they held onto the hope of survival. By them, a unique and vibrant
community formed. They served as a second language that only the slaves understood.
Through these songs the slaves expressed in subtle words and melody their pain,
loneliness, weariness, and sorrow - but also their hope and determination to live
Though the slaves were not allowed to read the Scriptures, they learned
Bible stories at the church on the plantation along with the white folks. The
Sunday morning routine included Sunday school, singing hymns, Bible reading, and
the sermon -- where the preacher told them to obey the Misses and the Master.
But the slaves also learned God's word from white and black abolitionist
preachers from the North who traveled through the southern states. After the "Great
Awakening" some Southern whites who had come into the "new light" became Baptists.
Much to the annoyance of many southerners, these new evangelicals began teaching
the slaves about the way to salvation. Black and white evangelists alike poured
out their lives, preaching the Gospel to the captives in secret late-night meetings.
A favorite analogy from the Scriptures used by these circuit preachers was the
plight of the Hebrews of Exodus and God's handpicked leader, Moses. The African
slaves identified with this ancient oppressed people. They grew to understand
that it was through their faith in the God of the Bible that freedom was given
to these slaves of old.
The Old Testament fired their imagination. Had
not the people of Israel been enslaved in Egypt? And did not God rescue them,
leading them out of bondage and into the Promised Land? Quickly they formed a
close kinship with Israel. Would not God do the same for them in their enslavement?
Moses became their man too, and figuratively they implored him in song, "Go down
Moses - way down in Egypt's land. Tell old Pharaoh, let my people go."
capacity to funnel the trouble of their daily lives into song was the unique genius
of the African slave. They were helped in this creation by their own black preachers,
who identified with what the congregation had been through since their last meeting.
They saw husbands sold away from wives, children from parents, women at the mercy
of their master's lusts, and men at the end of an overseer's whip. Their environment,
with the lash in frequent use, told them they were in no way significant as persons
- that they were important only as property. But as the slaves learned of the
God of the Bible, they began to see themselves as His children.
no!" their black preachers told them, "you are not slaves, you are the apple of
God's eye, made in His very own image." They learned that it was through a good
and benevolent God, who heard the cry of the Hebrew slaves, that freedom came.
They realized that they were not inferior to the white man, just as the Hebrews
were not inferior to the Egyptians.
The spirituals attested to this and
proclaimed the goodness of this God and His ultimate triumph over evil. They would
taste freedom, they believed, across the Jordan River of death - and some sweet
day in the here and now. Looking forward to that day of freedom, the slaves sang
of the "Deep River," with its mighty waters flowing into distant horizons. As
the embers glowed in the fire, in the heart of the forest they would sing:
river -- my home is over Jordan,
Deep river, Lord, I want to cross over into
Don't you want to go to that Gospel feast,
That promised land
where all is peace.
Deep river, Lord, I want to cross over into campground.
For a time, the slaves simply by-passed the New Testament,
especially since their white taskmasters used it to justify slavery as an acceptable
way of life. But there was something about the man Jesus, hanging there upon the
hard, wooden cross. Here was a man who was beaten like they were. He was spit
upon. He was falsely accused. He was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit.
Finally, he was hung on a tree, a method of execution familiar to the slaves.
Through all of these indignities, Jesus prayed, "Father forgive them, for they
know not what they do."
"How was he able to forgive?" they questioned.
"What was it that enabled him to love those who were unlovable?" Was he in pain?
They were in pain. Did he have to drink the cup of suffering? They had to drink
theirs, too. Yes, their cross was one with his cross. Jesus died for the sins
of all men, of every color. He had to be who he said he was. How else could he
have done what he did? In time, they embraced Jesus as their Savior, and they
experienced his peace, his grace, his forgiveness, and hope for the future.
this relationship they were able to sing:
Were you there
when they crucified my Lord?
Sometimes it causes me to tremble, to tremble.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they
nailed him to the tree?
Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they nailed him to a tree?
From the cross they
felt a mighty emergence of the divine will, breaking down the barriers that separated
man from man and man from God. And so, instead of taking the destructive road
to violence, many began to hum, then to sing, and sometimes to shout the spirituals
-- a cry to God for freedom and a declaration of faith in His ability to provide
the Black History Section on CBN.com
from Spiritual Life
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von Buseck is Ministries Director of CBN.com. Send
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