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Hallelujah, Amen!

PERFORMING RELIGIOUS MUSIC OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

The Negro Spiritual ground Railroad, was given the moniker of “Moses,”

If we are to fully understand African American re- because, like the biblical figure, she led her people out
ligious music, we must trace its roots and beginnings of bondage into freedom.
to Black people on these shores. When I refer to Black Finally, the songs of the slave community gave voice
Americans or Black music in this article, I refer to those to their social condition and their preeminent desire to
Americans of African ancestry who are the descen- be free. James Cone says that the spirituals are histor-
dants of chattel slavery in America and the music they ical documents, giving testimony to the suff ering the
birthed. Sister Thea Bowman states, “In the crucible enslaved African experienced at the hand of their slave
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of separation and suffering, African American sacred masters (oppressors). What the slaves could not say ex-

song was formed.” Of all the slave songs this com- plicitly was communicated implicitly through song and
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munity created, it is the religious folk music of the en- allowed them to comment on their social condition.

slaved African that would first become known as “sor- The lyrics not only served as coded messages to “those
row songs” and, eventually, “spirituals.” These religious in the know,” but they also gave voice to the aching
folks songs—these “Negro Spirituals”—would not have spirits of the oppressed. “I’m gonna tell God how you
emerged without the convergence of three factors: Af- treat me” and “I’m troubled in mind” articulated the
rican culture or idioms, Christianity, and slavery. suffering of the oppressed. Coded lyrics such as “Ev-

The influence of African culture is seen in the ways erybody talkin’ ‘bout heaven ain’t going” called out the
the enslaved created music and found new ways to cre- hypocrisy of the so-called “Christian” slave masters.
ate community once reaching these shores. The oral While “Steal away to Jesus… I ain’t got long to stay
tradition—a means by which history and culture is here” literally meant one was bound for heaven, it also
maintained though the telling of stories and the sing- could signal a secret meeting or a cue for escape. Many
ing of songs orally—is one of the many African reten- associated this spiritual with Nat Turner, famous for the
tions that survived the Middle Passage. The primacy of rebellion he led in Southampton County, Virginia, in
community, antiphony (call-and-response), improvisa- 1831. When the slaves sang “I got a robe,” or “a crown
tion, and the centricity of rhythm are other retentions up in-a the kingdom,” this was “good news” for several
that remained part of the cultural expression of what reasons. It meant that in the kingdom of heaven they
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Wyatt Tee Walker terms “New World Africans.” Evi- would be welcome. It meant that God had prepared a
dence of these African retentions is found in the music, place for them. Their humanity would be affi rmed af-
in the call-and-response of the verses of “Swing Low, ter being ignored on earth by their oppressors. And not
Sweet Chariot,” and in the import of community of only affirmed, but valued, as evinced by the trappings

“We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder.” of royalty (a crown, a royal robe). When performing
Missionaries who believed that Africans were hea- this music, one must take into account these factors
thens and savages in need of salvation exposed them and never forget their overwhelming grounding in the

to the Christian religion and, consequently, to stories suffering of the enslaved community. If suff ering does
of the Bible, both Old and New Testament, as well not factor into a performance or rendering of this mu-
as Protestant Christian hymns. The stories of Joshua, sic, it has missed the mark.
Daniel, Samson, and Jesus found their way into the
religious folk songs of the slaves. Perhaps the most in-
fluential and impactful story of all was the Exodus of Gospel Music

the Hebrews and the figure of Moses. The enslaved As the Negro Spirituals are music of the antebellum

Africans heard of a God that was concerned about the south and reflect the social condition of slavery in which
plight of slaves and liberated them from their bondage. Blacks found themselves, so, too, does Black gospel mu-
Surely, such a God that delivered the Hebrew slaves sic reflect the post-civil war social condition of African

could and would deliver them. Harriet Tubman, argu- Americans in urban settings, emerging during the Great
ably the most well-known conductor of the Under- Depression. Ethnomusicologist Mellonee V. Burnim

10 CHORAL JOURNAL June/July 2021 Volume 61 Number 11