The History of African American Spiritual Songs

The Historical Background of Spiritual Songs

The video “History Detectives” published on YouTube by PBS explores the historical background of spiritual songs. The short video suggests that the spiritual songs of African Americans originated from slave work songs and shouts of protests. Approximately four million slaves from Africa brought some elements of African heritage and culture including songs, most of which reflected their experiences of hard labor on farmlands. The slave work songs evolved to new spiritual musical forms, which in turn introduced blues, gospel jazz, and protest songs of the civil rights movement.

The Discovery of the Original Collection

Avery Clayton of Los Angeles discovered the original collection of the original African American spiritual songs. The autograph book contained African artifacts collected by Mamie Clayton, and it was published in 1867. This shows that the African American spiritual songs have a long history, but it has not been properly preserved in the U.S. With the printing and binding style of the 19th century, the book is indeed considered an ancient source of the spiritual songs. With 136 songs and lyrics, including ‘Roll Jordan Roll’; and the authors were careful to record all the words in their English phonetic forms.

The Message of Hope and Escape

From slave songs, the African American spiritual songs gave enslaved Africans a message of hope and visions of escape; borrowing the language of the Christian missionaries and adapting it to reflect their experiences. The authors of the book include professors of music William Francis Allen Charles Picard, and a pianist and violist, Lucy Macam Garrison; and their interest in African American music led to the initial steps of conservation of the African music. Thus, their efforts to make a collection of African American songs help to preserve the cultural heritage and history of African Americans, while at the same time providing knowledge for music students and interest groups about the origin and progress of spiritual songs, protest songs, jazz and blues.

References

PBS (2009). History Detectives: Slave Songbooks. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JtD_YpyXYU