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Negro spirituals are songs composed by Africans who were abducted and transported to the United States to be sold into slavery. While they were stripped of their languages, families, and culture, their masters could not take away their musical characteristics. A negro spiritual known as Ring Shout uniquely expresses African Christianity. Ring Shout is characterized by hand clapping, footsteps, and other percussion accompanying the lush orchestral singing of the leader and chorus in this folk spiritual. It has a highly stylized religious dance in which participants dance in counter-clockwise circuits (blackhistorywalks 6:24). In the United States, the term “spiritual” is most closely connected with the racial oppression of African Americans. In terms of traditional music, the African American spiritual, also referred to as the Negro Spiritual, is among the most significant and most prominent cultural practices (blackhistorywalks).
A few well-known spirituals are Wallis Willis’ Swing low, dear chariot, and Deep down my heart. (African American Spirituals). The word “spiritual” comes from a King James Bible conversion of Ephesians 5:19: “Speaking to yourself in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord.” (African American Spirituals). African slaves held “praise houses” and outdoor assemblies titled bush or camp meetings, and brush arbor meetings where they met informally to discuss their conditions of slavery (African American Spirituals). There were ecstatic trances at the gatherings where people would sing, chant and dance.
Enslaved Africans sang about their plight to the American slave lords through the spiritual hymns (blackhistorywalks 5:34). Slave lords let their slaves follow certain Eurocentric religious rituals, even though they did not have the right to free speech. However, they had no idea that a rich culture full of outstanding and complex songs would arise from that, serving as the soundtrack to some people’s spiritual life (blackhistorywalks). Call and response is a crucial feature of negro spirituals. It later found its way into other musical genres, including the blues and gospel. According to Sonia Caldwell in the documentary Origin of the Negro Spiritual (10:20), as a form of resistance, spirituals were used by enslaved people because they wanted to retain African components in their lives. The negro spiritual is sometimes cited as the source of all subsequent musical styles because of its widespread influence.
In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, spirituals played a crucial part in black people’s protests. Spirituals and Gospel songs were essential in the civil rights movements of 1950s and 1960s (African American Spirituals). Majority of the “liberation songs” of the era, such as Eye on the Prize and, Oh Freedom were based on old spirituals. Songs based on spirituals have been used in various countries worldwide, including Russia, East Europe, South Africa, and China. In creating new protest songs, several of today’s best-known pop singers continue to draw inspiration from the spirituals of the past. Songs like Redemption Song by Bob Marley and Billy Bragg’s Sing their souls back home are good examples. Everyone who participated in the ring scream felt a sense of accomplishment and camaraderie after the event. Negro spirituals enabled African-Americans to express their identities and capacities. Because of the prejudice of white superiors who were adverse to the results of the Civil War, Negro Spirituals were also immensely popular amongst African Americans. African Americans discovered a means to deal with their misfortunes through spirituals, which is why Negro Spirituals are considered a part of the African American criterion for American Identity. Negro Spirituals inspired African-Americans to unite and fight for their rights, encouraging them to demonstrate their strength in numbers.
Works Cited
“African American Spirituals.” The Library of Congress, 2015, Web.
Blackhistorywalks. “Slave Songbook : Origin of the Negro Spiritual.” YouTube, 2013, Web.
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