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Overview

As Donna M. Cox, professor of music at Dayton University, writes, "From the moment of capture, through the treacherous middle passage, after the final sale and throughout life in North America, the experience of enslaved Africans who first arrived at Jamestown, Virginia … was characterized by loss, terror, and abuse." Slavery remained a common practice and legal in the United States from 1619 until December 1865. As Cox writes, "From this tragic backdrop one of the most poignant American musical genres, the Negro spiritual, was birthed" (Cox 2020). Out of this plight of oppression, the enslaved African in America retained their innate cultural heritage of music to express their innermost soul. Most pronounced of these was their expression of sorrows, joy, hope, and longing for a better life."

Be ready to:

Identify and articulate the difference between a spiritual and a hymn.

Identify the role the Great Awakening played in the development of the African American spiritual.

Define the African American spiritual, including the different aspects regarding its origin.

Describe the role of the invisible church in the authentic development of the spiritual.

Describe a typical worship service that took place in the invisible church.

Describe the importance of Slave Songs of the United States that was published in 1867.

Describe lyrical/coded themes mentioned in the spirituals.

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The Invisible Church (Continued)

Other spirituals that make use of dual meanings can be found in table 5.2 below:

Table 5.2 Sample of Spirituals That Have a Dual or Decoded Meaning
Name	Text	Track
"Walk Together Children	"O, walk together children Don't you get weary Walk together children Don't you get weary Walk together children Don't you get weary There's a great camp meeting in the Promised Land	♫ Listen here
Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel"	Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel Deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel? Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel And why not every man?He delivered Daniel from the lion's den Jonah from the belly of the whale And the Hebrew children from the fiery furnace And why not every man?	♫ Listen here
"Steal Away"	Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus Steal away, steal away home I ain't got long to stay here	♫ Listen here
"Trampin' Trampin"	I'm trampin', trampin', trying to make heaven my home	♫ Listen here

According to Dr. Eileen Guenther, these songs with double meaning were a way for the slaves to sing what they could not say (Guenther 2016, 358). The following inventory taken from Rebecca Lynn Raber's dissertation is a non-exhaustive list of commonly-used themes for coded messages:

Heaven/Canaan/Promised Land/Gospel Feast/Mansions/Kingdom

Hell/Egypt

Deliverance/Being Redeemed/Baptized/Good Religion

Jubilee

Heroic Figures (Moses, Daniel, Elijah, Ezekiel, Jonah, Hebrew Children, Peter, Paul, Silas, Lazarus, Noah, Jacob, Gideon, Joshua, Nicodemus, the Israelites)

Evil Figures (Satan, Pharaoh, Egyptians, Rich Man Dives)

Water/Jordan River/Red Sea/Rivers/Baptism/Rain/Fountains

Context: a reference to water meant either a journey (on the other side was freedom), or an action of the water (aiding in escape by concealing the scent from dogs) washing the soul cleanly into a new life (baptism, finding freedom)

Translation: Ohio River (most-used meaning), Atlantic Ocean (to return to Africa), or any other river that posed as a barrier to freedom

Transportation: (chariots, ships, trains, wheels, wings, shoes, walking, running, flying, Jacob's ladder)

Context: any items that would facilitate traveling and escape/modes of transportation

Translation: methods of movement and escape on the Underground Railroad

Possessions (shoes, robe, crown, harp, bells, trumpet, wings

Place (Drinking Gourd, Canaan, streets of gold, Promised Land, pearly gates,Jordan River)

A brief analysis of "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel" is summed up by Rebecca Lynn Raber:

For the enslaved, "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel" asks the essential question of life: "Why not every man?" Although the piece is (outwardly) another bible story, the heart of the question goes much deeper. "This piece is a classic example of the double or coded meaning that is a key to understanding the lyrics and the role songs played in daily slave life. The song's creators majestically express the hope and desire that God send a deliverer to command the slave owners to let the people go." Like other spirituals that feature epic figures of the Old Testament-Go Down, Moses, Elijah Rock, Ev'ry Time I Feel the Spirit- Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel offers the enslaved encouragement that since Daniel was delivered, why shouldn't they also be delivered? This song is the battle cry of the underdog.

(Raber 2018, 33)

For slaves of African descent, belief in Christianity did not signal a loss of cultural identity or spiritual hope, as the inner workings of textual meaning and performance execution indicate.

Steal Away

O, walk together children
"Steal away
steal away
steal away to Jesus
Steal away
steal away home
I ain't got long to stay here"

Donna M. Cox

"From the moment of capture, through the treacherous middle passage, after the final sale and throughout life in North America, the experience of enslaved Africans who first arrived at Jamestown, Virginia...was characterized by loss, terror, and abuse."