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Show Negro Spirituals Born in Earliest Slave Era The slave or negro spirituals are the outpourings of a suppressed peo-plp peo-plp who were under the yoke of the brutal slave system. The Gulf states of the South were the worst offenders, offend-ers, and the songs reflect the condition condi-tion of the poor people who lived there. Running through the whole series of these natural, untutored songs, observes a writer in the Montreal Herald, one is struck by the deep expectation of a life to come, and by the sense of a personal person-al communion with the Deity. There is no doubt of the future life. The Eighteenth century negro was positive posi-tive when he sang, "I know de Lord laid His hands on me," but his grandson was less certain and sang, "Lord, I want to be a Christian." t The best of these spirituals were born in the earliest slave era, when religious meetings were forbidden, and the slaves stole away to meetings meet-ings that were full of danger. Their religion was not a rigid ethical system, sys-tem, but an emotional affair, that burst out in spontaneous song, born of a simple child-like faith in a personal per-sonal Father, with whom they could have direct communication. Like all traditional aits, they'va-ried they'va-ried to some extent each time they were sung, though the pentafonic mode of musical form was adhered to. At a later period (1870). there appeared a band of "Jubilee Singers," Sing-ers," who attempted to "improve" these old songs. They harmonized them and brought them "up-to-date," which robbed them of that personal character and charm which distinguished the spiritual. |
