In W. E. B. Du Bois’ “The Sorrow Songs” he characterizes slave songs as “…the Negro folk-song−the rhythmic cry of the slave−stands to-day not simply as the sole American music, but as the most beautiful expression of human experience born this side the sea” (137). Du Bois perceived something else in the splendor of spirituals, a confirmation of life. African Americans have played a huge role in American music through Negro Spirituals. They gave birth to both Work Songs and Blues; all of which are cultural expressions of African Americans.
Africans brought Negro Spirituals from West Africa to the United States. They sprang from the experience of enslaved African Americans and helped ease the frustration and hopelessness an enslaved person often felt. Negro Spirituals were presented all over the United States by The Jubilee Singers, of Fisk University. They toured all over the United States, Germany, and Europe singing to raise money for their school. It was the first time non-southerners were able to hear and appreciate Negro Spirituals.
The slaves in the south relied on Bible text for verse themes since they were unable to read and write. In the story of the children of Israel in bondage in Egypt, they found a striking symbol of their own status. God had delivered the people of Israel from Egyptian slavery therefore they believed that He would also deliver them from slavery. The famous “Go Down, Moses” is an excellent example of this.

Go down Moses
‘Way down in Egypt land,
Tell ole Pharaoh,
To let my people go.
Negro Spirituals are stories of African American’s strivings for freedom. They sing of heaven, with hopes that after death the singer may enjoy what is to be found there and tell about the divine Spirit that moves people toward unity and self-determination. Since most experience had religious significance, it was immediately expressed in religious music. However, Work Songs supplemented the expression on a more practical level.
During the Reconstruction days Work Songs vividly portrayed the conditions under which African Americans found themselves living and working. They converted labor into dances and games, providing emotional excitement in an otherwise unbearable situation. African American laborers sang while working because singing coordinated their efforts. For certain type of work where rhythmic group action made the work easier a song was necessary. The work was coordinated by a work song sung by a leader. In the south, prison road gangs produced many Work Songs.
“Twenty or thirty years ago it was still possible to pass segregated gangs of black workers scattered alongside the dirt roads in Mississippi, Louisiana, or Texas chopping weeds or dragging away stumps and trash. As they worked they followed a song leader who kept them together by singing short improvised phrases that they answered with a single repeated line as a refrain. These loose chants were the work songs, and until the 1950’s it was possible to hear the rhythmic pattern of work-song styles in some of the blues…” (Cohn 21-22).
Blues emerged from the state of Mississippi after Reconstruction. Mississippi had a large African American population and was very poverty stricken, which meant they created their own entertainment. They took Work Songs and decided to sing them in a new way, and that was Blues. “It is out of all these elements−the singing of the West African griots, the holler, the work song, the song traditions of the southern countryside, and even slack-key guitar−that the blues was formed” (Cohn 27).
Blues allowed African Americans to embrace the reality of truth of the African American experience. It made them take responsibility for that reality and yet remain stable. Spirituals were religious; Blues had no interest in heaven, yet they expressed the same feelings. They dealt with trouble without special reference to God.
My burden’s so heavy, I can’t hardly see,
Seems like everybody is down on me,
An’ that’s all right, I don’t worry, oh, there will be a
better day.
Blues told about the strength of African Americans to survive in the midst of oppression. Oppression was real and Blues did not hide the reality of it. The songs were created from everyday life and were about love, sex, and even death. It’s vivid description of love, sex, and death caused some people to consider Blues offensive and dirty, but the honesty and uniqueness of Blues is why it survives today.
Music is still a medium through which Americans communicate their feelings to the world. Negro Spirituals, Work Songs and Blues document African American’s feelings and are all driven by the same search for the truth of the African American experience. Today a new genre of African American music has emerged-“Rap” music. Rap is talking in rhyme to the rhythm of a beat and is most common among young people in search of their place in the world. Whatever form African American music takes, it continues to be cultural expression of African Americans.

Registered Members, login
Join now, it's free

Property of EssaySwap.com