{"id":10896,"date":"2012-05-04T11:47:24","date_gmt":"2012-05-04T15:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/?p=10896"},"modified":"2013-05-10T15:08:17","modified_gmt":"2013-05-10T19:08:17","slug":"may-4-2012-african-american-spirituals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2012\/05\/04\/may-4-2012-african-american-spirituals\/10896\/","title":{"rendered":" African-American Spirituals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- http:\/\/www-tc.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/rss\/media\/video\/episode.1536.spirituals.updated.m4v --><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align:center\"><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Morehouse Glee Club: \u201cLazarus rise up, the Lord is calling you. Oh, come forth, Larazus, the Lord is calling you.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>BOB FAW<\/strong>, correspondent: The voices of the Morehouse College Glee Club blend perfectly. The timing, the intonation are masterful.<\/p>\n<p><em>Morehouse Glee Club: \u201cJesus is calling you. No need to be afraid.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>FAW<\/strong>: But listen to the lyrics, and you\u2019ll find there is more here than just music.<\/p>\n<p><em>Morehouse Glee Club: \u201cWhen you hear me shouting, I am building me a home.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>FAW<\/strong>: Spirituals like this one, performed at a Washington, DC library.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2012\/05\/post01-spirituals.jpg\" alt=\"Uzee Brown, Jr.\" width=\"280\" height=\"210\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-10922\" \/><em>Morehouse Glee Club: \u201cAnd my soul got to have, Lord, somewhere to stay.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>FAW<\/strong>: Or spirituals with repeated rhythms of the culture.<\/p>\n<p><em>Boyd Baptist Church Choir: \u201cI heard a voice, I couldn&#8217;t stay away.  I heard\u2026.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>FAW<\/strong>:  This one performed by the Boyd Baptist Church Choir in Rock Hill, South Carolina. These spirituals are melodies and words from a dark chapter of America\u2019s past.<\/p>\n<p><strong>UZEE BROWN, JR<\/strong>: What it was part of what I call the survival tools for the African slave. There were many cultures that were virtually wiped out as a result of similar kinds of oppression. But what happens here is that the spiritual is a part of that survival, because they found their way of singing through many of  their problems. They found their way of communicating.<\/p>\n<p><strong>FAW<\/strong>: Slaves in the plantation South drew on native rhythms and their African heritage. For them, spirituals were religious folks songs, often rooted in biblical stories, woven together, sung, and passed along from one slave generation to another.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2012\/05\/post04-spirituals.jpg\" alt=\"David Morrow, Director, Morehouse Glee Club\" width=\"280\" height=\"210\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-10926\" \/><strong>DAVID MORROW<\/strong> (Director,  Morehouse Glee Club): And they pulled out stories that worked: Daniel in  the lion\u2019s den, you know. The story of Moses, \u201cLet my people go,\u201d you  know. All of those things were things that worked out in terms of what  they were going through, how they were coping with it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>FAW<\/strong>: Listen, for example, to the spiritual \u201cAin\u2019t A That Good News,\u201d which Dr. Brown sings with his accompanist, Ella Lewis.<\/p>\n<p><em>BROWN: \u201cI got news to tell you, I got good news.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>FAW<\/strong>: It\u2019s a spiritual which makes the present bearable.<\/p>\n<p><em>BROWN: \u201cI got a crown up in that kingdom, ain&#8217;t a that good news.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>BROWN<\/strong>: A spiritual that says beyond this world there is victory. I\u2019m going to get my crown. I\u2019m going to be regal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MORROW<\/strong>: \u201cNobody Knows the Trouble I\u2019ve Seen,\u201d or \u201cSometimes I Feel like a  Motherless Child,\u201d but then there was always that message of hope in them that would allow you okay, this is what my circumstance is, but this is what I can look forward to as well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>FAW<\/strong>: Spirituals, which arose at plantations like this one in Roswell, Georgia, were  really a double-edged sword. While the melodies might suggest to masters that slaves were happy with their lot in life, if you listen closely you will find the message of some spirituals was clearly defiant, indeed rebellious.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2012\/05\/post11-spirituals.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"210\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-10932\" \/><strong>MORROW<\/strong>: The stereotype was that as long as the slaves  were singing and dancing, they were happy, and we said we\u2019re good.  Well, we can also communicate, you know, \u201cSteal away, steal away to  Jesus, steal away home, I ain\u2019t got long to stay here.\u201d There is a lot of message in there, of course, about going to heaven, but also I\u2019m telling you that steal away home meaning I\u2019m going to escape. I\u2019m letting you know it\u2019s going to be soon. You know, we couldn\u2019t very well  flat out say it, but we could certainly sing those songs.<\/p>\n<p><em>BROWN: \u201cKeep your lamps trimmed and burning, the time is drawing nigh.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2012\/05\/post03-spirituals.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"210\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-10924\" \/><strong>FAW<\/strong>: This spiritual is both biblical and subversive.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BROWN<\/strong>: It speaks of lamps trimmed and burning, as in the reference to Matthew 25, but in the secondary meaning it is we are going to prepare to escape,  and you must be ready.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe time is drawing nigh.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>These people are communicating from one plantation to the other right under our noses, and in fact organizing in such a way that insurrections were had, and the slave master did not know. These people were not by any means dumb and unintelligent folk who did not understand how to communicate in  an effective way through this vehicle since so many others were denied to them.<\/p>\n<p><em>Morehouse Glee Club: \u201cYou better run.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>FAW<\/strong>: Spirituals helped to spread the Gospel.<\/p>\n<p><em>Morehouse Glee Club: \u201c\u2026walking to Jerusalem just like John.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>FAW<\/strong>: Years later, they were adapted into the freedom songs of the civil rights movement.<\/p>\n<p><em>Morehouse Glee Club: \u201cIf I got my ticket then I ride.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2012\/05\/post12-spirituals.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"210\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-10933\" \/><strong>MORROW<\/strong> (speaking at glee club rehearsal): Not bad, not bad at all. It is just a little brighty in all sections.<\/p>\n<p><strong>FAW<\/strong>: And today colleges and churches nationwide still perform them.<\/p>\n<p><em>DARIAN CLOUNTS (Glee Club Member): \u201cLord, let me ride.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>FAW<\/strong>: For soloist Darian Clounts, singing spirituals does more than just rekindle the past.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CLOUNTS<\/strong>: What that music is is the music of my ancestors, my forefathers, everything, so that when I feel it, when I sing it, I do feel something deep down within.<\/p>\n<p><em>Boyd Baptist Church Choir: &#8220;Oh, Lord, all day, all night, Lord.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>FAW<\/strong>: In Rock Hill, South Carolina, choir member Connie Hall knows what he means.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CONNIE  HALL<\/strong>: It connects me with the older generation, because this song I  used to hear my grandmother singing, and my mama singing, and it all comes back.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2012\/05\/post08-spirituals.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"210\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-10929\" \/><em>Morehouse Glee Club: \u201cFor to hear the trumpets sound\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>FAW<\/strong>: Spirituals live on today not just because they\u2019re a link to the past, but because teachers like David Morrow feel a profound obligation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MORROW<\/strong>: One of the reasons I think it\u2019s important is because every time I teach it it becomes something that they, our students, attach themselves to and connect with.<\/p>\n<p><strong>FAW<\/strong>: They live on, too, because even though slavery has been abolished and times have changed, that message of hope, the promise of deliverance, still resonates.<\/p>\n<p><em>BROWN:  \u201cOh, I am a going to lay down of this world and shoulder up from my  cross. I am going to take it home to my Jesus, ain&#8217;t a that good news. Good news. Shoulder up my cross and take it home to my Jesus. My burdens i  will take it to the Lord and leave them there.&#8221; Ain\u2019t that good news?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>FAW<\/strong>: African-American spirituals alive and well, and from this country\u2019s darkest past something glorious.<\/p>\n<p><em>Morehouse Glee Club: \u201cLord, let me ride.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>FAW<\/strong>: For Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly this is Bob Faw in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n<p><em>Morehouse  Glee Club: \u201cIf I have my ticket, Lord, can i ride? Ride away to heaven, ride away to heaven, ride away to heaven in the morning. Ride.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Generations of African slaves found a powerful way of singing through suffering in spirituals that were rooted in biblical stories and images. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2012\/05\/04\/may-4-2012-african-american-spirituals\/10896\/\" class=\"more\">More <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":17681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6569],"tags":[921,10482,5815,6868,9213,9630,10430,1830,6383],"class_list":["post-10896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-videocast","tag-african-american","tag-boyd-baptist-church-choir","tag-gospel-music","tag-hymns","tag-morehouse-college","tag-morehouse-college-glee-club","tag-religious-music","tag-slavery","tag-spiritual","topics-race","faith-christian"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>May 4, 2012 ~ African-American Spirituals | May 4, 2012 | Religion &amp; 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