An Introduction To The American Negro SpiritualBy

Dr. Franois S. Clemmons, Alexander TwilightArtist-In-Residence, Middlebury College

......If you do not want your slave to speak freely, you should also forbid him to sing.!!!!!...........Against all odds, the slave opened his mouth and began to sing, and continued to sing, pouring forth new songs like magic apples from a heart bursting with love, faith, and adoration for the love of God. His efforts filled one of the grandest pages in musical history for all time: the glorious and unique American Negro Spiritual.

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down,yea we wept, when we remembered Zion.

We hanged our harps upon the willowsin the midst there of for there they thatcarried us away captive required of us asong; and they that wasted us required of usmirth, saying sing us one of the songs of Zion

How shall we sing the Lords song in a strange land? Psalm 137:14

The American Negro Spiritual grew out of the life and extreme experiences of the pre-Civil War Black African Slave as a profound and often tortured expression of his/her need for meaning and spiritual succor during his/her suffering. According to James Weldon Johnson, the editor and arranger of the famous Book Of American Negro Spirituals, (pub. 1925 Viking Press), the first Dutch vessel landed in 1619 at Jamestown, Virginia with twenty African slaves aboard.

They were quickly bought up by the colonial settlers and the slave trade was officially underway. This practice was to continue and thrive up to 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln, with the Emancipation Proclamation, affirmed that all persons held as slaves within any State of designated part of the State, the people whereof shall be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, henceforward, and forever free. In 1865 Congress added the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution, abolishing slavery in all the states

It is not known how many spirituals there are nor exactly when the slaves actually began to sing these songs. One can barely imagine the shock of being suddenly cut off from the moorings of their native African culture, thrown into enforced intimacy with total strangers possessing no common language or history, scattered without regard to their customary tribal relationships, having to adjust themselves to a completely alien civilization, being forced to learn a strange language, and be subject to all the elements of nature in the foul belly of the shipall this after floating restlesslypushed relentlessly through the rigors of the middle passage across the Atlantic Ocean for weeks at a time.

Erskine Peters, who wrote Lyrics of the Afro-American Spiritual states that Afro-American spirituals are not only sorrow songs, but are also jubilee songs, shout songs, chants, homilies, mantras, affirmations and collective, personal, and historical allegories. I add that they are hauntingly beautiful and they draw from deep in the belly of the human existence the pain and joy we all experience.

To continue: They are the heart of the text of traditional Afro-American Christian theology, and they contain in general, crucial aspects of the Afro-American world view. She further states: As wisdom texts, they are instructional agents that functioned to the controvert, the distorted Christian catechesis that was created to indoctrinate the enslaved African into submission. To some extent, spirituals are allegories of experience, proverbs of understanding, and documents of quest.

Every spiritual, which is a lyric of tremendous philosophical, emotive, and dramatic import, testifies to the discomfort or unrest in the enslaved Africans state of being. Frederick Douglas characterized the spiritual as tones, loud, long and deep, breathing the prayer and complaint of souls. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. To further quote Melvin Dixon in Ride Out the Wilderness, the spiritual functioned to delineate the religious and secular elements of conversion.

This delineation of the religious and the secular elements provided for the enhancement of ones inner mobility and for the transformation of ones moral status. In these songs the slave found refuge. The aggressive theology that the enslaved developed on their own stands, therefore, in significant contrast to the prescribed instructions of the slave masters. In the creation of the spirituals, the enslaved were, in effect, creating a territory in which they had some dominion and autonomy.

And lastly, the musicologist Henry Edward Kerhbiel argues at length that the only considerable body of song which has come into existence in the territory now compassed by the United States.are the songs of the Black slaves of the South. Even in our time some 150 years later, with all our modern inventions and devices, I feel that this is still true. Spirituals have stood the test of time and are sung by many different races all over the world.

Id like to add here that the creation/evolution of the American Negro Spiritual is/was an oral practice. Slaves were not permitted to learn to read or write. Usually a song leader would start the song and his/her peers or the congregation or gathering would respond. This was the most common method of singing these songs, but there are other simpler, melodic styles that we sing today, songs such as My Lord What A Mornin, or Steal Away, and Deep River.

When the slave arrived on these shores he/she had already experienced a great deal of shock and trauma, therefore most of them were barely operating on the level of survival. It is estimated that 700,000 slaves died during the middle passage. I know that thats on the high side, but I am prejudiced as there were so many cases of illegal ship-owners, pirates, and at the hands of all kinds of illegal folks, taking slaves and a variance of record keeping of this shameful activity during that era.

Compared to the knowledge of what we know today, the slaves barely knewknew nothing of what they were going to get. Sadly, it was more of what had originally brought them to these shores for financial gain and greed: pain, suffering, and humiliation!!! Many of those enslaved were being sold to traders in Africa because of political affiliations, economic rivalries, wars, bribes and payment, as well as local raids within the region where they were caughta classic case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. You cannot understand slavery, if you cannot understand this African collusion in the slave trade. Black Africans sold their compatriots and enemies to Arab slave traders for money and often personal gain. It hurts, and its the truth.

Once on the Westside of the Atlantic the slaves were washed up, oiled, barely clothed, fed, medically attended to only when necessary for financial gain, and prepared for sale again. This time they were sold mostly to southern plantation owners or overseers who marched them forthwith out of the city square and home!!! It was common for them to walk several hundred miles behind mule-riding wagons from coastal cities to the inland plantations.

On the plantation they were immediately assigned someone to show them the ropes and given a place to sleep in the slave quarters. Frequently they did not speak the same language, much less English, were not familiar with any of the food, knew no person, and were expected to respond to and obey their newly assigned leader for their survival on the plantation. Add to this survival condition: shock and stress! Nothing can bring down a healthy person sooner/easier than continual stress and the shock of being brutalized and even maimed. The Middle passage alone could last up to 6 weeks at a time.

In spite of all these life-threatening distracting it was soon apparent that music was a far more important element in the daily lives of African peoples than their white counterparts. These diverse, fecund/vital peoples brought with them to the New World many ancient musical traditions that they did not forget on their painful journey through the middle passage. Primarily the slaves/Africans used music to commemorate and teach their special holy days, births, deaths, marriages, war victories, planting days and seasons to name a few occasions.

Over a period of time after they were introduced to Christianity, it was apparent that they particularly seemed to lean towards Catholicism with its cults dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the adoration of saints, the veneration of relics, and its use of candles, incense, holy waters, rosaries, vestments, and add to that the particular role of the priest. Medicine men and those practiced in the healing arts among the slaves served the same function among native Africans.

These elements in addition to the use of the drum and dance moved the African-American worshipper further and further away from the New England Protestant orientation with its sparse, rigid theology, bare buildings, clean crosses and no dancing and rarely if ever singing. Who could serve a God which didnt sing..who didnt dance????? Further evidence of this are the modern voodoo, Obeah and Santeria traditions that still survive from New Orleans, Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and numerous other Caribbean islands.

However, one must not totally exclude the influence of the New England churches, especially the Congregationalists, the Lutherans, the Episcopalians, the Quakers, and the Baptists on slave culture! Many of these European denominations, especially the Lutherans had venerable singing traditions and the standard hymnals served as fertile seeds to the development of the unique American Negro Spirituals we now sing. Likewise in my observationthe slaves took more to the traditional Lutheran hymn than to the Catholic chants.

At first the slaves tried to imitate their religious tutors in manner and meaning as they sang the words of the old European hymns. It didnt take long for the new worshipers to begin to improvise more verses and to comment musically and lyrically on the ones they had trouble remembering. Over time new melodies developed, new rhythms emerged and the drum was added. At first the parsons and slave-masters resisted these changes, especially the drum which they couldnt understand but knew messages could be conveyed over.

They wanted full control of their rigid theology and cultural development among their captives. So the slave was forced to take his creativity to the invisible church: often far away from the center of the plantation and the control and ear of the interfering slave-master. There he could express himself without limitations: singing, improvising, dancing, speaking in tongues, trance expression, and experience a true sense of freedom and transcendence.

The most common spirituals were call and response. In this style the leader would sing out a biblical or lyrical message and the slaves would respond to him or her. Examples are: Leader: Swing Low Sweet ChariotCongregation: Coming for to carry me home: Repeat V. 1 Leader: I looked over Jordan and what did I see Congregation: Coming for to carry me home.Leader: A band of angels coming after meCongregation: Coming for to carry me home.

Another form prevalent among the American Negro Spirituals was the hymn-like style. In this style we sing a long-phrased melody in which the tempo is slow and the phrase line is long and sustained. In concert these phrases require a major sense of breath control and the awareness of an expansive vocal line. Examples are Deep River, Mary Had A Baby and Go Down Moses.

The third very popular style is the syncopated, up-style. In these songs we have syncopated, short melodic lines in which the musical line is often made up of short melodies, motifs, or short rhythmic patterns with a short syncopated figure instead of a complete sustained phrase. Some of the most popular songs in this genre are Joshua Fit Duh battle Of Jericho, Do Lawd, Remember Me, Rockamamumba, His Name So Sweet, and Ride De Chariot.

However there was another notable and powerful tradition of lining out songs that survived all through slavery For those who dont know, lining out had been commonplace throughout European churches during the 16th, 17th and 18th century (Gaelic and Scottish). At a time of low literacy rates and high costs of prayer books it had become an easy way to teach and distribute the word of God. The lead singer would line a psalm out by loudly speaking or almost chanting the first phrase just before the congregation would begin singing it.

There are scholars who believe that this practice originated in seventeenth century Scotland, for the benefit of members of the congregation who did not have hymnals or could not read. Nevertheless, this practice was further developed by slaves during the camp meetings/revivals of the early nineteenth century.

Another factor which played a role in the development of the Negro Spiritual was the fervor and intensity of the full-immersion, baptismal tradition found in Nigeria and Dahomey. P. 57 Slave Religion by Albert J. Raboteau. Slaves sang their songs and made up verses and added dance to their secret worship while they indulged in the practice of throwing themselves into bodies of water when they were sufficiently obsessed by the spirit.

This exaggerated and sometimes dangerous practice seemed to bring the slaves closer to his innate and deep feeling of the presence of God. Slaves needed to feel cared for and not forgotten by the gods of their ancestors and now they were summoning this new God Jehovah which they had/were prepared to add to their pantheon of divinity

In exposing the slave to the specific, peace-seeking theology of the Bible and urging them to become good Christians, the slave-master was not necessarily loving and nurturing. Yes, he said publicly that he wanted to save the soul of the heathen slave but among themselves and with the assistance of the parsons/priests/preachers, however, the slave-masters and overseers agreed to push a theology that called for the slave to be docile and servile, to be humble like Jesus, and obedient to his master.

If necessary the slave would have his spirit broken as was attempted on Frederick Douglas, by extreme cruelty and maiming. Consequently, agreeable slaves were praised for their simplicity and passivity. According to some scriptures the master as well as the Master rewarded a slave who was all of these things in light of his incessant and abusive treatment at the hands of the earthly slavemaster. Time and again the slave was exhorted that the meek, not the warrior would inherit the earth.

Over a period of time there arose natural rivalries between house-slaves, and field-slaves. Obedient slaves were rewarded with food, second-hand clothing, easier tasks, perhaps refuge in the big house, or maybe, frequent intimacy in the masters bedroom, money, identification passes which enabled them to travel to other plantations and into town. Complicity also supplied freer access to horses and mules since there was little or no fear of his/her running away, as well as being allowed to grow his/her own garden.

In many instances slaves were required to sing as they went about their work in distant fields and around the barns and water holes on the plantation. This was one way the master and overseer had of knowing that the slaves had not taken advantage of being so far away from the big house and fled to freedom. The slaves used this requirement to develop a sure fire communication with one another under the direct watchfulness of the slavemaster

They sang their need and responses in full daylight. Only the alert, inventive slaves had enough sense to translate Meeting Tonight or Down By The Riverside, or Steal Away into a meaning political statement. Even romances and daily commentary about the slave owners could go on fully unbridled/unabridged since they were not listened to for content. Judy Bentley in her biography of Harriet Tubman writes that on the morning Harriet fled slavery to the north she was singing When that old chariot comes

When that old chariot comes,Im going to leave you, Im bound for the promised land, Friends Im going to leave you. Im sorry, Im going to leave you. Farewell, Oh farewell. But Ill meet you in the morning, Farewell, Oh farewell. Ill meet you in the morning. Im bound for the promised land. On the other side of Jordan, Bound for the promised land

She used songs and their double meaning all through her future successful, escape attempts. Ms Bentley further states that a safe song was:Hail, oh hail ye happy spirits,Death no more shall make you fear.An unsafe song was: Moses, go down in Egypt, Tell old Pharoah, let me go.Hadnt been for Adams fallShouldnt have to have died at all. Pg. 52 Harriet TubmanJudith BentleyAll of these elements contributed to the development of what we now call the American Negro Spirituals.

Chapter Two

How To Sing American Negro Spirituals

The singular most frequently asked questions about American Negro Spirituals during my 30-plus years of traveling and singing is How do you sing Spirituals? and Who should sing spirituals? Black people never ask me this 2nd question. However, at this point it is important that I comment on how to sing spirituals. First and foremost it is important to become familiar with the repertoire and its origins. It is also important to differentiate between Spirituals and gospel music.

. Both of these questions have simple, honest answers and Ill try to be brief. You sing Spirituals from the heart and anyone who feels from his/her heart can/should sing Spirituals. Of course none of this ignores musical preparation and the development of a healthy, highly accessible singing technique.

Because spirituals are so emotional you can burn out easily and early if you do not have a reliable, solid technique. I would advise anyone seeking a professional singing career to spend lots of time on breathing and enunciation. It is not fun listening to a concert wondering what pitches the singer is singing and what words go with this or that verse. It is enormously important to set your audience at ease.

When I say enunciate I do not mean making words fit into formal, Kings English. Spirituals were created by everyday, unlearned individuals who were taught survival English. My Lawd what a moanin is never right sung as; My Lord, What a morning. It violates the inner core of the piece to try to update it in this manner. I frequently find that those wishing to sing spirituals in this manner are far more concerned with showing me how intelligent they are rather than how deeply they understand and identify with the nature of the song.

It is my firm belief that this commitment to the vernacular puts the artist in closer sync with the spiritual, overcoming power of the song. This language helps me to identify not only artistically but racially with the colony of folks who first sang this pious, daring repertoire. It also brings up in a safe and very expressive way the tension between slavery and freedom.

These things happen almost naturally when the performers ego does not impede the intense magnetism between art and artist. When singing spirituals (when performing) I often imagine that Im at home in my living room singing for a treasured gathering of dear friends. The more relaxed atmosphere one can imagine or establish the greater will be the communication. I am saying this because I advise the artist to do likewise. I urge the artist to allow himself/herself to slip easily and effortless into the mystical, trancelike world of the transcendent.

In like manner the question of textures and harmony always come up when trying to analyze the nature and characteristics of Spiritual. It is easy to think that in the atmosphere of such utter simplicity; it appears that little is going on. Quite to the contrary, Spirituals have much in common with composers like Mozart and Bach. It seems that the less music which is obvious on the written page, and the more transparent and simple it seems to the eye; contrarily, the more difficult these songs are to perform successfully. It goes without saying that with each successive verse the performer must improvise and add something that is of substance and new. No two verses would be identical! What was at first a necessity because of lack of memory has/had become a integral element of the style and presentation.

Clearly defined scales and keys are the norm in most spirituals, which use the pentatonic scale and frequently are either major or minor. (Test this on the black keys of your piano. Youll be surprised by the results.) The most common chords are the standard I, IV, V, I progression. Dissonances are very sparingly used, and when they are, they serve a specific dramatic or emotional purpose. Also, the third in a chord is flatted along with its natural and the flatted 6th and 7th of the scale

The chief vehicle for the performance of the Negro Spiritual was and is the human voice. Historically, quite a bit of the repertoire was and still is performed a capella whether as solos or in choral groups. Later and particularly when slaves were alone among themselves, the drums were added and considerable dancing ensued. Rhythm was maintained with other makeshift instruments that might include those made out of wood, bones, gourds, and any other material found around the plantation

When I sing I hear the voice of my fabled great-grandmother singing. I fashion many of my grunts and emotional howls after the sounds I heard as a child in the fundamentalist Christian church I belonged to. During slavery times the performers were required through the force of the feeling within the music to move their bodies and physically insinuate the music as well as sing it. It is very difficult to get modern singers to use their bodies like this when singing spirituals. But thats the way it was by all historical accounts I have read, especially my authority Eileen Southern (The Music Of Black Americans).

Often within the context of local events and celebrations, the singers were required to improvise on the spot about someone or something important in the lives of its inhabitants. Listeners frequently spoke of hearing the same melody within a short period of time and hearing completely different words. There was a great deal of secular musical activities going on during the 1700s at the same time that the Spiritual was developing. Slaves were making and playing fiddles and other stringed instruments for the purpose of entertaining friends and relatives of their owners from neighboring plantations

The most jarring aspect of this repertoire for the modern, formally trained singer is the dancing. By all accounts there was as much dancing and drumming going on, especially in the invisible church, as there was singing. The slaves not only sang, played, and danced for the enjoyment of their masters but they participated regularly in secular festivals such as the Pinkster Celebration. The Pinkster Day was the name given to Pentecost Sunday (or Whitsunday, in the Anglican Church). This holiday which started out sacred and became secular was characterized by much Congo dancing.

After the church services and acknowledgements were finished, the slaves took over completely, usually at some agreed upon location or outside of the churches. There they danced in an abandoned, liberating manner, frequently to the curious observation of its white citizenry. Instrumental accompaniments include drums, fiddles, fifes, banjos, and other make-shift instruments, including clapping of hands, stamping feet, and beating of their chests and thighs in tempo. More often than not, friendly contest were held with rival plantations.. often with monetary prizes to inspire the participants.

To achieve this synthesis of art and artist I think its also worthy of asking why are you singing spirituals. Anyone who does not love this repertoire will fall short of any real success. I have seen it time and again when singers with fine voices and excellent techniques fail to touch and impress with their performance. In my opinion its mainly because at some basic level the singer and his chosen art form are set apart. They come off as cold and accurate! But this wedding between artist and art is just as mandatory as it would be to sing and feel German while singing Lieder or to feel Italian when singing Verdis Aida or to feel Italian when one is singing Neapolitan love songs.

Some years ago I was asked to sing some Russian and Japanese songs. I applied the same approach I advise young white artist to use. First thing I did was get a Japanese Kimono and a Russian Balalaika and traditional Cossack jacket. I learned to use a geishas fan and played with chopsticks. Over time it worked. One early afternoon while I was practicing, I was surprised when I passed a mirror in my home to re-discover that I was still a Black American and in full possession of my gradually receding African hairline. .the power of the mind!!!

Ultimately it all worked and I can hear the audience afterwards telling me how authentic the performance was. Many of them told me how they closed their eyes from time to time and felt that they were listening to someone who actually was Japanese or Irish or an Italian tenor. I consider that a rare and precious compliment.

Because of the racial baggage many of us carry, I do find it more of a challenge, but not necessarily impossible for white Americans to sing Spirituals successfully. It even seems easier that white Americans in Europe sing spirituals far more frequently than those who remain in America. Those who do not travel and expose themselves to the love and veneration that other countries and races have for the accomplishment of these enslaved peoples, miss another legitimate perspective on these songs. They are limited because of their superior, racial feelings that have never been challenged. Thats the power of the mind also, and only needs for a singer to change his/her mind.

Europeans often lump all Americans together: Black, Asian, and white. To many of them, the repertoire is uniquely American folk music as one would find among Moldavians, or gypsy songs, or Bavarian folk music. The music grew out of and defines the culture where it originated and is not limited to race or ethnicity. There is plenty of evidence of this in performances and recordings that I have heard by Robert Merrill, Sherrill Milnes, Julia Megenes-Johnson, and Jorma Hynenin from Finland. When you have this information in mind you bring to the performance of spirituals a real commitment, curiosity and integrity. The combination of that free commitment, curiosity and integrity help bring to light the honest nature of the repertoire. In this rarified atmosphere spirituals reveal their inner power and beauty

I also take into consideration how I dress on stage. Although we are dealing with a very special kind of cultural and social art, I always remind myself that it is a performance and do all I can to raise the imagination of those who have come to be entertained. The fact that many in the audience want to be entertained is not an insult to me or my artistry. So I plan on giving people a show. But my show is grounded in respect, love and genuine international brotherhood. I always feel that the greater body of the audience that afternoon or evening have come together for a reason and I comport myself to be the head channel for that happening. Its as though were all here to learn from each other.

Long ago, when I was doing lots of performance of George GershwinsPorgy& Bess I gave up the staid, conservative tuxedo. I started wearing colorful, original smoking jackets during performances. Ive included here some examples for your perusal

Photos of me in costume/smoking jackets!!!!!!!!

Choice Of Repertoire!

Take time to determine which songs are right or best for your solo voice. Just as I would be foolish to program a full concert of loud, aggressive arias for my lyric tenor, all spirituals are not for everyone. I always liked Deep River in a low voice like a bass or contralto. I like Little David play on your harp in the light soubrette voice. The best choice for Ride On King Jesus is the dramatic or heavy thrilling sounds of the heroic baritone or soprano. Lyric tenors and sopranos do best in This Little Light of Mine, or The Storm Is Passing Over. This is a very personal choice and there are exceptions, but I find it really works for me to sing a song several times in public before making a final decision. Other times I just know innately whether a spiritual is right or wrong for me.

It was years before I could sing Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherles Chile in public. It always made me so emotional that I would feel I couldnt control myself and would cry. So, I avoided it. You must judge this for yourself. I also couldnt sing Deep River because I felt that my lyric tenor didnt carry the weight of our ancestors into the souls of our awaiting and anticipating audience. Now I am older and my voice is heavier and I feel that I can sing it and feel confident that I am doing it justice.

Why spirituals? This is another one of those deep questions Ive been asking myself for many decades now. I dont feel that I have the only answer but I am slowly coming to a calm acceptance. Ultimately it seems that our souls need a manner in which to cry out to the Universe. These sorrowful songs, although some were joyful, like Everytime I Feel Duh Spirit or Ride Up In Duh Chariot, released the soul and allowed the slave to appeal to heaven to set things right down here on earth. Many songs told of the sufferings of Jesus in the New Testament and the plight of the Children of Israel in the Old Testament.

The new converts one day expected this just God they had read and heard about to make things right and set them free as he had done for Joseph who was thrown into the empty well and sold into slavery by his envious brothers, for Shadrack, Meshack and Abednigo in the fiery furnace, for Joshua at the battle of Jericho, and as he had freed Moses people from slavery in the land of the Pharaoh. Oh! Yes! This new God was powerful and the slaves were calling upon Him to do what he said he wouldwhat he had done for his servants in the Old Testament. Nothing less would satisfy them.

Through this grueling, humiliating, tortured progression, slaves felt that their suffering and pain earned them points morally and spiritually and caused them to feel superior, more evolved, innocent, and on a higher plane than their slave masters. I even heard lots of talk like this as a child in Youngstown, Ohio where my family moved to escape defacto segregation and the Jim Crow practices in the Deep South.

The reason Im writing so intensively about the lives of the abolitionists/ex-slaves is to fully establish their humanity and clarify the roles their lives played in the development of the American Negro Spiritual. I lived in Manhattan for over 30 years from 1969- 2002. During this time I became acutely aware of the intense underground population of illegal immigrants marshalling around the establishment everyday.

If you were unaware youd hardly notice these folks on a daily basis. After a short period of time I befriended one particular Puerto Rican American who seemed to have a channel into all the various immigrant communities I saw around me. He knew and introduced me to numerous members of the Puerto Rican and Dominican Communities, the Brazilian Communities, the Jewish and non-Jewish Russian immigrants, Indian and Pakistani communities, Phillipino and Malaysian groups, South Korean and Viet Nam groups, the Jamaican and Haitian communities and indeed to the other Islands and South American Communities. My eyes were awakened to all the activities going on around me and I learned how much they knew about us.

What surprised me even more was how well aware they were of one another. Much to my surprise they knew politics and economical situations of each other countries as well as I thought I knew ours. I learned from going to their apartments, visiting their bars and socials and exchanging ideas with them how different life was for them. I learned a lot about communication from them.

They knew everything going on from the local community games, soccer matches, horse racing, illegal social numbers, lotteries, which presidents were in danger of being deposed, where the CIA was active in their governments, where various imports were coming from and who was buying and using them. This was a street knowledge that inspite of all my conservatory education I didnt even know existed. I also would further learn that in several/many instances their survival depended on this knowledge

They worked in sweat factories and sent money home regularly. So they knew the rate of exchange of the dollar in their currency and in each others.

When I began to understand this vast world that existed right under my nose, I got an intuition as to how the slave learned and survived when all the laws and official institutions were robbing him of his manhood and beating him down. The surprise was that much of the information was supplied to the ever-observant slave by the racially superior slave master culture.

They vastly underestimated the inventiveness and intelligence of the slave and spoke about everything in front of them. Slaves went in and out of staterooms and smoke-filled private conferences carrying messages, and food as though they were invisible. In short they heard everything first-hand! Even in liberated Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland the manual labor was done by black folks.

When I was a child I heard rumors of a dead president who had had a long affair with a slave girl. She bore him children but they cold never call him father. When I asked my high school history teacher about it, he pooh-poohed it and pointed out how unreliable these sources were. I might add here that he was white. Of course today it has been proven by DNA that those rumors were true and totally substantiated by word of mouth confirmation.

In like manner the American Negro Spiritual was passed on from slave to slave by word of mouth. Because of the social and political insignificance of the source and subject none of these songs were habitually written down. So they were allowed to develop and expand in the invisible church and among those slaves who sang in various far-reaching plantation sites.

Additionally as a boy I heard about Ebony and Jet Magazine and the various newspapers like the Chicago Defender and the Pittsburgh Courier: These were all black news organizations that reported the news from a black perspective or the included everyday news that would not be acceptable to the traditional white press. I was amazed at what some civic and civil rights organizations like the NAACP, Urban League, and other all black organizations were doing. Not only did these publications help me to know the truth of what was going on, they helped me to have racial pride, gave me hope that I could better my life, and gave me concrete knowledge of my people when so much that appeared in the regular; press was negative.

I use these analogies to better understand how information was passed along during our slavery era as well as among the abolitionists and free-black men and women in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New York. This was equally as important in all the non-southern states and territories.

Chapter Three

Voices From The Front

After years of studying the lives and legacies of the development of the American Negro Spirituals, 3 figures stand out from all the rest as legendary because of their courage and originality. They are Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Frederick Douglas. One can well imagine that there are and were other brave souls who left their mark on our history as well, like Harriet Jacobs, William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Phyllis Wheatley, Denmark Vesey, John Brown, Olaudah Equiano and the like

But these great souls all seem to possess an innate and extraordinary ability to take control of their own lives and move audiences with their powerful message urging freedom and equality for everyone. They possessed passion and thunder to project their ideas, and often more than a little moral self-righteousness and indignation. Through their speaking and singing they told the brutal story of slavery and how they got over! Each in his/her own way had escaped slavery and was responsible for inspiring others to escape.

As early as the 1800s up through the Civil War they attended numerous abolitionist meetings and rallies to further awaken the conscious of this new nation to the cruelty of slavery. Their encounters included slaves, ex-slaves, abolitionists, President Lincoln, and various diplomats and officials from foreign nations. There seemed to be no limit to their interest and influence in line with the growing abolitionist movements in America and England.

On the other hand collusion, complicity, and betrayal could easily be the words to describe best the role that cotton, corn, wheat, tobacco, sugar cane, lumber and other products on the slave longing for freedom and the influence they had on the north. To better comprehend the unique status/role of the culture of the south or of American Negro Spirituals in the role of the north one must understand that often northern businessmen, real estate magnets, retail merchants, (Tiffanys and The Waldorf Astoria) railroad barons, and bankers were heavily invested in the success of the agricultural undertakings of the south.

Reputations and fortunes lay at risk if slaves didnt work or if they rebelled from their role in the culture, or if there were persistent famines or droughts, or heavy rains and floods that killed the crops and prevented regular planting.

Anne Farrow, Joel Lang, and Jenifer Frank write in the first page of their celebrated book, How The North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited From Slavery: Complicity:As the most profound crisis in our young nations history unrolled, Fernando Wood, the mayor of New York, Americas most powerful city, made a stunning proposal: New York City should secede from the United States, too.

With our aggrieved brethren of the Slave States, we have friendly relations and a common sympathy, Wood told the New York Common Council in his State of the City message on January 7, 1861. As a free city, he said, New York would have the whole and united support of the Southern States, as well as all other States to whose interests and rights under the constitution she has always been true. What a stunning and foul analogy: product and mens fortune over the lives of real men and women!!!

Where else could northern tycoons get such competitive rates on fuels and raw materials to financially undershoot/underscore/undermine the Europeans and Asians on world markets? The two culturesthe industrial north and the agricultural south were far more wedded than the average Americanand even moreso than slaves of the time knew or suspected. But because of the laxity and false pride in mans nature this was someday going to change. I contend that the slaves destiny far outweighed the temporary vigilance needed by the money hungry, worried prospectors in those seedy rooms.

Through their far reaching contacts all three of our abolitionists/ex-slaves began to fully/better understand why many in the so-called, Free-northerners supported slavery privately, even though on the surface they said it was morally sinful and should be abolished. In essence they talked out of both sides of their mouths.

In my opinion this was even further complicated by ideas and philosophies emerging that eventually became known as the Age Of Enlightment. All during the Revolutionary war with England northern patriots screamed and wrote eloquently of the value of one-man-one-vote; life and/or liberty; and taxation without representation. Now they were in the unique position of prospering and governing and guilty of denying these same rights to other human beings based primarily on skin color and the fabricated logics that blacks were inferior intellectually to whites. The age of enlightenment was also the age of collusion.

..and I have chosen to include them here the lives of Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and Frederick Douglas because their lives are the most eloquent, the most compelling, and forceful tunes the spirituals ever sang. When we see, hear, feel and know the trials and challenges of our three great souls. we know the essence of the spirituals and how and why they survived!!

Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth, proved to be the essence of the American Negro Spiritual: she was definitely outside of any status quo organization, learning Dutch as a slave before ever speaking English and walking away from slavery when her cruel master refused to keep his word to free her. She also changed her name from Isabella Baumfree to Sojourner Truth after talking with God about her name and her purpose here on earth. This is a very powerful thing to do: she took possession of her own life when no women virtually had no rights aside from that given to them by their fathers and husbands.

She made the great speech Aint I a Woman at a womens convention in Akron, Ohio in 1851. This powerful speech was simple and direct with preacher-like repetition and very-much-aware (awesome) navet. (She was definitely not nave.)She was an earthy, powerful woman whom.some 6 feet tall, and some, in 1858, at a meeting in Silver Lake, Indiana, someone in the audience accused her of being a man so she opened her blouse to reveal her breasts

Sojourner was a searcher; she traveled and she searched. During her lifetime she joined several spiritual groups espousing womens rights, non-violence, abolitionist principals, and communication with spirits. She met and influenced President Lincoln in her efforts to recruit for the Civil War Army

Sojourner Truth (1797-1883): Ain't I A Woman?Delivered 1851Women's Convention, Akron, Ohio Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the Negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or Negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them. Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.

During the Civil War, she spoke on the Union's behalf, as well as for enlisting black troops for the cause and freeing slaves. Her grandson James Caldwell enlisted in the 54th Regiment, Massachusetts. In 1864, she worked among freed slaves at a government refugee camp on an island in Virginia and was employed by the National Freedman's Relief Association in Washington, D.C. She also met President Abraham Lincoln in October. (A famous painting, and subsequent photographs of it, depict President Lincoln showing Sojourner the 'Lincoln Bible,' given to him by the black people of Baltimore, Maryland.)

In 1863, Harriet Beecher Stowe's article "The Libyan Sibyl" appeared in the Atlantic Monthly; a romanticized description of Sojourner. (The previous year, William Story's statue of the same title, inspired by the article, won an award at the London World Exhibition.) After the Civil War ended, she continued working to help the newly freed slaves through the Freedman's Relief Association, then the Freedman's Hospital in Washington. In 1867, she moved from Harmonia to Battle Creek, converting William Merritt's "barn" into a house, for which he gave her the deed four years later.

Harriet Tubman

For many of us who study this great legend her life was straight out of the Old Testament in the revered life of Moses. She was born on the Edward Brodas plantation near Bucktown, Dorchester County, Maryland. She was called the Moses of Her People and brought over 300 slaves to freedom during her lifetime. Like Sojourner Truth she changed her name from Araminta to Harriet. At 13, while defending a fellow slave who tried to run away, her overseer struck her in the head with a two-pound weight.

This resulted in recurring narcoleptic seizures, or sleeping spells, that plagued her for the rest of her life. It was said among the ladies that from this incident Harriet became psychic. From then on she spoke with God on every occasion and indeed, God directed her when she should flee the plantation with her soon-to-be-ex-slaves and which direction in which they should go. She traveled only at night, until she knew she had crossed the border between slaveholding and non-slaveholding states.

She later said: "I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person now I was free. There was such a glory over everything ... and I felt like I was in heaven."

Harriet had bravely won her freedom, but realizing how alone she was, she made a vow that she would return to help her family and friends win their freedom as well. She went to Philadelphia, found work cooking, laundering and scrubbing, and saved money to finance rescue trips. She became involved with the city's large and active abolitionist (anti-slavery) organizations and with organizers of the Underground Railroad, a secret network through which slaves were helped in escaping from bondage in the South to freedom in the North and Canada.

During her lifetime, Harriet Tubman undertook some 20 hazardous missions in which she covertly journeyed down south, pinpointed slaves, and led them to freedom up north, at times going as far as Canada. In leading these flights, with a long rifle in hand, she warned her escapees that, if any of them even considered surrendering or returning, the penalty would be death. !! As she held a gun at their heads she said: You go on or die. Dead Man Tell No Tales Through these actions and tales that have come down to us she was known to be tough and had no hesitation when threatening a cowardly/reluctant escaping slave who wanted to turn back

Furthermore, her persuasiveness was evident in that never on any of her missions did she lose a "passenger" on the Underground Railroad. In addition to her nickname "Moses," for her bravery Harriet was dubbed "General" Tubman by the militant abolitionist John Brown, with whom she worked in Canada. William Still (who recorded activities of the Underground Railroad) described her as: "a woman of no pretensions, indeed, a more ordinary specimen of humanity could hardly be found among the most unfortunate-looking farm hands of the South.

Yet, in point of courage, shrewdness and disinterested exertions to rescue her fellow-men ... she was without her equal." Her name quickly spread throughout the slave quarters and abolitionist societies. All this angered the Southern slaveholders, who offered $40,000 for her capture. But Harriet always evaded slavecatchers and would not quit, even when her illiteracy nearly got her caught when she fell asleep under her own wanted poster.

As for her family, she led practically all of them to freedom between 1850 and 1857. For her parents, she purchased a home in Auburn, New York, from Senator William H. Seward of New York, an advocate of hers. In the 12 years from her escape from slavery in 1849 to the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad became the most dominant force of abolitionism.

Around 1858, Harriet teamed up with John Brown. She helped him with fund-raising, and most likely would have participated in the raid had she not been ill. Even in one of her last interviews, in 1912, she referred to him as "my dearest friend."

During the Civil War (1861-1865), Harriet Tubman served with the Union Army as a cook, laundress, nurse, scout, and spy behind Confederate lines. In 1862, she moved to Beaufort, South Carolina (when it was occupied by the Union Army), and with several missionary teachers, helped hundreds of Sea Islander slaves transition from bondage to freedom. She also undertook scouting and spying missions, identifying potential targets for the Army, such as cotton stores and ammunition storage areas. The Boston Commonwealth described her efforts in July 1863:

"Col. Montgomery and his gallant band of 800 black soldiers, under the guidance of a black woman, dashed into the enemies' country ... destroying millions of dollars worth of commissary stores, cotton and lordly dwellings, and striking terror to the heart of rebeldom, brought off near 800 slaves and thousands of dollars worth of property."

After the war she continued helping others by raising money for freedmen's schools, helping destitute children and continuing to care for her aging parents. In 1868, she transformed her family's home into the Home for Aged and Indigent Colored People. She also lobbied for educational opportunities for freedmen. She believed she had been called by God to help her people, and once told an interviewer:

"Now do you suppose he wanted me to do this just for a day, or a week? No! the Lord who told me to take care of my people meant me to do it just so long as I live, and so I do what he told me to do." To quote a wonderful cantata Changed My Name, by composer Linda Twine, based on the lives of Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman, Tubman was known to say: There was one of two things I had a right to: liberty or death. If I couldnt have one, I would have the other, for no man should take me alive. (Patrick Henry could not have said it better.

She believed the right to vote was vital to preserving the freedom of everyone. To support her beliefs, around the turn of the century, she bought 25 acres of land near her home with money raised through benefactors and speaking engagements, and made arrangements for the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church to take over the Home. She had worked closely with this church since the 1850s. Through it, she had come to befriend Frederick Douglass, who had briefly published his abolitionist newspaper, The North Star, there. She died March 10, 1913.

Fredrick Douglas

Born a slave, yet determined to be free, Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery and became one of the most influential figures of the 19th century. He became a powerful speaker in the anti-slavery circuit, an author, an advocate for womens rights, and held several government positions after the Civil War.

Frederick Douglass was born on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in February 1818. He was named Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. His mother, Harriet Bailey, belonged to Aaron Anthony who was the plantation superintendent and probably his father. He did not have much contact with his mother who was hired out to a neighboring plantation. She was only able to visit on a few occasions because the twelve-mile journey was too far to travel on a regular basis. Therefore as a young boy, Douglass lived with his grandparents until he was six. when he was eight years old, he lived with Hugh and Sophia Auld, who taught him to read. However, when her husband found out he forbid it

It was said by Douglas Auld that "if you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him" and he would "become unmanageable, and of no value to his master." According to Douglass: "I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty -- to wit, the white man's power to enslave the black man.... From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom." Douglass realized that there was power in learning to read

Douglass became determined to learn to read. He learned from white playmates he met on the street. He carried bread with him to give to the poor hungry ones in exchange for their help. He later learned to write by watching carpenters initial shipbuilding timber. He mastered the letters by challenging his playmates ability to write better then him. Additionally, he learned by copying the letters from Webster's Spelling-Book and practiced by using the old writing books of the Auld's son.

From Slavery to Freedom

In 1832, after Douglass Aaron Anthony died, he went to live with Thomas Auld on the Lloyd Plantation. In 1834, his new master hired him out to Edward Covey, a slave breaker, who was known for whipping and working slaves hard. He endured many whippings until the day that he fought back and prevailed. This event gave Douglass spirit again. His second attempt to escape was successful. Equipped with the identification papers of a sailor friend, he dressed as a sailor, and traveled to New York City by train and steamboat. On September 3, 1838, he escaped from slavery. Shortly after his arrival, he married Anna Murray, a free Black woman and they had five children together

In 1841, Douglass began his life as a public figure and abolitionist. After hearing William Lloyd Garrison's anti-slavery speech, Douglass was inspired to tell his story. He spoke at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society annual convention about his experience as a slave. His speech was powerful and eloquent. He was encouraged by Garrison, who became his mentor, to continue speaking

In 1845, he wrote about his life as a slave in the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. After its publication, he traveled to England, Scotland, and Ireland where he continued speaking against slavery. Upon his return to the United States in 1847, he moved to New York and published the weekly paper called the North Star

During the Civil War, he was active in recruiting black soldiers for the Union Army. Douglass also became an advocate of womens rights. Later in his life from 1877 to 1881, he was the U.S. Marshall of the District of Columbia, from 1881 to 1886 he served as the recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia, and from 1889 to 1891 he was the minister to Haiti.

After Douglass' wife died in 1882, he married his former secretary Helen Pitts in 1884. On February 20, 1895, after speaking at the National Council of Women, he died of a heart failure at his home Cedar Hill in Anacostia, Washington, D.C.

I shall never forget his first speech at the convention-the extraordinary emotion it excited in my own mind-the powerful impression it created upon a crowded auditory, completely taken by surprise-the applause which followed from the beginning to the end of his felicitous remarks. I think I never hated slavery so intensely as at that moment; certainly, my perception of the enormous outrage which is inflicted by it, on the godlike nature of its victims, was rendered far more clear than ever.

There stood one, in physical proportion and stature commanding and exact-in intellect richly endowed-in natural eloquence a prodigy-in soul manifestly "created but a little lower than the angels"-yet a slave, ay, a fugitive slave,-trembling for his safety, hardly daring to believe that on the American soil, a single white person could be found who would befriend him at all hazards, for the love of God and humanity..these are the exact sentiments expressed in American Negro Spirituals.!

That mankind was capable of high attainments as any intellectual and moral being-needing nothing but a comparatively small amount of cultivation to make him an ornament to society and a blessing to his race-by the law of the land, by the voice of the people, by the terms of the slave code, he was only a piece of property, a beast of burden, a chattel personal, nevertheless! In essence, Douglas was speaking about himself

Slave uprisings happened far more than any slave owner ever wanted to own-up to. In fact most of the time the local newspapers were forbidden to mention and if mentioned to pass any judgment or express any compassion for the lives of the slaves. They were forced to always express the views of the slave-owners.

Others whose lives were the core of the Spiritual include Denmark Vesey. I say to my January class often that whoever writes the history determines the heroes!!!!!!! Denmark Vesey is a hero of the highest level but it would take many years after his untimely death in an attempt to free black slaves before anybody would write or sing about his story. It seems that John Brown got the bulk of street singing done is his honor and I dont know any ballads or poems/songs dedicated to Denmark Vesey, much due to the in depth vilifying of his name by the southern gentry.

Then in my research I discovered some poems by one Aaron Kramer which does his name justice. Ive included 3 of them in the following passage. These poems have been translated into Yiddish, Hebrew, Greek, German, Italian, Urdu, Czech, Polish, Portuguese, Japanese and Chinese! Thats quiet astounding. We have so little recognition in English to his great hero, but the world does know of him and his efforts to free his black slave brothers and sisters.

Poems by Aaron Kramer

Below are three poems from Aaron Kramers 26-poem sequence Denmark Vesey (1952) about plans for an 1822 Charleston SC slave revolt, perhaps the most ambitious poem about African American history ever written by a white American. The entire poem is included in Wicked Times as is his deeply personal To Himself (1963).

PLANTATION SONG How many days will it be, oh how many days will it be? Ill count them, Lord, I know how to count. How many days will it be? Masters alone with his gold, old Masters alone with his gold. He counts it, Lord, he knows how to count more than his hands can hold.

Ladys gone shopping in town, oh Ladys gone shopping in town. Shes counting, Lord, she knows how to count jewels enough for a crown. Overseer came with his whip, mm, overseer came with his whip. He counted, Lord, he knew how to count until my blood would drip. How many days will it be, oh how many days will it be? Ill count them, Lord, I know how to count until my hands go free.

VESEYS NIGHTMARE It took Vesey long to fall asleep that night. Over and over he heard the minuet; till tossing and turning he fell into a dream. It was Col. Prioleaus banqueting-room. There stood the Colonel, bursting through his coat, flanked by half the legislature of the State all busily sampling and praising the food. Instead of an ordinary meal, they had young Negro bodies, baked to the bone. Their fountain of wine was a Negro vein.that made a lament of the minuet

. Now lightly, now heavily, dancers caroused on black childrens faces: moaning and bruised while one slave kept bending to mop up the blood, for which he received many pats on the head. The Colonel smiled proudly up at his lamps: they were Negro souls, which hed bought for worn pants. Now they saw Vesey they were pointing at him! Not I! he shrieked, and fled from the dream.

VESEY SPEAKS TO THE CONGREGATION

My leg is weak from the chains you wear; my shoulders break at the load you bear; my back is marked by your masters whips; and from your wound my own blood drips. . . . But when you bow, my beautiful sisters, ah brothers, when you bow and beg, my heart wears chains for those who bought you have shackled you both heart and leg.

You look for freedom in the sky? Then chained youll live, and chained youll die! You seek in heaven the promised land? Then lost is the promise of your hand! Israel whimpered once in bondage who listened? and saw her bow? She cried aloud and Pharaoh trembled! She rose and what is Pharaoh now? Like Israel, brothers, let us be: wait not for God to set you free! Turn all your sobs to battle-cries: cry freedom! freedom! and arise. . . .

TO HIMSELF Finally it will not matter how many kicked, how many kissed him how many rooms there were, how many rumors how many poisons were offered, or prizes how many salvos, how many silences. It will mean nothing, nothing at all whether anthologies nested his poems whether a critic called them bright birds whether they soared across heaven-smooth pages whether slumberers leapt at the tune.

Nothing will matter, nothing at all except that his heart maintained its own beat, his face its own hue, his foot its own thud, his night its own vision, his soul its won heat, his hand its own touch, his tongue its own word. This will be all, on the day of days. But meanwhile, what is a man to do a man, like everyone, flesh and blood? How many times can he say to himself: Hush, fool, hush! it will not matter, not matter at all, not matter at all . . .

Occupation -Carpenter, Freedom fighter

Narrative Essay Denmark Vesey (1767-1822), an African American who fought to liberate his people from slavery, planned an abortive slave insurrection. Denmark Vesey, whose original name was Telemanque, was born in West Africa. As a youth, he was captured, sold as a slave, and brought to America. In 1781 he came to the attention of a slaver, Capt. Vesey, who was "struck with the beauty, alertness, and intelligence" of the boy. Vesey, a resident of Charleston, S.C., acquired the boy. The captain had "no occasion to repent" his purchase of Denmark, who "proved for 20 years a most faithful slave."

In 1800 Vesey won a $1,500 lottery prize, with which he purchased his freedom and opened a carpentry shop. Soon this highly skilled artisan became "distinguished for [his] great strength and activity. Among his color he was always looked up to with awe and respect" by both black and white Americans. He acquired property and became prosperous. Nevertheless, Vesey was not content with his relatively successful life. He hated slavery and slaveholders. This brilliant man versed himself in all the available antislavery arguments and spoke out against the abuse and exploitation of his own people. Believing in equality for everyone and vowing never to rest until his people were free, he became the political provocateur, agitating and moving his brethren to resist their enslavement.

Selecting a cadre of exceptional lieutenants, Vesey began organizing the black community in and around Charleston to revolt. He developed a very sophisticated scheme to carry out his plan. The conspiracy included over 9,000 slaves and "free" blacks in Charleston and on the neighboring plantations. The revolt, which was scheduled to occur on July 14, 1822, was betrayed before it could be put into effect. As rumors of the plot spread, Charleston was thrown into a panic. Leaders of the plot were rounded up. Vesey and 46 other were condemned, and even four whites were implicated in the revolt. On June 23 Vesey was hanged on the gallows for plotting to overthrow slavery

After careful examination of the historical record, the judgment of Sterling Stuckey remains valid: "Vesey's example must be regarded as one of the most courageous ever to threaten the racist foundations of America.... He stands today, as he stood yesterday ... as an awesome projection of the possibilities for militant action on the part of a people who have for centuries been made to bow down in fear." In summary, a wonderful young composer, Thomas Cannabis did write a sterling and dramatic opera to his efforts. I recorded excerpts to this fine work some years ago and am waiting for a fully, staged production any day now.

Sources The best account of Vesey's rebellion is Robert S. Starobin, ed., Denmark Vesey: The Slave Conspiracy of 1822 (1970). Of considerable importance is John Lofton, Insurrection in South Carolina: The Turbulent World of Denmark Vesey (1964). Herbert Aptheker, American Negro Slave Revolts (1943), provides a useful account of Vesey's revolt. William W. Freehling, Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina (1966), should be consulted for a broad understanding of the influence of the event.

John Brown, insurrectionist

Men and women like John Brown, William Lloyd Garrison, Roland T. Robison, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and John Quincy Adams show clearly that outrage over racial injustice knew no color, or societal status.John Brown was a serious man and right from the beginning he seemed to clear out a path for violence. It was reported that early in his life he served as a conductor on the Underground Railroad and was further involved with free Blacks encouraging them to organize for self-protection during unstable conditions

As with Harriet Tubman, Denmark Vesey, Sojourner Truth, John Brown had visions and discussions with directly God. He felt commissioned by God to install a vision of freedom for all. His determination was known by everyone around him and no one was surprised when rumors began concerning his underground, murderous activities. As a boy in Ohio he was taught to love the Bible and hate slavery. Later, he herded cattle for Gen. William Hull's army during the war of 1812, and served as foreman of his family's tannery. In 1820 he married Dianthe Lusk and between her and 16-year old Mary Anne Day he fathered 20 children

In Aug. 1855 he followed 5 of his sons to Kansas to help make the state a haven for anti-slavery settlers. The following year, his hostility toward slave-staters exploded after they burned and pillaged the free-state community of Lawrence. Having organized a militia unit within his Osawatomie River colony, Brown led it on a mission of revenge. On the evening of 23 May 1856, he and 6 followers, including 4 of his sons, visited the homes of pro-slavery men along Pottawatomie Creek, dragged their unarmed inhabitants into the night, and hacked them to death with long-edged swords. At once, "Old Brown of Osawatomie" became a feared and hated target of slave-staters.

In autumn 1856, temporarily defeated but still committed to his vision of a slave insurrection, Brown returned to Ohio. There and during 2 subsequent trips to Kansas, he developed a grandiose plan to free slaves throughout the South. Provided with moral and financial support from prominent New England abolitionists, Brown began by raiding plantations in Missouri but accomplished little. In the summer of 1859 he transferred his operations to western Virginia, collected an army of 21 men, including 5 blacks, and on the night of October 16th raided the government armory and arsenal at Harpers Ferry From there he planned to arm the thousands of chattels who, learning of his crusade, would flock to his side. Instead, numerous bands of militia and a company of U.S. Marines under Bvt. Col. Robert E. Lee hastened to the river village, where they trapped the raiders inside the fire-engine house and on the 18th stormed the building. The fighting ended with 10 of Brown's people killed and 7 captured, Brown among them.

After a sensational trial, he was found guilty of treason against Virginia and was hanged at Charlestown, amid much fanfare,Dec. 2, 1859. The stately, fearless, unrepentant manner in which he comported himself in court and on the gallows made him a martyr in parts of the North. Source: "Historical Times Encyclopedia of the Civil War" Edited by Patricia L. Faust

Nat Turner Early life

Nat lived his entire life in Southampton County, Virginia, an area with predominantly more blacks than whites. After the rebellion, a reward notice described Nat as:

5 feet 6 or 8 inches high, weighs between 150 and 160 pounds, rather bright complexion, but not a mulatto, broad shoulders, larger flat nose, large eyes, broad flat feet, rather knockneed, walks brisk and active, hair on the top of the head very thin, no beard, except on the upper lip and the top of the chin, a scar on one of his temples, also one on the back of his neck, a large knot on one of the bones of his right arm, near the wrist, produced by a blow

Nat was singularly intelligent, and learned how to read and write at a young age. He grew up deeply religious and was often seen fasting, praying or immersed in reading the stories of the Bible. He frequently received visions which he interpreted as messages from God. These visions greatly influenced his life; for instance, when Nat was 21 years old he ran away from his owner, but returned a month later after receiving such a vision

Turner often conducted Baptist services, and preached the Bible to his fellow slaves, who dubbed him as "The Prophet". Turner also had an influence over white people, and in the case of Ethelred T. Brantley, Nat said that he was able to convince Brantley to "cease from his wickedness". By early 1828, Nat was convinced that he "was ordained for some great purpose in the hands of the Almighty." While working in his owner's fields on May 12, Turner "heard a loud noise in the heavens, and the Spirit instantly appeared to me and said the Serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid down the yoke he had borne for the sins of men, and that I should take it on and fight against the Serpent, for the time was fast approaching when the first should be last and the last should be first." Nat was convinced that God had given him the task of "slay[ing] my enemies with their own weapons." Nat "communicated the great work laid out for me to do, to four in whom I had the greatest confidence" his fellow slaves Henry, Hark, Nelson and Sam

Nat Turner preaches religion

Beginning in February 1831, Turner came to believe that certain atmospheric conditions were to be interpreted as a sign that he should begin preparing for a rebellion against the slave holding whites. On February 12, 1831, an annular solar eclipse was seen in Virginia. Nat saw this as a Black man's hand reaching over the sun. Nat took this to mean that he should begin preparing for a rebellion. The rebellion was initially planned for July 4, Independence Day, but was postponed due to deliberation between him and his followers, and illness. On August 13, there was an atmospheric disturbance, another solar eclipse, in which the sun appeared bluish-green. Nat took this as the final signal, and a week later, on August 21, the rebellion began

Rebellion Main article: Nat Turner's slave rebellion

Nat started with a few trusted fellow slaves. The rebels traveled from house to house, freeing slaves and killing all the white people they found. The rebels ultimately included more than 50 enslaved and free blacks

Because the rebels did not want to alert anyone to their presence as they carried out their attacks, they initially used knives, hatchets, axes, and blunt instruments instead of firearms. Nat called on his group to "kill all whites." The rebellion did not discriminate by age or gender, although Nat later indicated that he intended to spare women, children, and men who surrendered as it went on. Before Nat and his brigade of rebels met resistance at the hands of a white militia, 57 white men, women and children had been killed. However, a few homes were spared "because Turner believed the poor white inhabitants 'thought no better of themselves than they did of negroes.'"

Capture and execution

The capture of Nat Turner

Nat Turner's rebellion was suppressed within 48 hours, but Nat eluded capture until October 30 when he was discovered hiding in a cave and then taken to court. On November 5, 1831, Nat was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. He was hanged on November 11 in Jerusalem, Virginia, now known as Courtland, Virginia. His body was then flayed, beheaded and quartered. After his execution, his lawyer, Thomas Ruffin Gray, who had access to the jail in which Nat had been held, took it upon himself to publish The Confessions of Nat Turner, derived partly from research done while Nat was in hiding and partly from conversations with Nat before his trial.

This document is the primary historical document regarding Nat. However, its author's bias is problematic. It is probable that Gray suppressed some facts and gave undue emphasis to others. It seems unlikely, for example, that Nat would have said such things as, we found no more victims to gratify our thirst for blood. However, the book does contain other lines which appear genuine, particularly the passages in which Nat describes his visions and early childhood.[

All of these men and women were visionaries; they took their orders directly from God. The spiritual was a folk art form that functioned from the funk of the folk! This art form developed in the trenches of passion and pain. Whatever issues were of the day, was its milieu. The spiritual was not once removed. Slaves lives and limbs were at risk and the screen between some of them and sanity was their private world of spirituality. Only a world that reached beyond the pain and suffering of this everyday existence could offer any attraction. The slave never gave up the thought that only the VERY presence of God could ease the shackles of these physical chains

The Harlem Renaissance Part II

Its impossible to talk about the Harlem Renaissance without putting a strong emphasis on the literature being published all around the country even though it was for and to many a far newer art form than the Spiritual. The popular music of this time came out of secular urban and rural entertainment like the coon shows and vaudeville acts which were traveling around the country. The American Negro Spiritual on the other hand which I include both in the classical canon and the folk music category was developed on the slave plantations long before the formal literature section and popular vaudeville/Broadway shows of the Harlem Renaissance.

But the classical musical artists were just as busy during the Harlem Renaissance, mostly looking backwards in many respects as opposed to creating new musical forms. Black Musicians were busy showing white people that Black people were just as good, just as intelligent, just as polite, just as educated as white folks in many ways by learning to be white: Black musicians did not intentionally rock the boat: they did it innately. They rocked the boat just by standing there and being Black: demanding to be treated equal in the music schools, with the concert repertoire, in the concert halls, and with symphony orchestras and opera houses.

The calm, focused determination of black classical artists often brought shame to the lives of racist entrepreneurs and producers, and managers. With all of this it still was years before formal, classical music opened its doors to the Black classical artist. That remained for Europe to show the way. Every major Black classical artist who eventual achieved recognition in American had to pay homage in Europe first. Singers like Roland Hayes, Marian Anderson, Paul Robeson, and Catarina Yarborough all had extensive experience in Europe before they received serious recognition at home.

Amidst all this racial ferment stood the glory of the American Negro Spiritual. The question is: what attracted so many fine singers and kept them faithful to this repertoire. That includes me, The Harlem Spiritual Ensemble, The Fisk Jubilee Singers, The Tuskegee University Choir, Leontyne Price, William Warfield, Martina Arroyo, George Shirley, Shirley Verrett, McHenry Boatwright, and many others. Ive come to the conclusion that there is something profound and often stunning in this body of work which baffles and eludes the impatient but well-intentioned scholar and modern listener. Scholars are frequently more than once removed from this tradition and young students are impatient. You must listen and sing in order to learn the mystery of this secret.

The contemporary ear does not easily juggle its stark and awe-inspiring simplicity; its unparalleled and uncomplicated rhyme scheme; its child-like theology; a preponderance of demoralizing symbolism as in Sometimes Ah Feel Like A Motherless Chil , A Long Way From Home; and in its dogged utilization of the non-European syncopated rhythms so closely allied with dance. But inspite of what may seem like intellectual and musical limitations, this body of work is not only eagerly anticipated by audiences throughout the world, but has been the seed and germination of every important American musical genre to be exported since the 1870s. The secret has been and remains that this music, as with many other art forms, cannot be approached exclusively by the intellect. We must approach this music with our emotions, with our hearts and with full artistic commitment. Why should this art form be any different than the German Lieder specialist, or the French Chanson specialist, etc? Specialization with commitment and heart open the door

On the other hand writers like Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Richard Wright, WEB Dubois, Marcus Garvey, J. Rosamond Johnson, and later Amira Baraka and James Baldwin who were active parts of the post-Renaissance school. spoke about Negritudelife as far back as the early Nileit was more romantic (not the slave fields of Savannah, Georgia or the suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama), not something to be overcome like the Rhine River in Germany or memories of British royalty--and pride in being Black:

this Blackness that developed soul food, innovative, wild styles of dressing, including outlandish hair styles and hats and shoes, the dancing of Josephine Baker, new Broadway shows by the Johnson Brothers, Shuffle Along and Green Pastures,; and putting into words the Jazz of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, and Jelly Role Morton. Jazz was so new that many Black folks didnt like it. In fact I have heard it said time and again that the so-called Black Intelligenzia of the time didnt like Jazz because it was so Black!!!!!!!!!! This was equally true of the fast-growing, conservative Black Church! Jazz music, along with secular dancing, blues, and free-wheeling romantic notions were not considered spiritual.

The Black Bourgeois of the time did not want to rock the boat, or alienate the status quo. These Blacks were the ones who had learned a skill that was useful to white folks, or created a Black business that was thriving, like funeral directors, barber shops, middle-sized chicken and turkey farms, chimney sweeps, some smithies, ghetto and country stores, teachers and educators, (I say this because educatorsmen and women, often had to be able to use their hands in basic skills to build their schools-brick layers, plasterers, woodsmen, electricians, car mechanics, and the like) seamstresses, and shoe makers. These menial jobs were thriving. But the classical musician or PhD candidates were not.

As you can see there was a constant war within the Black community between what the writers wanted and preached about, and the Classical artist who wanted to be allowed in the front door to sing European standard repertoire. This is significant because both passionate schools of thought won out in the end!!!!!!

Just as there was collusion between African leaders and the Arab traders during slaverys heyday, there was collusion between the black artist and the capitalistic art mentor. Sometimes they exerted subtle influences on the writers outrage and other times they were star-crossed lovers. There were subtle pressures on writers not to show too much of our dirty laundry in public as Carl Van Vechten had done in his controversial novel, Nigger Heaven. So there was a subtle collusion to tell enough of the truth to be real and authentic, but not to reveal too vulgarly our racial underbelly!

Photo of Carl Van Vechten!!!!!!!!!!!

As a critic Carl Van Vechten had been allowed into the inner circle of black writers and theater folks through mainly his relationship with Langston Hughes and many of the prominent black writers and entertainers. Many Black folks, especially what was called the talented tenth, when they were made aware of his novel, boycotted him and the novel and felt betrayed by an outsider!!!!! The irony was that Van Vechten had used street slang and the gutter stories of love and betrayal that was true of many common relationships of the time. Adding further to this conflict was the fact that Van Vechten had either published or arranged for many of the writers to be published. Many were therefore in his debt. With race as the underlying fire in the belly this controversy has continued to this day. All we have to do is analyze the presidential race and its racial underpinnings that would not play a role at all in an all-white election.

Three Poets: i) Langston Hughes

I've known rivers: (1922)I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.My soul has grown deep like the rivers.I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.I've known rivers:Ancient, dusky rivers.My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

II) Countee Cullen

Incident (1925)I smiled, but he poked out His tongue, and called me, Nigger.I saw the whole of Baltimore From May until December;Of all the things that happened thereThats all that I remember.

III) Claude McKay

September 15, 1889 in Sunny Ville, Clarendon Parish, Jamaica.

If We Must DieIf we must die, let it not be like hogsHunted and penned in an inglorious spot,While round us bark the and hungry dogs,Making their mock at our accursed lot.If we must die, O let us nobly die,So that our precious blood may not be shed

In vain, then even the monsters we defyShall be constrained to honor us though dead!O kinsmen! We must meet the common foe!Though far outnumbered let us how us brave,And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!What though before us lies the open grave?Like men well face the murderous, cowardly pack,Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

Pictures of various .what

Count Basie

Jelly Roll Morton

Eubie Blake

Josephine Baker

Arna Bontemps

William Grant Still

Zora Neale Hurston

Lives As Examples

Now that we have somewhat set up the artistic and racial conflict found among most of the Harlem Renaissance writers, singers, dancers, actors, etc. we can focus again on the American Negro Spiritual. Carrying this banner was the often lonely and marginal classical artist. He did not have a large Black or white audience. White people didnt want him/her in their concert hall or singing or playing with their orchestras, and Black folks were mystified in general by anyone who felt compelled to follow this path. In fact even in the 50s and 60s when I was growing up in the ghettos of Youngstown, Ohio, it was not uncommon for members of my extended family to ask confusedly: why do you want to sing that white music, including arias and art songs in the same category as American Negro Spirituals

For years I tried to answer as straight forward and honest as possible their genuine inquiry. I love American Negro Spirituals. The sound spoke to the soul of me. Without it I wouldnt know who I am or why Im here. My parents were there in the Baptist Church as I grew and expanded my emotional and cultural commitment to this repertoire. So why the surprise?

i am particularly drawn/partial to the plight of the classical musical artist of the Harlem Renaissance. Because of the De Facto segregation in this country no concert halls and/or opera houses would hire black artists to perform with white performers or on the same stage in any major city in America. In fact most of the performances by Black artists took place in churches. The church and later the traditional Black colleges and universities would serve as major performance platforms for many decades. I would not have a career or job today if it were not for there struggles,

suffering, and humiliation. Roland Hayes was the first Black person to sing with a white orchestra On Nov. 15, 1923, Roland Hayes strode onto the stage of Sanders Theatre to join Pierre Monteux and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in an aria from Mozart's opera "Cosi fan tutte." It was the first time any African-American artist had appeared with a major American symphony orchestra. Over the next 21 years, Hayes returned to sing four additional programs with the BSO.

Photo of Roland Hayes

Later he went to Europe where he sang for royalty, made a name for himself and came home to limited success. He was then allowed to sing in many white concert halls but his venue was still mainly black churches, colleges, and performance/concert halls which he had to personally rent and guarantee his audience. All this changed after several financially very successful concerts and critical acclaim by the American press. Summing up Hayes's career, Marva Griffen Carter wrote in the Black Perspective in Music:

"Hayes's life of almost ninety years reveals a remarkable story of a man who went from the plantation to the palace, performing before kings and queens, with the finest international and Am