LITR 4332: American Minority Literature

Pam Richey

Slave Songs: Rebellion in Oral Tradition

            Slave songs and spirituals are some of the earliest examples of African American literature. Although they belong to an oral tradition (due to the fact that slaves were kept purposely ignorant in regards to reading and writing); slave songs illustrate the resilience, creativity and cultural heritage of the slaves who sang them. Slave songs are traditionally split up into three categories: field hollers, work songs and spirituals (Allen vi; Nelson 30; www.negroespirituals.com). In each of these forms of the slave song is hidden the will to not only survive but to rebel against the notion that the African slave was second class in a white dominated world.

            The early oral tradition of slave songs are a cultural bridge to the world the Africans left behind. The mechanics of the slave song can be traced back to African griot tradition. In many of the slave songs there is pattern that is commonly referred to as the “call-and response pattern” and has been traced back to Ghana and other African cultures. (Kopano 206; Sturgis 22). In the call-and-response pattern the leader or “base” begins the song embellishing and improvising as he or she sees fit while the other singers join in with a rhythmic refrain (Allen v; Nelson 30; Sturgis 22). In this way, slaves were able to connect with the world from which they were forcibly ripped.

            The slave songs were not merely songs to be sung, they were tiny rebellions in a harsh and unyielding world. Kopano’s article suggests that the African slaves used the songs as a separate language that defied cultural domination (204). He later suggests that like West African languages the slaves used different pitches and sounds to convey different meanings. It was an elegant way to protest that contradicts the predominant view held at the time that Africans were crude and primitive (206). The field hollers were also used to secretly communicate. Slave holders would not allow the slaves to talk while they were working, but they were allowed and often encouraged to sing. Slaves used the field hollers to ask for water, food or assistance (Nelson 30; www.negroespirituals.com).  Often spirituals are seen as only songs of worship or expressions of anguish and longing, but there is more to them than that. Many of the spirituals contained information for escaping slaves. “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” and “Wade in the Water” are two of the more famous examples. “Wade in the Water” warned escaping slaves to travel through water in order to lose their scent. “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” was a reference to Ripley, a town that was friendly to escaping slaves. It existed on a hill by the Ohio River and was hard to get to so the people of the town would come down and bring the escaping slaves into the town, hence the line “I looked over Jordan and what did I see/ […]/A band of angels coming after me” (Sturgis Ingrid 21; www.negroespirituals.com). Slave songs were also used to create a stir among those who wished to abolish slavery. Abolitionists even used them to stir up passion during anti-slavery rallies (Radano 513; <http://www.gwu.edu/~e73afram/ag-am-mp.html>).

            Slave songs were intensely personal. They were creations born in the moment. In Slave Songs of the United States the author of the introduction recounts asking how a song is created. The answer: “I’ll tell you, it’s dis way. My master call me up, and order a short peck of corn and a hundred lash. My friends see it, and is sorry for me. When dey come to de praise-meeting dat night dey sing about it. […] and dat’s de way” (xviii). Spirituals still affect people in an intensely deep way.

Works Cited

Allen, William Francis, Charles Pickard Ware and Lucy McKim Garrison. Slave Songs of the United States. Bedford, Massachusetts: Applewood Books. 1867.

Kapano, Baruti. “Rap Music as an Extension of the Black Rhetorical Tradition: 'Keepin' it Real.'” Western Journal of Black Studies 26.4 (2002): 204-214.

Nelson, Angela M. S. “The Spiritual.” Christian History 10.3 (1991): 30.

Radano, Ronald. “Denoting Difference: The Writing of the Slave Spirituals.” Critical Inquiry 22.3 (1996): 506-44.

Sturgis, Ingrid. “Sing It Again: Beloved Old African American Spirituals Find a New Following.” Black Issues Book Review 6.6 (2004): 20-3.

African American Culture Through Oral Tradition. Fall 1998. The George Washington University. 6 May, 2007 http://www.gwu.edu/~e73afram/ag-am-mp.html.

Negroespirituals.com. Spiritual Workshop, Paris. 6 May, 2007. http://www.negrospirituals.com/search.htm.