LITR 5731: Seminar in
American Minority Literature
University of Houston-Clear Lake, Fall 2001
Sample Student Midterm
Jana
Stafford
Dr. Craig White
LITR 5731-Midterm
February 19,2003
African
American Songs and Poetry:
A
Long Tradition of Escape
Yet
do I marvel at this curious thing:
To make a poet black, and bid him sing!
- from "Yet Do I Marvel" by Countee Cullen
There are many
triumphant stories throughout history of the captive fleeing the captor, but
none seem so beautiful and dreamlike as the myth of the flying African.
Personifying this feeling of freedom by flying was the African American
slaves’ almost supernatural ability to raise their voices high, singing in
unison long and sorrowful tunes. This
form of oral literature allowed the people a type of group escape and gave them
a certain amount of freedom and power over their captors.
The tradition has continued for centuries, producing some of the
world’s most beloved music and poetry and talented artists.
African Americans
utilized their unique talent for singing for other purposes as well.
By singing cleverly designed songs, slaves were able to form their own
veiled communication among each other without raising suspicion from their
masters. These double entendres
were usually found in the singing of spiritual hymns or a call and answer type
of singing called “lining hymns." These
songs also told their peoples’ stories.
Moreover, these
mournful and sometimes seemingly joyful songs provided the slaves a form of
unification in a foreign land. The
many different tribes of Africa that were initially represented when first
brought to America were suddenly thrown together and expected to work as a team.
They sought oneness in the indignation of slavery, the loss of their land
and family, and their lack of power to change their situation.
The issues brought up
during our class discussions, and actual excerpts from The Classic Slave
Narratives, Song of Solomon, and Push, offer credibility to
the idea that African Americans’ strong representation in the music and poetry
genre of literature stems from the deep roots of slavery.
However, before
beginning examples from the text, it is necessary to consider the spiritual ties
that African Americans have had with song and verse from the time they came to
America and were converted to Christianity.
The majority of slaves were very eager to learn about Christianity as it
provided hope for the slave and offered a means of escape as well. They began expressing their desires to leave this world
through their music. Even to this
day, gospel music is the training ground and catalyst for the success of a vast
majority of famous black musicians.
We see this yoke to
Christianity through Olaudah Equiano’s poem in The Classic Slave Narratives.
He felt so deeply moved by the benefits of Christianity that he wrote
“Reflections on the State of My Mind” (200).
This poem gives us a three-fold example of Equiano’s desire to flee:
the actual outlet for his anger that writing the poem provides; the
symbolic adaptation of the flying African theme as seen in his comparison to and
desire to be like songbirds; and the topic of salvation and freedom by
Christianity.
Oft times I
mus’d, and nigh despair,
While birds melodious fill’d the
air
“Thrice happy
songsters, ever free!”
How blest were they compar’d to
me!
He died for all
who ever saw
No help in them,
nor by the law;
I this have seen
and gladly own
“Salvation is
by Christ alone!” (Equiano, 202)
A similar pattern is seen in Frederick
Douglass’s account from The Classic Slave Narratives, albeit with more
focus on the importance of singing as an escape for the slave and less focus on
the positives of Christianity. When
explaining the many reasons that slaves sing, Douglass referred to the loud,
long, and deep tones as a tale of woe that was beyond his comprehension.
He states that slaves sing most when they are unhappy.
“The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is
relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears“ (Douglass,
350). He then adds that he himself
has “often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness”
(350).
Lastly from The
Classic Slave Narratives, Linda Brent’s account of her life gives the
reader a description of the freedom slaves felt while singing, in particular
while singing about going up to heaven. “The
congregation struck up a hymn, and sung as though they were as free as the birds
that warbled round us,—
Ole Satan’s church is here below.
Up to God’s free church I hope to go.
Cry Amen, cry Amen, cry Amen to God! (Brent,
519-520)
The theme of the flying
African and singing as a means of freedom are especially strong and central
throughout Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon.
Even the title intimates the relevance of song and verse to the African
American culture. Pilate, the most
powerful character in the novel, possesses a name that, as discussed in class,
could be interpreted in two ways: as
the person who has the control, or in reference to a person with the ability to
fly an aircraft, referring once again to flying.
It is in this framework that we should discuss Pilate’s superb ability
to sing, and her dependence on it during times of trial. We are first introduced
to Pilate, though not knowing it is her at the time, on page six when she is
singing a song which is intertwined throughout the entire novel, and is so
obviously reminiscent of a blue’s tune, during one of the town’s most
memorable crises. This crisis
being, of course, that a black man wants to fly, whereupon a small boy aptly
named Guitar is sent for help. Finally
and most unforgettably, at Hagar’s funeral Pilate sings of the sorrows of her
heart and longs for mercy and escape at the loss of “my baby girl” (318).
Precious, the main character from Sapphire’s
1996 novel Push, follows the same pattern of escape that her ancestors
set before her. Though Precious does not have the benefit of being literate
in the beginning of the story or of ever having been taught a single note of
music, we see her strong dependence on more pedestrian forms of media as an
attempt to depart from her sad, abusive life.
“’N the TV’s in my head always static on, flipping picture. So much
pain, shame—I never feel the loneliness” (Sapphire, 64).
As Precious becomes literate, she reaches a state of awareness about the
grief and loneliness she has had in her life, and consequently begins to vent
her anger through her poetry. She
depends on her newfound ability to write to as an outlet to escape her
tumultuous life and very skeptical future.
However, writing was not an option for most Africans when they first arrived as slaves in America, and although they came from many different tribes, one commonality they had was the tradition of storytelling. This developed into a custom of lining hymns while working for their masters, which combined the influences of three cultures, African, European, and American. The songs were often filled with themes of Christianity, as well as some mythological subjects that constituted one of the basic elements of the African American culture and were used as a way to pass stories down to their children. Though not as strong as the central theme of this paper, the amazing way in which the slaves could communicate intuitively and spontaneously while singing is a subject worth addressing. Frederick Douglass explains this best in The Classic Slave Narratives:
While on their (slaves)
way, they would make the dense old woods, for miles around, reverberate with
their wildsongs, revealing at once the highest joys and the deepest sadness.
They would compose and sing as they went along, consulting neither time nor
tune. The thought that came up, came out—if not in the word, in the
sound;—and as frequently in the one as in the other (Douglass, 348).
Into all of their songs
they would manage to weave something of the Great House Farm. Especially would
they do this, when leaving home. They
would then sing most exultingly the following words:—‘I am going away to the
Great House Farm! O, yea! O, yea! O!’ This
they would sing, as a chorus, to words which to many would seem unmeaning
jargon, but which, nevertheless, were full of meaning to themselves (Douglass,
349).
We also see this ability to communicate a story
exemplified in Song of Solomon with the song Pilate, and later the
children of Shalimar, sing about Jake. When the listener first hears the song,
they might think as Milkman did that it was a “string of nonsense words”
(302), when in reality, the children and Pilate were singing a story about their
people. As we discussed in class,
Pilate shows her pride in her family and people by holding on to many
traditions, including her use of natural things for both medicinal and
nutritional purposes; her lack of interest in the desires of the dominant white
culture; and especially her ability to communicate her feelings through her
songs. Pilate presented her almost
supernatural way to communicate to Reba during Hagar’s funeral when “They
stopped at the same time in a high silence” (318).
The jump to modern day literature as seen in Push
tends to make this novel somewhat of an exception.
Although it was not in the form of singing, Precious did conceal hidden
meanings through her poetry to her teacher, mentor, and fellow African American,
Ms. Rain. After several obscure
poems and journal entries, Ms. Rain was finally able to decipher that Precious
was HIV positive.
The abrupt nature in which the ancestors of modern-day African Americans like Precious were made into slaves, stripped from their homeland, people, culture, and language, is in sharp contrast to other American minorities, such as Native American and Mexican American groups. These severed ties caused by slavery brought about an unexpected kind of unity. One way in which they showed their unification was through their music and poetry. Frederick Douglass portrays the sympathy and oneness he experienced when hearing the slaves’ songs in his narration from The Classic Slave Narratives:
To those songs I trace my first glimmering conception of the dehumanizing character of slavery. I can never get rid of that conception. Those songs still follow me, to deepen my hatred of slavery, and quicken my sympathies for my brethren in bonds. If one wishes to be impressed with the soul-killing effects of slavery, let him go to Colonel Lloyd’s plantation, and, on allowance-day, place himself in the deep pine woods, and there let him, in silence, analyze the sounds that shall pass through the chambers of his soul,— and if he is not thus impressed, it will only be because ‘there is no flesh in his obdurate heart’ (Douglass, 349).
As we discussed on various occasions in class, one common African heritage thread that also tied the slaves together was their ability to be in tune with nature, and natural things are in harmony together. Pilate and Reba showed this impulsive, almost animal-like intuition, or in musical terms—synchronization, during their amazing ability to come together in song at Hagar’s funeral. Pilate was in the front of the church at Hagar’s side and simply had to utter but one note when Reba, who had just entered, somehow knew exactly what Pilate wanted to sing. Their souls seemed to come together during their song, as though they had learned this supernatural ability straight from their African ancestors.
Of course, Push shows a very distinct form of unity since it throws several different minority groups into the mix. However much it may seem that the alternative school girls’ main goals were to become literate and pass the G.E.D., the underlying theme is actually survival from oppression—a very common motif winding through all three novels. The class was ultimately unified, expressing this by encouraging each other, and making a class book of poems and life stories.
The idea that some positives could have possibly birthed from slavery seems absurd upon first glance, but consider the empowerment received through the trials of the horrific loss of freedom and all that that entails. The institution of slavery appears to have been what catapulted the African American culture to become the innovators of such thought-provoking music as the blues and the historic rise of black poetry, music, and art during the Harlem Renaissance.
Works Cited
Brent,
Linda. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. The Classic Slave Narratives.
Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Penguin Group, 1987
Douglass,
Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. The Classic Slave
Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Penguin Group, 1987
Equiano,
Olaudah. The Life of Olaudah Equiano. The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Penguin Group, 1987
Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon.
New York: Penguin Group, 1977
Sapphire.
Push. New York: Random House, 1996