The Forty-Day Journey of Promise
Day Twenty-Four: Learning Life Lessons from the Slave Spirituals
Note: Welcome to The Journey, our forty-day blog series from MLK Day through the end of Black History Month. We’re learning life lessons from the legacy of African American Christianity. The series is based upon material from my book Beyond the Suffering. To learn more about Beyond the Suffering, including downloading a free chapter, click here.
The Fuel of the Invisible Institution
The fascinating history of the slave spirituals are intertwined with the equally captivating narrative of the Invisible Institution. It was at these secret meetings in the brush arbors and tiny log cabins that the spirituals were not only sung, but composed in community.
Too often we see the spirituals simply as words and notes on a printed page. We forget that they emerged as communal songs which were heard, felt, sung, shouted, and often danced with handclapping, foot-stamping, head-shaking meaning.
These songs—variously called slave spirituals, Negro spirituals, jubilees, folk songs, shout songs, sorrow songs, slave songs, slave melodies, minstrel songs, and religious songs—are most commonly known as slave spirituals because of the deep religious feelings they express. Singing was integral to reinforcing a sense of community in the Invisible Institution and nourishing soul-healing relationships with God and one another. The spirituals were the fuel of the Invisible Institution.
Gushing Up From the Heart: Improvisational Communal Empathy
To appreciate the meaning, message, and mutual ministry of the slave spirituals, it is essential that we understand how and why they were composed. Carey Davenport, a retired black Methodist minister from Texas, had been born enslaved in 1855. He vividly depicts the spontaneous nature of slave spirituals.
“Sometimes the colored folks went down in dugouts and hollows and held their own service and they used to sing songs what come a-gushing up from the heart.”
These were not polished, practiced anthems designed to entertain. They were personal, powerful psalms designed to sustain. “Songs were not carefully composed and copyrighted as they are today; they were ‘raised’ by anyone who had a song in their hearts.”
Slave spirituals were shared songs composed on the spot to empathize with and encourage real people in real trouble. Anderson Edwards, a slave preacher, remembers:
“We didn’t have any song books and the Lord gave us our songs and when we sang them at night it was just whispering so nobody heard us.”
Soul Care-Giving at Its Best
The creation of individual slave spirituals poignantly portrays soul care-giving at its best. When James McKim asked a slave the origin of a particular spiritual, the slave explained:
“I’ll tell you; it’s this way. My master called me up and ordered me a hundred lashes. My friends see it and is sorry for me. When they come to the praise meeting that night they sing about it. Some’s very good singers and know how; and they work it in, work it in, you know; till they get it right; and that’s the way.”
Spirituals were born from slaves observing and empathizing with the suffering of their fellow slaves as a way of demonstrating identification and solidarity with the wronged slave.
In the very structure of the spirituals, we see articulated the idea of communal support. Frequently the spirituals mentioned individual members present, either by name—“Sister Tilda, Brother Tony,”—or by description—“the stranger over there in the corner.” This co-creation included everyone in the experience of mutual exhortation and communal support.
Join the Conversation (Post a Comment for a Chance to Receive a Copy of Beyond the Suffering)
1. How would your soul care and spiritual direction ministry change if you shifted from a focus on “practicing skills” to a focus on “gushing up from the heart” (improvisational empathy, staying in the moment, being present, soul-to-soul relating)?
2. How do these new understandings of the slave spirituals change the stereotyped views that many people have about the spirituals?
