Purely secular songs are few in number, partly because many of them were turned into hymns by a change of words, partly because the frolics were seldom heard by the stranger, and the music less often caught.
Du Bois explains the scarcity of purely secular songs among African Americans, attributing this to the transformation of many into hymns.
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The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,—this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self.
The direct result of this system is an all-cotton scheme of agriculture and the continued bankruptcy of the tenant.
But they should not keep these prizes, I said; some, all, I would wrest from them.
Through history, the powers of single black men flash here and there like falling stars, and die sometimes before the world has rightly gauged their brightness.