W.E.B. Du Bois: “Thus it is doubly difficult to write of this period calmly, so intense was the feeling, so mighty the human passions…”

In these songs, I have said, the slave spoke to the world.

Then they went, fighting cold and starvation, shut out of hotels, and cheerfully sneered at, ever northward; and ever the magic of their song kept thrilling hearts, until a burst of applause in the Congregational Council at Oberlin…

Over the inner thoughts of the slaves and their relations one with another the shadow of fear ever hung, so that we get but glimpses here and there, and also with them, eloquent omissions and silences.

The minor cadences of despair change often to triumph and calm confidence.