They are the music of an unhappy people, of the children of disappointment; they tell of death and suffering and unvoiced longing toward a truer world, of misty wanderings and hidden ways.
Du Bois describes the profound sorrow and hidden aspirations embedded within the spirituals.
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Through all the sorrow of the Sorrow Songs there breathes a hope—a faith in the ultimate justice of things.
Around us the history of the land has centred for thrice a hundred years; out of the nation’s heart we have called all that was best to throttle and subdue all that was worst; fire and blood, prayer and sacrifice, have billowed over this…
Then in after years when I came to Nashville I saw the great temple builded of these songs towering over the pale city.
But the true Negro folk-song still lives in the hearts of those who have heard them truly sung and in the hearts of the Negro people.