Sprung from the African forests, where its counterpart can still be heard, it was adapted, changed, and intensified by the tragic soul-life of the slave, until, under the stress of law and whip, it became the one true expression of a people’s sorrow, despair, and hope.
Du Bois traces the origins of Black religious music from Africa, through the crucible of slavery, to its role as a profound expression of a people's suffering and aspirations.
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I know little of music and can say nothing in technical phrase, but I know something of men, and knowing them, I know that these songs are the articulate message of the slave to the world.
Then in after years when I came to Nashville I saw the great temple builded of these songs towering over the pale city.
To me Jubilee Hall seemed ever made of the songs themselves, and its bricks were red with the blood and dust of toil.
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…