Slave+Culture

= Slave Culture=


 * What were some popular slave songs?

 Songs played an important role in slave culture. Songs were established for almost everything slaves had to do. Religious songs, work songs, and recreational songs were the main three types of songs sung by slave. Perhaps the best known slave music are Spirituals. Spirituals are religious folk songs created by slaves. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho," "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child," "Go Down, Moses," "Steal Away to Jesus," "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel?," and "Wade in the Water" are among the best known spirituals. Many spirituals are in call and response form, where one slave calls something out and the other slaves respond. Solo and choral arrangements are another form of spirituals. Spirituals were ingrained (deeply rooted) into a slave's lifestyle; they were used for many purposes including worship, motivation, protest, and communication. Religious songs were often sung a cappella and was accompanied by the clapping of hands and stopping of feet. In religious spirituals the composer often points out the similarities of their own slave experience to the stories in the Bible such as in the song "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot". For example, the chariot comes from the Bible prophet, Elijah, who predicts the coming of the messiah which is relates to slaves being set free. The River Jordan was the river Israelites crossed to freedom which relates to the slaves crossing the Ohio river to freedom. Spirituals used to protest often talked of freedom, the abuse slaves had to endure, and a persons responsibility to their community. Other protest slave songs carried codes to help slaves escape to freedom such as the song "The Drinking Gourd" (click [|this link_] to listen to a sound recording of the Drinking Gourd). “Follow the Drinking Gourd,” used a drinking gourd to represent the Big Dipper which contains the North Star. The North Star was an important compass guide for slaves who needed to know that they were to keep on traveling North. However, the overall purpose of spirituals and majority of slave songs was to provide a hope to help slaves survive the physical and mental abuse they were going through. -Alexis P.

Slaves were very stubborn when it came to religion. When they were first taken to America, they were hesitant to give up the religions of their homeland that were numerous and varied. As time passed, slaves began to accept and believe in many different religions such as Christianity, Judaism, and the Islamic traditions. These religions, especially Christianity, were practiced by white men and women at this time. Slaves took comfort in religion because it gave them hope for a better life where everyone was equal and lived together. But not all of their many religious views were shared with whites, they also had beliefs connected to religions unique to Africa. -Ben Zw.
 * How did slaves' religion differ from whites' religion?

African American slaves culture changed as they were brought over to the United States. For example, back in their homeland they believed in good and bad medicine. Any person could bring good medicine or bad medicine. When they heard of Christianity they associated good medicine with God and bad medicine with the devil. Also their concept of the afterlife changed when they were brought to the Americas. Originally they imagined it to be basically like their life on earth but when they crossed paths with Christianity they were told of an idea they embraced the fact that good people would go to heaven and bad would go to hell, and naturally from how they were treated they didn't see too many whites going to heaven. The slaves culture was different then when they lived in Africa because they didn't know of religions such as Christianity. -Ben Zw.
 * What was some general slave culture?