Micro Genre: Religion

The religion of the slaves was both visible and invisible, formally organized and spontaneously adapted. Regular Sunday worship in the local church was paralleled by illicit, or at least informal, prayer meetings on weeknights in the slave cabins. Preachers licensed by the church and hired by the master were supplemented by slave preachers licensed only by the spirit. Texts from the Bible, which most slaves could not read, were explicated by verses from the spirituals. Slaves forbidden by masters to attend church or, in some cases, even to pray, risked floggings to attend secret gatherings to worship God.

When enslaved Africans first arrived in America, some brought religious traditions with them. But the pain of slavery drove many to look for meaning and hope in a new place - the Bible. Although most slaves could not read, biblical stories of salvation and retribution spread like fire

We see in the Bible a major scene in the New Testament that Jesus is baptized. Well, where many of these slaves came from in West Africa - admittedly a very large region, I mean, itself, almost the size of the United States - there were many traditions associated with water, running water, you know, a stream, people would go to the stream and meet or encounter or be possessed, as we might say, by the spirits in the water.

So in many worship situations, a lot of slaves, most slaves are not literate. So how do people communicate with each other in acts of worship? Well, one way was to do what in some quarters is still referred to as lining a hymn, that is a leader, the worship leader, would sing the first line of the hymn and then the congregation would repeat that. Likewise, to engage the congregation, they wouldn't read along, they would speak along.

The speaker would say something and the congregation would respond, and the speaker would say something and the congregation would respond. And this became, as I say, a basic rhetorical pattern in African-American worship, and we've seen that river overflow its banks, as it were, once Dr. King and other preachers brought that pattern into the public square.

The term black church or African-American church refers to Protestant churches that currently or historically have ministered to predominantly black congregations in the United States. While some black churches belong to predominantly African-American denominations, such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), many black churches are members of predominantly white denominations, such as the United Church of Christ(which developed from the Congregational Church of New England).[1]

Most of the first black congregations and churches formed before 1800 were founded by free blacks – for example, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Springfield Baptist Church (Augusta, Georgia); Petersburg, Virginia; and Savannah, Georgia.[2] The oldest black Baptist church in Kentucky, and third oldest in the United States, was founded about 1790 by the slave Peter Durrett.[3]

After slavery was abolished, segregationist attitudes in both the North and the South discouraged and even prevented African Americans from worshiping in the same churches as whites. Freed blacks most often established congregations and church facilities separate from their white neighbors, who were often their former masters. These new churches created communities and worship practices that were culturally distinct from other churches, including unique and empowering forms of Christianity that creolized African spiritual traditions.

African-American churches have long been the centers of communities, serving as school sites in the early years after the Civil War, taking up social welfare functions, such as providing for the indigent, and going on to establish schools, orphanages and prison ministries. As a result, black churches have fostered strong community organizations and provided spiritual and political leadership, especially during the civil rights movement

In plantation areas, slaves organized underground churches and hidden religious meetings, the "invisible church", where slaves were free to mix evangelical Christianity with African beliefs and African rhythms. With the time, many incorporated Wesleyan Methodist hymns, gospel songs, and spirituals.[6] The underground churches provided psychological refuge from the white world. The spirituals gave the church members a secret way to communicate and, in some cases, to plan rebellion.

The drum in West Africa

The drum is made from carved wood with what is probably deer skin stretched over. In the eighteenth century it was labelled as an ‘American Indian Drum’. It was not until 1906 that a curator at the British Museum realised that it was West African. Recent tests have shown that the drum is carved from the wood of the tree cordia africana which grows in West Africa. The pegs and cords that hold the skin of the drum tight also come from trees and plants that grow in the region; the deer skin is North American. The drum is thought to have been made in the early-18th century by the Akan people in present-day Ghana.

Drums played a vital role in Akan culture, not only as musical instruments at times of celebration, but also as a form of communication. The Akan drum was a ‘talking drum’. Skilled drummers could replicate the tones, punctuation and accents of the Akan language in order to send messages from village to village. In this way, Akan people could be called to a celebration or to war.

The revivalists generally did not challenge slavery, but they preached to everyone, regardless of race. The Methodists and the Baptists, in particular, welcomed converts from the black and white working population. Fearing the Christian message of spiritual equality, slave owners initially resisted evangelicals preaching to their bondpeople, but as the revival movement spread, a few even came to consider it their Christian duty to teach their slaves about the Bible.

Although these early leaders were black men, women were the majority of the membership of early black congregations, and they frequently took the lead in conversion. Many of these women claimed, and actually exercised, the right to preach, and a large number of them were exhorters (informal preachers).

Gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is composed and performed for many purposes, including aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, and as an entertainment product for the marketplace. However, the most common themes of most Gospel music is praise, worship or thanks to God, Christ, or the Holy Spirit.

From the need to subjugate or from fear, many American slave owners did not allow blacks to use traditional African instruments, nor could they play or sing their native music. Gradually much of the words and melodies were forgotten and disappeared in North America. It is because of this ban on their musical ancestry that a new African American style of music was created. New songs were created using the African traditions of harmony, call and response, behind a strong rhythmic meter mixed with European traditions of harmony and musical instruments.

Gospel songs created by Blacks used Christian subjects with African vocal and rhythmic influences. The church became a sanctuary for Black slave expression. It was the only place that groups of slaves could congregate without fear of white supervision. Though not all slave holders allowed religious instruction or permission to worship and had to meet secretly.

echnically the field holler was the first musical style to move away from religious themes and concerned itself with work only (and much can be said about the double meanings of many gospel songs, such as Swing Low, Sweet Chariot which on the surface is about life in the hereafter, but any slave knew it was about the promise of life in the here and now devoid of slavery. "home" wasn't necessarily heaven, but of freedom instead). However, blues was the first solely secular form of African American based music with the birth of ragtime and jazz following closely behind.

With this political and social backdrop, the church evolved as a religious sanctuary from the eyes of slave holders to a sanctuary where Black culture and music could thrive. In this atmosphere churches were used as meeting places for black town forums with, at times, more of political than religious agendas.

Blues and jazz was the popular rage, and served as the spice for black musical palates, while gospel was the religious staple. The more theatrical and prosperous travelling preachers and performers sang in revival tents and as guests in churches and missions for the homeless. Many of them travelled with an entourage of musicians and small choirs.

This brought a potentially dying form of gospel music into the white parlours and churches which were loved either for the beauty of the music or nostalgia of the good old days of antebellum South.

African Roots

Africa, where it all began. Of all the lavish gifts Africa has given the world, the richest is the unique combination of music and religion: religion with rhythm. With the first African slaves landing on American shores around 1619 came African rhythm, work songs and field hollers - the basic elements for the spirituals. It is rhythm that drives American music: the spirituals, and by extension gospel, the blues, jazz, ragtime and rock n'roll.

Spirituals

Spirituals (or Negro spirituals) are religious folk songs ('work songs' and 'field hollers') developed by black American slaves, who applied African musical traditions to Christian themes. Many Negro spirituals follow a simple call-and-response, making them suitable for singing both in church and while at work in the fields. Whilst primarily expressions of religious faith, some may also have served as socio-political protests veiled as assimilation to white American culture. Although numerous rhythmical and sonic elements of Negro spirituals can be traced to African sources, Negro spirituals are a musical form that is indigenous and specific to the religious experience in the United States of Africans and their descendants. They are a result of the interaction of music and religion from Africa with music and religion of European origin.

Traditional gospel

Traditional gospel, sometimes referred to as black gospel, was codified by the composer and singer Thomas A. Dorsey in the 1930s and generally features a large church choir, often fronted by one or more soloists. Traditional gospel has been the jumping-off point for a number of other styles.

Many Americans were desperately poor around the turn of the 20th century. The Social Gospel movement emerged among Protestant Christians to improve the economic, moral and social conditions of the urban working class.