By Rose Gill
In a nutshell, a Negro spiritual is actually a worship song that was created by the African slaves when these people were captured by the Americans and the British. The term came out when many slaves were mistreated by their colonizers and many have longed to be free. Here is a brief history on how these kinds of songs came to be.
Basically, Negro spiritual (http://www.calvinearl.com) s are typically worship songs that the slaves sang when they were converted to Christianity. They created the term after they learned from the Bible what spiritual worship songs are and how significant they are to religion. Of course this happened when the entire black community was already converted into Christianity by their masters.
When slavery was first introduced to the power countries like the United States and Great Britain, many black slaves still maintained their traditions and African rituals even though their colonizers forbade it. They continued to do this in secret as it was their way to express themselves spiritually. They spoke in their own language and sang upbeat songs that reflected their beliefs.
After some time, the colonizers decided to ban all Pagan rituals and killed anyone who performed in one. Anyone who was caught participating in a Pagan ritual was to be killed in public. Eventually, the colonizers imposed Christianity upon all of the African slaves and punished all of those who did not follow this rule.
Unlike traditional solemn hymns that could be heard in churches, African slaves integrated their own brand of music to their hymns. They created upbeat versions of spiritual songs that they sing so that they can express themselves the way that they want. This is where the spiritual songs and spiritual shouts came from. In fact, whenever this type of genre is being played, all the slaves would gather around to dance.
Of course their lyrics contained the usual worship phrases and sentences that many Christian songs have. The only difference would probably be that the slaves also sang about their terrible experiences as being a slave. It was actually like they were calling out to God to save them from all of their suffering.
Many authors actually claimed that these songs contained hidden messages to help slaves release themselves from their masters. Apparently, the song writers even wrote coded directions and instructions that would help all of the slaves escape the country. These songs were also often used as propaganda to their colonizers.
So by taking a look at the history of the African slaves, one will know how resilient these people really are. One can immediately deduce that the Negro spiritual came from the music of the old African rituals that these slaves used to perform before they were colonized. In a sense, this goes to show that no matter what anyone does to these slaves, they will still be able to find a way to retain their own culture in their own small way. The love for their identity and freedom is something that colonizers can never ever destroy.
About the Author:
Read more about (http://www.calvinearl.com) How The Negro Spiritual Became Popular visiting our website.
In a nutshell, a Negro spiritual is actually a worship song that was created by the African slaves when these people were captured by the Americans and the British. The term came out when many slaves were mistreated by their colonizers and many have longed to be free. Here is a brief history on how these kinds of songs came to be.
Basically, Negro spiritual (http://www.calvinearl.com) s are typically worship songs that the slaves sang when they were converted to Christianity. They created the term after they learned from the Bible what spiritual worship songs are and how significant they are to religion. Of course this happened when the entire black community was already converted into Christianity by their masters.
When slavery was first introduced to the power countries like the United States and Great Britain, many black slaves still maintained their traditions and African rituals even though their colonizers forbade it. They continued to do this in secret as it was their way to express themselves spiritually. They spoke in their own language and sang upbeat songs that reflected their beliefs.
After some time, the colonizers decided to ban all Pagan rituals and killed anyone who performed in one. Anyone who was caught participating in a Pagan ritual was to be killed in public. Eventually, the colonizers imposed Christianity upon all of the African slaves and punished all of those who did not follow this rule.
Unlike traditional solemn hymns that could be heard in churches, African slaves integrated their own brand of music to their hymns. They created upbeat versions of spiritual songs that they sing so that they can express themselves the way that they want. This is where the spiritual songs and spiritual shouts came from. In fact, whenever this type of genre is being played, all the slaves would gather around to dance.
Of course their lyrics contained the usual worship phrases and sentences that many Christian songs have. The only difference would probably be that the slaves also sang about their terrible experiences as being a slave. It was actually like they were calling out to God to save them from all of their suffering.
Many authors actually claimed that these songs contained hidden messages to help slaves release themselves from their masters. Apparently, the song writers even wrote coded directions and instructions that would help all of the slaves escape the country. These songs were also often used as propaganda to their colonizers.
So by taking a look at the history of the African slaves, one will know how resilient these people really are. One can immediately deduce that the Negro spiritual came from the music of the old African rituals that these slaves used to perform before they were colonized. In a sense, this goes to show that no matter what anyone does to these slaves, they will still be able to find a way to retain their own culture in their own small way. The love for their identity and freedom is something that colonizers can never ever destroy.
About the Author:
Read more about (http://www.calvinearl.com) How The Negro Spiritual Became Popular visiting our website.