THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR

Music was still closely linked to England. “The Stars Spangled Banner” was written in 1814. Other popular songs of the era period were: “ Johnny's Gone For a Soldier”, “ Rock of Ages”, “ America”, “Oh Shenandoah!” and “Drink To Me”. Popular ballads and folk songs were the musical beat of the period. In the same time, Afro-American music and songs began to see the light. Many early slaves songs became popular. They spread nationwide in black communities, jails and underground organizations. Later in history, one of the “Negro Spiritual Songs” will serve as the basis and origin of the anthem of American Civil Rights and Liberties Movement.

Negro Spirituals and Slave Songs: THE FIRST SINGERS IN AMERICA

Today, two eminent figures in Afro-American music represent the historical “Black Spirituals”, the early form of Afro-American Folk music. They are Frankie and Doug Quimby, for whom I have ultimate respect.

Frankie Sullivan Quimby: Frankie the oldest of thirteen children was born and raised on the Georgia Sea Islands. Her family took the name of Sullivan after the Emancipation. The Sullivans were members of the Foulah Tribe of the town of Kianah in the District of Temourah in the Kingdom of Massina located on the Niger River. A delightful and strong character, Frankie is frequently quoted for her saying "We are a strong people who know how to survive...and we want everybody to know where we came from."

Doug Quimby: He has been singing since the age of four. He was born in Baconton, Georgia in 1936, where his family were sharecroppers earning as little as $9.25 for an entire year of work. His biography tells us that “Douglas and his wife Frankie share a common musical heritage though they grew up miles apart. Doug's grandfather spoke in the Gullah dialect, indicating that many of his ancestors worked on the coastal plantations before being sold to inland landowners. In 1963 Doug joined the Sensational Friendly Stars, a well-known gospel group, and six years later he became a member of the Georgia Sea Island Singers. His rich, deep bass voice never ceases to amaze audiences as he leads them to join in singing sea chanteys and call-and-response songs. His story of Ebo Landing on St. Simons Island, where 18 tribesmen chose death over servitude, holds the audience spellbound. His powerful voice commemorates this tragedy in the song "Freedom, Freedom Over Me."

The Quimbys have toured throughout the world, including performances at the Olympic Games in Mexico and Lillehammer, sharing their songs and stories set against the history and mystique of the Georgia Sea Islands. Their audiences include universities, schools, museums, conventions, conferences, as well as numerous radio and television appearances. The Quimbys performance exalts in remembering and keeping alive two centuries of African-American folk heritage.

The history of the “Negro spirituals” is closely linked to the history of early African Americans with its three paramount milestones:

1865: The abolition of slavery
1925: The Black Renaissance
1985: The first Dr. Martin Luther King’s Day.

Almost all the early Africans who arrived to the United States were slaves. They arrived to the new world from numerous and various areas of the African West Coast. In America, as slaves, they were deprived from basic human rights. The only human and civil right they retained was the right of meeting for Christian services. The religious gatherings and meetings gave birth to religious chants, hymns and songs. In a sense, they were the cradle of the early American gospel, spiritual, inspirational, blues and jazz-folk music.

Those early religious chants focused on and evolved around religious and human themes of a nostalgic nature, such as “Praising the Lord”, “Jesus, the Savior”, and depicted how the slaves when they were free in Africa lived in their natal and native towns and cities. Being allowed to stay after the regular worship services, in churches or in plantation known as “Praise Houses”, for singing and dancing, early rural slaves kept their traditional musical art form and built upon it; they described new experiences, mishaps and events which tragically shaped the course of their lives in the new world. However, this artistic and musical freedom was limited, for, their “masters”, the slaveholders did not allow them to dance and to play any musical instrument. A tradition, so dear to them, since their ethnic songs in their homeland evolved around the sounds of African drums. In addition to public gatherings, the early African slaves met in hidden and secret places usually referred to as “Bush Meetings” or “Camp Meetings”.

Those secret meetings served as a musical evocation cell as well as a place where they could and would express hope for a better future and most certainly a better human treatment on the hands of their white masters. I would describe those centers and bush meetings as self-imposed concentration camps, for they were the only places where, they could and would freely express their pain, sorrows, joys and faith in a brighter future…at least a hope to regain human dignity and freedom. The bush meetings gathered a very large number of slaves, always in secret and always enrobed with the fear of being discovered. Preachers reinforced their hope in freedom and preached Christian values through brief sermons, examples from the old and new testaments accompanied by religious chants and hymns. And they lasted for hours and hours…In those secretive Christian service meetings, the slaves were gathered and lined up in 3 rows, usually around a central circle. The first row was occupied by the children, the second row was reserved to women and the third row was designated for men. The hygienic condition was not something to be desired. Food was not allowed. Only water in mugs, buckets and jars made out of wood and tin was permitted.

In the late 1700s, those religious chants and musical hymns were known as the “corn ditties”, later to be baptized under the term “Spirituals”. Ironically enough, they were not sung in public places, nor in churches, for their slaveholders considered them as a form of mutiny and revolt. This injustice reminds me of the early Christians who were persecuted and prosecuted by the Romans in the city of Rome and found refuge and shelter in the catacombs of the ancient city of Roma, where exclusively, they could and would meet to pray, sing and burry their dead. Around 1850, the religious hymns and chants became slaves’ popular songs. They were re-written and created by the Protestant City Revival Movement. Bush meetings and secret gatherings evolved into open and public meetings organized by the revival movement and took place under tents erected in stadiums. Those early slaves’ songs are to be considered as the first Afro-American popular songs of an African-American cache and style. Frequently, they were called “Dr. Watts”.

Although, they became Afro-American tunes, they remained religious and humanistic in their aspect and message. For, the themes evolved around biblical passages, proverbs, examples and the message of Jesus Christ, the Savior, the Good Shepherd and the Light. The pre-dominant theme of the songs was “freedom”, “Liberation” and the strong belief in salvation. For the preachers and the songwriters vividly focused on phrases such as “Jesus is the Savior”, “Jesus is your Hope” and particularly this phrase :” You Can Be Saved.” Those songs had a very particular and a very defined aspect. Although, they were religious and inspirational in their nature and message, they were not integrally religious, nor they resembled the biblical hymns and psalms, for, constantly, they depicted the life, misery, pain, injustice, hardship and condition of being a slave in a harsh and unmerciful white society which did not show them affection, care, equality and respect for human dignity. Another extremely interesting aspect of the early songs of the Afro-American slaves was the expression of feelings, emotions and shared concerns and places “in code”. For instance, Ohio or more exactly, the Northern side of Ohio River, (their favorite place, for some reasons!) was called “Jordan”. A “free country”, was called “ the promised land”, “my home” or “Sweet Canaan”. Any organization or group which tried back then to help the salves was referred to as the “Underground Railroad” or just the “Railroad”.

The Underground Railroad organization helped a considerable number of slaves to escape to other states. The underground organization developed a “know how” for escapees, a sort of an instruction manual and a survival guide. The basic instructions were:

3- The escapees should use swamps, rivers, lakes, water to avoid the dogs which were chasing them, for dogs could not smell them in the water and follow their tracks;

4- Trucks and preferably, chariots should be used by escapees if they were able to hide in the back of the vehicle.

This is how and why early tunes, popular songs and “Negro Spirituals” were called “The Gospel Train”, “The Railroad”, “Wade in the Water” and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”. The latest tune was directly linked to the Underground Railroad.

NEGRO SPIRITUALS AND WORK SONGS. The Three New and Different Kinds of Negro Songs. Singing in Code

2- “The “Work Songs”. During the early times of slavery and afterwards, slave workers in the fields were permitted to sing “Work Songs” during their working schedule and or while they were in jail. The songs which were sung in jail were called the “Chain Gang Songs”.

3- “The Quiet Songs”. White busses and trucks drivers transporting black prisoners allowed the slaves to sing a certain kind of songs they called “quiet songs”, assuming that these songs were not against the white establishment, the prison, the prison guards and the white slaves owners. Personal feelings and emotions were freely and frequently expressed as a means to comfort each other and cheer up those who received harsh treatment on the hands of their masters and white superiors. Some slaves were very creative and thoughtful. If needed, and if they had to convey a very particular message to members of the slaves’ community and or to a particular inmate, slave singers would add to their “regular lyrics”, new coded words and refrains. Each coded word meant something. For instance, the word “water” meant escape, the word “ground” or “field” meant “get ready or go see the underground organization”. The word “river” meant “freedom or get ready to escape”. The world “moon” meant “you will escape tonight”. I found this fascinating. No doubt, this was the first American code-language ever; the precursor of the world war two Navajo military code!

Times began to relatively change. Slavery was abolished in 1865. The slavery abolition allowed a few number of African Americans to attend schools and universities. The first African American institution of higher learning was Fisk University located in Nashville, Tennessee. A few number of blacks graduated, but they graduated. Some became teachers, educators, thinkers, musicologists and eminent composers. Educated blacks began to think about educating the slaves and the black community in general. Even, some ardent black educators traveled to Europe to gather instructional materials. Others began to develop curricula for their schools. And a third group already integrated and incorporated music teaching in their curriculum. This gave an official identity to the “Negro Spirituals” which later on, was adopted as one of the academic pre-requisites in black colleges and universities, particularly by the Tuskegee Institute. The “Negro Spirituals” are now defined as an authentic Afro-American vocal and musical platform and began to gain popularity thanks to the “Fisk Jubilee Singers”.

However, this popularity will shrink just after 1865, for many blacks and particularly those who prospered in business, trade, academia, arts, humanities and music did not feel proud and happy about the early days of slavery. Categorically, many of them wanted to forget about it. It was painful and demeaning to them. In other words, they did not want to sing or to hear songs which reminded them of their slavery.

In 1890, Sanctified and Holiness black churches began to spread nationwide. The first one was “The Church of God in Christ”. This very church has become a landmark in Afro-American music, for it was the first black church to introduce and incorporate in its religious service, foot-stomping and hand clapping.

Photo: Charles Albert Tindley. Tindley is known as one of the original “Founding Fathers of American Gospel Music.” He was the son of slaves. At 17, He taught himself how to read and how to write. While working as a janitor, he attended a night school and earned a degree in divinity by correspondence. In 1902, Tindley, the deprived and oppressed young man who worked as a janitor at the Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, became the pastor of this very church. His leadership brought more than 13,000 members to the church. Charles Albert Tindley will be remembered for ever, for he is the author of “I’ll Overcome Some Day”, which is the foundation and corner stone of the American Civil Rights Anthem “We Shall Overcome”. This great man is my hero!

Pete Seeger joined Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and many other Civil Rights leaders during the 1960s. It was reported that Seeger helped in the writing of Tindley’s song "We Shall Overcome”. Seeger wrote: "This song was originally one of two African American Spirituals: I'll Overcome Some Day or I'll be All Right. In 1946, several hundred employees of the American Tobacco Company in Charleston, South Carolina were on strike. They sang on the picket line to keep their spirits. Lucille Simmons started singing the song on the picket line and changed one important word from "I" to "we". Zilphia Horton learned it when a group of strikers visited the Highland Fold School, the Labor Education Center in Tennessee. She taught it to me and we published it as WE SHALL OVERCOME in our songletter, People's Songs Bulletin. in 1952, I taught it to Guy Carawan and Frank Hamilton. Guy introduced the song to the founding convention of SNCC (student non-violent Coordinating Committee) in North Carolina.

"I started singing 'We Will Overcome' all over the country. I'd go to California or Chicago and I'd lead it but I didn't have that good a voice. I just gave it a banjo accompaniment. Chica ump chica ump...That's probably the way I sang it to Martin Luther King just six months after he won the bus boycott in 1957...I sang it for the crowd. The next day, driving back to Kentucky for a speaking engagement, King said, 'We Will Overcome'. That song really sticks with you, doesn't it?"

We shall overcome
We shall overcome
We shall overcome some day
Oh, deep in my heart
I do believe
We shall overcome some day

We'll walk hand in hand... We shall all be free... We are not afraid...

We shall overcome
We shall overcome
We shall overcome some day
Oh deep in my heart
I do believe
We Shall overcome some day

Words by Pete Seeger and Lucille Simmons,
Music adapted from African American Spirituals

Photo: James Langston Hughes, one of the leaders of the Black Renaissance.

James Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri on February 1, 1902. His parents divorced when he was a small child, and his father moved away to Mexico. Hughes was raised by his grandmother until he was thirteen. At 14, he moved to Lincoln, Illinois, to live with his mother and her new husband, and settled with them in Cleveland, Ohio, where he began to write poetry. Although he graduated from Columbia University, he held odd jobs such as a busboy, an assistant cook and a launderer. Later, he traveled to Africa and to Europe and began to work as a seaman. In November 1924, he returned to Washington, D.C. He spent his time composing and writing. Two years later, Hughes finished his first book of poetry “The Weary Blues”, which was later published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1926. Three years later, he continued his academic studies and completed his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. In 1930 his first novel “Not Without Laughter” won the Harmon gold medal for literature.

In the1920s, a group of eminent black scholars, thinkers, educators, writers, poets, composers and musicians began to develop an artistic, educational and cultural movement known as the “Black Renaissance”. An intellectual and artistic movement with a strong emphasis on the ethnic roots and pride of Afro Americans. The Black Renaissance movement was deeply concerned with arts, poetry and music. “It was an evidence of a renewed race-spirit that consciously and proudly sets itself apart”, explained Professor Alan Locke. One of the brightest figures of that movement was the great Langston Hughes.

For the first time, African Americans began to diffuse the “race-spirit” concept and to realize that their ethnic roots were deep in their original homeland. This remarkable awakening commenced to preach and implement black values, black arts, black culture, black music, black songs and black singing. Authentic and faithful to its ethnic origin, the movement interdicted to use of slang and dialect. A major emphasis was placed upon the “Negro Spirituals”, its historical meaning, message, and artistic-educational-pedagogic aspect. Low class

dialect was a no no, a taboo!

In early 20^th century, black children, boys and girls used to sing the “Spirituals” in playgrounds and schoolyards. Their singing was not refined. Dialect and not very sophisticated pronunciations dominated their singing style and interpretation. Educators, musicians and teachers had to do something about it, for they believed that those “Spirituals” are indeed a musical masterpiece. Thus, they commenced to define its components, aspect and proper interpretation. As a result, new institutes and schools of music and arts came to life, such as the Quincy College, the first black school to harmonize “Spirituals”.

THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR /POST-COLONIAL ERA MUSIC AND SONGS

FROM 1776 To 1860

The Early Afro-American Music

By Maximillien de La Croix de Lafayette

Negro Spirituals and Slave Songs: THE FIRST SINGERS IN AMERICA