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As transplanted Africans endured slavery, they used singing to cope with their physical, emotional and mental obstacles. On the plantations, Negroes toiled in cotton fields from sunrise to sunset. Intense heat and hard labor tried their souls. After the day was done, workers gathered on the plantation's fringes. Under the moon, spirituals were sung. People danced.

Kumbaya, My Lord, Kumbaya, Halleujah, Halleujah, Wade in the Water and Amazing Grace became timeless favorites. Amidst the blood, sweat and tears, the birth of gospel emerged from these trying years. These songs immersed themselves with the Negroes' inherited religion of Christianity. When they were kidnapped, West Africans lost families, cultures and forms of worship. Christianity was the European's religion. The worship, like slavery was forced upon the black race.

The Civil War ended slavery. However, Negro spirituals stayed alive. Reconstruction proved to be tragic for black people. Freedom didn't prevent the white on black riots and massacres. Lynching Negroes became a rite of passage for racists. Lynching was the South's form of mob justice. Accusations of rape, showing disrespect to superior whites or simply "not staying in their place" justified white mobs to beat, shoot, burn and hang Negroes. From 1866 to 1940, 5,000 blacks were recorded as lynching victims. Thousands more went undocumented. Lynching soiled the American spiritual. From that sorrow, blues singer, Billie Holliday composed "Strange Fruit". The sad song told of Negroes swinging in the breeze from Georgia peach trees. Anti-lynching advocate, Ida Baker organized a crusade to end lynching which finally happened before World War II. In that case, a Negro spiritual instituted social justice.

During the Civil Rights era, "We Shall Overcome" and "Go Tell It on the Mountain" epitomized the message of freedom and equality. Marchers sang these songs while marching on main streets and dusty roads. In the epic March on Washington, spirituals provided strength to the tens of thousands of protestors. They walked and sang. They crawled and sang. They suffered through rain and hot sun, and still sang. The spiritual was food for trying souls.

Even in these hard times, our hearts are fed with African-Americans' songs.

Learn more about this author, Marcus Brooks.
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