Although this song, lyrically, seems to be about the slavery of the Jewish people prior to the Common Era, it could be used as a protest song of sorts, updated for the Civil Rights era. It makes sense that African-Americans might identify with this song, as many tend to be quite religious and involved in various types of Christianity. When hearing the song and letting it run through my head a few times, various images came to my mind including slaves in the United States working and singing together with their love of music keeping them going each day and the struggles that Blacks faced in the 1950s and 1960s, being oppressed and discriminated against. The lyrics that give the song its namesake, “let my people go” sounds like a call to action, a plea for peace, and the yearning of freedom. The warning issued in the song, while harsh and something from days long gone, does bring to mind a biblical sense of revenge.
In the South, spirituals were an important way to express slave life. In a way these spirituals were a form of poetry for them that reflected their language, their music and their spiritual concerns. Douglass wrote his autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), in which discusses the negro spirituals they sang since they were forced to “make a noise” so that their masters would know of their whereabouts at all times and, at the same time, keep them from communicating with one another so they could not plot any schemes to escape. Another method used was whistling so that the masters knew that their servants were not eating the food that was to be delivered. Douglass referred to these songs as “...a testimony against slavery, and a prayer
It is evident that the Black Americans have long been considered a large and significant ethnic minority of the United States population. The African-American ancestors were mostly brought to America to work as slaves to serve the White Americans who at that time were considered the superior race. These slaves were mainly shipped from West and Sub-saharan Africa bringing with them polyrhythmic songs from hundreds of African ethnic groups. That is when African music was introduced to Western music, creating at first a fusion from both worlds and evolving through the decades which developed into today's most popular music, listened and appreciated all around the globe. Our main goal and focus is to trace the development of Afro American musical styles and learn about their pioneers.
Douglass upholds Civil Rights, while Chopin upholds Women’s Rights; yet both essentially uphold the Right of the individual. Douglass and Chopin’s semiautobiographical Edna, display their “true-self” while revolting against the so-called traditions of society, while learning from there life experiences. In the narrative of Douglass, he explained that he is like many other slaves who do not know when they were born and many as well do not know who his parents were. Douglass states, “By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant”(1). At that moment he knew that slave masters identified a way to control the minds of slaves and that was too not simply give them there age.
Additionally, it will compare the sex trafficking trade as a current moral dilemma. “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound...” begins a song we all love to sing. John Newton a slave trader once lost now found, saved by God’s amazing grace. He turned his life around becoming a priest, where he met and encouraged William Wilberforce to pursue a career in politics influenced by his love for God and to see the captives set free. Along with a team of Quakers and Anglicans Wilberforce led them tirelessly through a struggle, long and challenging; their prize would be to see an end to the buying and selling of humans.
I believe the reason for this inspirational sermon was his way of thanking God for finally making it illegal to buy and sell slaves and for giving them the strength to endure and learn from what they went through. He was also thankful to God for sparing the future children from having to go through any of the suffering that their fathers and grandfathers had to go through. He was also grateful to the antislavery societies and individuals for all of their hard work against slavery as well. In this inspirational sermon, Reverend Jones described the cruelty of the slave trade. He was convinced the slaves believed the same God that allowed them to suffer during slavery was the same God who intervened on their behalf and put an end to all of their pain and suffering.
[3] After slavery was abolished, freed blacks continued to establish separate congregations and church facilities, creating communities and worship in culturally distinct ways. They had already created a unique and empowering form of Christianity that creolized African spiritual traditions. In addition, segregationist attitudes in both the North and the South discouraged and, especially in the South, prevented African-Americans from worshiping in the same churches as whites. The tradition of African-Americans worshipping together continued to develop during the late 19th century and continues to this day despite the decline of segregationist attitudes and the general acceptability of integrated worship. African American churches have long been the centers of communities, serving as school
Slaves had their churches they could attend or plantation “praise houses”. There they would sing and dance. But, slave holders did not allow dancing and playing the drums like they did in Africa. They also had secret meetings. They had to meet to share their joy, pains and there hopes for the future.
Slave Song History It can be said that Slave songs was born in Africa and that slaves or Africans brought their customs or rituals to America. Singing songs was very important to the Africans because it acted as a form of communication. In the home country of Africa the songs that the people sang told a lot about the communities the people dwelt in, like the condition of the tribes or about nature. African songs were also used to express the religious beliefs of the Africans, whether it is God or gods or to ward of those spirits that they thought meant harm. The Africans also used songs to tell about what happened in the community.
the black people in America suffered from the police interference in their lives and were even imprisoned even though they were not guilty. It is obvious that every human being has dreams. Martin Luther King had a dream too, which was seeing the world in peace and having equality rule the world. He dreamt about having brotherhood and seeing black and whites “sit down together at the tale of brotherhood”. To conclude, black people all over the world, wherever they live were for a long time victim of racism for their skin color.