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"Eric Sean Crawford, associate professor of music and director of the Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies at Coastal Carolina University, examines the history and diffusion of Gullah spirituals, an important and at times overlooked aspect of Gullah culture in the Lowcountry and Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia. Crawford's work focuses primarily on the South Carolina sea island of St. Helena in Beaufort County. While much has been done to study, preserve, and interpret Gullah culture, Crawford writes, "the shouting and rowing songs, containing the strongest West African retentions, are mostly lost and forgotten. This book illuminates the remarkable history, survival, and influence of this island's music since the earliest recordings in the 1860s." While Crawford's focus may be the St. Helena spirituals, his study is not limited only to that one place. Instead he examines the diffusion and impact of the music and culture that emanated from this one small island community. He follows the Gullah spirituals through to the musical arrangements of the famed Hampton Singers and later shows how the songs served as a rallying point and cultural bridge, helping to build support for America's involvement in World War I and as a way of easing racial tensions both at home and abroad. He shows how patriotic texts and themes were added to the spirituals and helped to make them popular wartime songs. Hampton University folklorist Natalie Curtis, for example, used the melody from the St. Helena spiritual "Ride On, Jesus" in her wartime anthem "Hymn of Freedom," which was sung not only in churches of the time, but also to gatherings of American soldiers mobilizing for war. Part of the goal of the US Army in choosing the song was to build African American support for the war, and also ease racial tensions within the (still segregated) ranks. Later, civil rights activists in the 1950s and 60s would find their own spiritual and political uses for the songs, as many were rediscovered and disseminated throughout the country as protest songs. The songs were not reimagined as protest songs, but rather had always been, and Crawford traces this long trajectory "from their beginnings in West Africa and later oppression by white missionaries to their height as songs for social change and black identity in the twentieth century." Crawford--an ethnomusicologist by training--relies not only upon archival records, but also conducted his own fieldwork, personal recordings, and oral interviews to develop his understanding of St. Helena and its music. His work, however, diverges from these earlier studies in its attempt to tell the stories not only of the music, but also of the music makers. This includes song leaders Minnie Gracie Gadson and Deacon James Garfield Smalls, who Crawford discusses in Chapter 7 and who both shared their own knowledge and memory of the St. Helena spirituals with Crawford during his time conducting field recordings on the island. Finally, Crawford includes an appendix with more than fifty transcriptions of St. Helena spirituals, many no longer performed and more than half derived from his own transcriptions completed during his fieldwork. The "Gullah Songbook," as he calls it, includes notations on Gullah terminology and phrasing that is provided by educator/author/television personality Ron Daise, who was the receipient for the 2019 South Carolina Governor's Award for his work preserving and disseminating Gullah culture"--

Spirituals (Songs) --- Spirituals (Songs) --- Gullahs --- Political aspects --- History and criticism. --- Music --- History and criticism. --- United States. --- South Carolina

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A lavish presentation of 208 folksongs collected throughout Alabama in the 1940s.Alabama is a state rich in folksong tradition, from old English ballads sung along the Tennessee River to children's game songs played in Mobile, from the rhythmic work songs of the railroad gandy dancers of Gadsden to the spirituals of the Black Belt. The musical heritage of blacks and whites, rich and poor, hill folk and cotton farmers, these songs endure as a living part of the state's varied past.In the mid 1940s Byron Arnold, an eager young music professor from The University of Alab

Alabama -- Songs and music. --- Ballads, English -- Alabama. --- Folk songs, English -- Alabama. --- Spirituals (Songs) -- Alabama.

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Using ""The Negro Spiritual"" as a source material, this volume analyzes the methods employed by social scientists, historians and literary critics in studying African-American religion, and makes its own theological statement regarding African-American religion.

Black theology. --- African Americans --- Spirituals (Songs) --- African American theology --- Blacks --- Theology, Doctrinal --- Religion. --- History and criticism. --- Religion --- Black people

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Spirituals performed by jubilee troupes became a sensation in post-Civil War America. First brought to the stage by choral ensembles like the Fisk Jubilee Singers, spirituals anchored a wide range of late 19th-century entertainments, including minstrelsy, variety, and plays by both black and white companies. In this work on postbellum spirituals in theatrical entertainments, Sandra Jean Graham mines a trove of resources to chart the spiritual's journey from the private lives of slaves to the concert stage. Graham navigates the conflicting agendas of those who, in adapting spirituals for their own ends, sold conceptions of racial identity to their patrons.

African Americans --- Jubilee singers. --- Minstrel shows --- Spirituals (Songs) --- Musicians --- Afro-Americans --- Black Americans --- Colored people (United States) --- Negroes --- Africans --- Ethnology --- Blacks --- African American spirituals --- Afro-American spirituals --- Negro spirituals --- Folk songs, English --- Hymns, English --- African American minstrel shows --- Blackfaced minstrel shows --- Negro minstrel shows --- African Americans in the performing arts --- Revues --- Vaudeville --- Blackface entertainers --- Music --- History anc criticism. --- History --- History and criticism. --- Blackface --- Racism against Black people --- Anti-Black racism --- Antiblack racism --- Racism against Blacks --- Black people --- Impersonation --- American minstrelsy --- Minstrelsy --- Minstrelsy, American