Spirituals Book

Created by Africans enslaved in the American South and sung by protestors and worshiper to this day, spirituals powerfully combine despair and hope, anger and promise, protest and prayer. Known as contraband and often forbidden in the antebellum South, spirituals sometimes contained coded messages of protest, political happenings, and opportunities for escape. With their emphasis on the supportive rituals of the black Christian community and the worth of the African-American individual, spirituals demonstrate the failure of the American slave system to destroy the humanity and spirit of its victims.