Warning: Thickets of parsing through a song’s lyrics word by word ahead. Enter at your own risk! Let me start by quoting myself from the post “How Did We Get the Spirituals?”— The simplified explanation of how black spirituals came about goes like this: slaves heard about Christianity after arriving in the US and, especially on the southern plantations, came up with sung versions of those teachings that gave them hope of a better life, expressed their longings for deliverance, and often served as rhythmic work songs. There’s the added wrinkle that the spirituals are true folk songs; that is, ... Read more

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