“The Influence and Inspiration of Negro Spirituals in the Black Worship Experience” by Jonathan Snodgrass
The Influence and Inspiration of Negro Spirituals in the Black Worship Experience
By
Jonathan Snodgrass
Scripture: Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness…Psalm 96:9a (NIV)…singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts…Ephesians 5:19 (NLT)
Anybody who has experienced or participated in an African-American Christian worship service will admit that there is an undeniable difference between the way American Blacks worship and the worship of other racial and ethnic groups. Many modern philosophers of our day debate about whether Black worship is an experience or an expression. I am of the opinion that it is an experience, it is an expression, and it is an engaging encounter with an everlasting and eternal God who is worthy of our worship.
Because people of African descent in North America tend to view life as a single system, worship is integrative, holistic, and experiential. Traditionally, it has been inextricably woven into the fabric of everyday life. Born in slavery, raised under Jim Crow segregation, and reared in discrimination, African-American worship is inseparably linked with Black life.
According to Pedrito Maynard-Reid in his book entitled, Diverse Worship- African-American, Caribbean and Hispanic Perspective, he says community is a grounding principle of Black worship, understood by African-Americans as an encounter involving God, the worshiper, and the broader community. James Cone, author of For My People. Black Theology and the Black Church concludes that worship is not primarily the expression of one’s private devotion to God, but is rather a community event. It is the “eschatological invasion of God into the gathered community of victims, empowering them with the divine Spirit from on high to keep on keeping on even though the odds might appear to be against them.” In Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s book Strength to Love, he says that at its core, and best, Black worship is a social experience in which people from all walks of life affirm their unity and oneness in God. Looking at all three of those perspectives, community is the common denominator. Community is and has been a very important part of Black culture. Most would agree that African-American Christian worship is the corporate celebration of what God, through Jesus Christ, has done for the entire community.
African-Americans during worship not only want to learn something, also want to be able to feel something. Our older saints used to say, “I wouldn’t have a religion that I couldn’t feel.” This implied that not only did they wish to know God, but they also want to feel and experience God. Highly emotional worship celebrations have been the center of the African-American church life for many years. Centered around these highly emotional worship celebrations was the music. The religious roots for African American worship in song and dance can be found in the Old Testament. The concept of worship through song is first introduced in the fifteenth chapter of Exodus when the children of Israel witness the miracle of God parting the Red Sea and subsequently destroying Pharaoh and his army.
Moses first engages the Israelites worship by singing a song of praise and later Miriam, the sister of Aaron, praised God with the timbrel and danced. From biblical times to today, music in worship has played a very important part in influencing and inspiring the Black community. J. Wendell Mapson, author of The Ministry of Music in the Black Church asserts that the power of African-American worship is in the music, saying that Blacks will forgive poor preaching if the worship service can be salvaged with good music.
Historically, during slavery, music was used to beckon the faithful to a predetermined spot for worship. Slaves understood that music helped to create a feeling of freedom and liberation. Unlike the ancient Jews who refused to sing in a strange land (Psalm 137:1-4), slaves sang, bequeathing to Western culture a genre of music that is uniquely and authentically American… the Negro Spiritual. In the context of slavery the meaning of the Negro Spiritual was at once ambiguous and profound, transcendent and immanent, otherworldly and pertaining to this world. Thus, Negro Spirituals protested the social conditions in which Blacks were locked even as they pointed to a better day of freedom and justice. Negro Spirituals were primarily expressions of religious faith. Some may also have served as socio-political protests veiled as assimilation to white American culture. The term spiritual is derived from spiritual song, and derives from the King James Bible’s translation of Ephesians 5:19 says: “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.”
Slaves were forbidden from speaking their native languages and because they were unable to express themselves freely in ways that were spiritually meaningful to them, religious services were, at times, the only place slaves could legitimately congregate, socialize, and safely express feelings. From 1800 to 1825 slaves were exposed to the religious music of camp meetings. Spirituals were based on Christian psalms and hymns and merged with African music styles and secular American music forms. The lyrics of Negro Spirituals reference symbolic aspects of Biblical images such as Moses and Israel’s Exodus from Egypt in songs such as “Michael Row the Boat Ashore” and the Underground Railroad referencing songs such ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”. There is also a duality in the lyrics of spirituals. They communicated many Christian ideals while also communicating the hardship that was a result of being an African-American slave.
Many Negro Spirituals have been arranged for a more contemporary style of worship today. The liberation theology expressed during slavery has and is continuing to inspire and influence African-Americans through the element of worship. As the Scripture tells us, we should worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness while singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in our hearts…
About the Author:
My name is Jonathan Snodgrass and I am a band and choral director at the Academy for Science & Foreign Language in Huntsville, AL. I am an Associate Minister at the First Missionary Baptist Church in Huntsville where Dr. Julius R. Scruggs is pastor. My personal hobbies & interests include: taking family vacations, watching sports and listening to music. Currently I am obtaining a master’s degree in Educational Leadership & Administration. I would like to become a principal or assistant principal at any school where positive and effective leadership is needed. I am married to Lisa Snodgrass and we have two daughters, Kennady & Kendall. My favorite Scripture is Galatians 6:14a “May it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…”
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