Two Recordings of Traditional Spirituals: Soundcite Analysis

The first recording here is a song performed for John and Ruby Lomax by Viola Brown. It is entitled Jesus Is My Only Friend and has a total of four verses. It alternates between Jesus, Jesus Is My Friend... and two unique verses. The first starts with the line: When My Room Becomes A Public Hall , and the second unique verse acts as the final verse of the song, with the lyric of When My Face Becomes A Looking Glass .

These lyrics express a feeling of safety and refuge that the singer, and when it originated, the songwriter, find in their religion. When they feel isolated, forgotten, or like they have lost their way, they find friendship and solace God. The song sends an uplifting message, by way of a lighthearted and joyful melody.

The second Spiritual selected from Southern Mosaic is titled Hell Down Yonder, and carries a different tone with it than the first. Rather than a song of refuge, the lyrics state that There's A Fire Down Yonder and I, Don't Wanna Go... The song continues with only slight changes in wording, which are not fully distinguishable in the recording, continuing to declare that when they die, the don't want to go to Hell. This song functions as a reminder of mortality, and that one should live a moral life on earth in order to avoid punishment in the afterlife--a grim thought, but one which would motivate believers to practice their faiths with dedication and fervour.

As referenced in Sam Polite’s personal narrative, often times groups of slaves met for praise and worship on their own, outside of the white churches their masters attended. This functioned as one of the biggest sources of African American spirituals, which were sung for a variety of purposes. “Uptake of the [Christian] religion was relatively slow at first,” especially as many slaves were converted because of their masters’ choice of religion, and had no say in the matter (African American Spirituals). However, Christianity was gradually incorporated into the lives of many enslaved Africans as the Biblical stories of the old testament carried with them a message of familiarity and hope. They contained “parallels to their own lives and [inspired] spirituals that retold narratives about Biblical figures like Daniel and Moses,” and these stories and songs allowed for a new means of expressing the sorrows and hopes of daily life, in a manner which seemed fairly innocuous to white slave owners (African American Spirituals). This dichotomy of sorrow and hope found in Christianity generated two main genres of spirituals—“sorrow songs,” which are “intense, slow, and melancholic,” and jubilees, which are joyful and have quicker rhythms and melodies (African American Spirituals). A comparison for these would be the two songs featured in this exhibit. “Hell Down Yonder” has an intensity a slowness to it, to truly drive home the message of the lyrics. In contrast, “Jesus is My Only Friend” is a celebration of the refuge one can take in the lord.

Additionally, the African spirituals that arose during slavery served a dual purpose as abolitionism picked up around the country in the 19th century. Songs which were seemingly about the Promised Land or reaching Heaven often carried a double meaning, in which the "Promised Land" or "Canaan" was code for the North, where slaves where free. Harriet Tubman herself used spirituals such as "Go Down Moses" to "identify herself to slaves who might want to go north" (African American Spirituals). In these ways, spirituals served a purpose beyond musical entertainment, or even worship. They provided a mental escape for those who were enslaved, a way to focus on something other than the hardship they faced in daily life, and with time African spirituals provided a pathway to freedom as well.

African American Spirituals. Online Text. https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200197495/.

Lomax, John A, Ruby T Lomax, and Viola Brown. Jesus Is My Only Friend. Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, June 9, 1939. Audio. https://www.loc.gov/item/lomaxbib000592/.

Unidentified Performers, John A Lomax, and Ruby T Lomax. Hell Down Yonder. near Sand Springs, South Carolina, 1939. Audio. https://www.loc.gov/item/lomaxbib000528/.