The Word of God Made Song: The Cultural Impact of the African American Spiritual

The paper focuses on several of the most well-known spirituals (Sing Low, Sweet Chariot; Go Down Moses; Down by the Riverside) and looks at how the words of the Bible and the sermons of preachers inspired the lyrics of these songs. The words of the spirituals, inspired in particular by the Biblical stories of the enslavement of the Israelites in Egypt, liberation and the reaching of the Promised Land mirrored the plight of African Americans not only during slavery, but during the Reconstruction era and up to the time of the Civil Rights movement. The Fisk Jubilee Singers were pioneers in introducing the genre, not only to the rest of the United States, but also to the world.