The spirituals are the religious folk songs created and first sung by African Americans in slavery. In fact, many Americans from all ethnic backgrounds can remember growing up with these songs, which were created by a circumscribed community of people in bondage but eventually came to be regarded as the first signature music of the new American nation. In time, the spirituals were offered as a gift to the whole world, exerting their cultural impact well into this last part of the twentieth century.
Many people ask what the difference is between the spirituals and Black gospel music.
Simply put, the spirituals are the Southern sacred folk songs created and first sung by African Americans during slavery. Their original composers are unknown, and they have assumed a position of collective ownership by the whole community. They lend themselves easily to communal singing. A formal concert tradition has evolved from the original spirituals, with solo and choral arrangements based on original slave melodies, employed for performance by amateur and professional artists. Black gospel music originated in the churches of the urban North in the 1920 s, and has been the predominant music of the twentieth century Black Church.