In the antebellum South these songs of worship were developed as communal experience. Because slaves were often forbidden to assemble in large numbers except for worship, spirituals were at once a release from daily cares, an expression of faith, and a password to freedom. Using careful analysis, they will also identify double meanings and coded phrases within these spirituals, words that pointed slaves perhaps to contacts on the Underground Railroad, meeting places, and, more generally, to freedom. I have often been utterly astonished, since I came to the north, to find persons who could speak of the singing, among slaves, as evidence of their contentment and happiness. It is impossible to conceive of a greater mistake.
Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy.
At least, such is my experience. I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness. Crying for joy, and singing for joy, were alike uncommon to me while in the jaws of slavery. Answers will vary, of course, but emphasize the context of the development of spirituals and remind students of the elements of slave life that they have been studying. The survival of the slave regime depended on a rigid set of rules that dictated or attempted to dictate the structure of existence.