Spirituals are a genre of religious songs that arose among enslaved African Americans on the plantations of the southern United States in the 18th and 19th centuries. In them are interwoven Christian biblical imagery, African singing traditions, and the unspeakable pain and hope of people deprived of freedom.
Spirituals were sung collectively, often in “call and response” form, where a soloist leads a line and the community answers. Biblical subjects — the deliverance of the people by Moses, the river Jordan — often carried a hidden meaning, speaking of the dream of freedom. Songs such as “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” and “Go Down Moses” are known throughout the world. Spirituals became the spiritual and musical root from which gospel, blues, and jazz later grew — and thus, to a large degree, all the popular music of the 20th century.
