Research Paper on:
Blues and Spirituals

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
difficult to imagine how enslaved Africans might have heard (this) passage from Exodus" (1990, p. 3). There were very few creative options open to Africans caught in the trap of  slavery, and any rebellion was met with severe physical retribution. However, as Spencer (1990) points out, music afforded slaves the opportunity to mask their sorrow and their protest within the  hope offered by religion. Spencer writes, "for the enslaved Africans, the first blows of liberation from bondage could only have been brought about by those liberated form a slave  mentality" (1990, p. 5). By using biblical imagery, slaves could sing of liberation, of the suppressed overcoming all obstacles. For example, the triumph of David over Goliath: "Little David  was a shepherd boy, / He killed Goliath and shouted for joy" (Spencer, 1990, p. 5). While everything else sent the message to the slave that slavery was  his natural condition, spirituals argued that they should be free -- "My Lord delivered Daniel/ and why not every man? " (Spencer, 1990, p. 8). As this demonstrates, spirituals were  theological "reflections of a long-standing practice of liberation and therefore songs of revelation and liberation" (Spencer, 1990, p. 8). As well as veiled protest, spirituals have served as a  means by which oppressed African Americans could expressed their extreme frustration, melancholy and longing. Intensely moving slow spirituals, such as Sometimes I feel like a motherless child and Were you  there when they crucified my Lord reveal the heartfelt emotion of the singer, as well as his own trials and troubles and subsequent identification with the suffering of Jesus Christ  (Oliver, et al, 1986). Nevertheless, some musical authorities feel that practically all spirituals are "codified songs of protest" (Oliver, et al, 1986). One can see this point in that many