Dr. Nelda Ormond, UDC Music Dept: The Spiritual

At the Edge: Think Culture

It was from, and because of the hard living conditions of slavery, the spiritual was born. The spiritual was the creation of the American slaves brought from Africa. Spirituals expressed the history, treatment, and thoughts of Black people in the United States. The combined experiences of Africa and America served to produce the spirituals. They served the propose of religious expression to communication, often by code. They possessed a folk literature that was varied and rich. They had their native musical endowment to begin with, and the Spirituals possessed the fundamental characteristics of African Music, rhythmic qualities, form and intervallic structure.