The Vernacular Tradition: Spirituals and Gospel Music
In our text, Henry Louis Gates points out the nebulous line between the 'spiritual' and 'gospel' music. This line, according to Gates "is so slight that it seems contrived" (19). The Spirituals that are featured in our text represent the early modes of coping during the early days of slavery. Spirituals such as "Go Down Moses" were the means by which slaves articulated their earthly sufferings and covertly militated against the horrors of bondage. These songs were not restricted to the church, but were integrated into the daily life of the slave. For the slave of the plantation, there was no finite distinction between 'the sacred and the secular,' for spirituality was part of daily existence. Gates quotes Lawrence Levine who observed that for the slave, "the concept of the sacred signified a strong will to incorporate 'within this world all the elements of the divine'": a characteristic thread that connected the generations ...