Thomas Wentworth Higginson’s Slave Songs and Spirituals

Thomas Wentworth Higginson’s Slave Songs and Spirituals

Pages 112-117

Thomas Wentworth Higginson starts off by acknowledging where he heard these slave songs and how they made him and other feel. He also noticed that many of them were dissimilar to each other depending on the region. They all had similar tones and sounds, just different messages and structure. Thus he goes on to examine specific songs.

The first one: “Hold Your Light,” he said “would be sung for half an hour at a time, perhaps, each person present being named in turn” (Page 114). “Hold your light, [insert name here], Hold your light, Hold your light on Canaan’s shore” (Page 113).

“Another picturesque song, which seemed immensely popular, was at first very bewildering to me. I could not make out the first words of the chorus, and called it the ‘Romandar,’ being reminded of some Romanic song which I had formerly heard” (Page 114). It’s interesting to note that to the common white folk, it was difficult to tell exactly what the slave songs were singing because the accent was exaggerated in song. “O, my mudder is gone! my mudder is gone! My mudder is gone into heaven, my Lord! I can’t stay behin! Dere’s room in dar, room in dar, Room in dar, in de heaven, my lord! I can’t stay behind, Can’t stay behind, my dear, I can’t stay behind!” (Page 114). Then the song would repeat with “Oh, my fader is gone!” and “O, de angels are gone!” (Page 115).

It is difficult to feel the full effect of how these songs made people feel without hearing them with one’s own ears. Kyle F. made the following powerful youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7ejJPp8wdU.

“Almost all their songs were thoroughly religious in their tone, however quaint their expression, and were in a minor key, both as to words and music. The attitude is always the same, and as a commentary on the life of the race, is infinitely pathetic. Nothing but patience for this life, --nothing but triumph in the next. Sometimes the present predominates, sometimes the future; but the combination is always implied. In the following, for instance, we hear simply the patience” (Page 117).

I enjoyed this song because I remember seeing the film in class. In the film, it explained that when the slaves were escaping to freedom, sometimes they had to cross a specific river, and if they saw one lamp burning, they were free to cross, but if they saw two lamps, it was unsafe and they wouldn’t be protected if they crossed the river. “Brudder, keep your lamp trimmin’ and a-burnin’, Keep your lamp trimmin’ and a-burnin’, Keep your lamp trimmin’ and a-burnin’, For dis world most done. So keep your lamp, &c. Dis world most done” (Page 117). It’s also common that whenever someone is kidnapped or missing from home, that the owners of that home will keep their lamp burning or their porch lights on so that the missing always know that they are missed and still welcome home if they ever find their way back home. I think this song might have been inspired by this idea as well.

The American Anti-Slavery Society Declares Its Sentiments, From The Liberator

The American Anti-Slavery Society Declares Its Sentiments, From The Liberator

By William Lloyd Garrison

Pages 329-333

This piece was written to ask for the immediate freedom of all slaves, black or white, on the basis of principle. At first, the article would talk about the Declaration of Independence and then it would talk about specific points and arguments within and outside of the Declaration as more reasons why slaves deserve freedom. In a way, this paper is in itself another Declaration of Independence. 

“The corner-stone upon which they founded the Temple of Freedom was broadly this—‘That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, LIBERTY         , and the pursuit of happiness’” (Page 329). All Americans at least have some part of this excerpt of the Declaration learned by heart, either because we had to learn it in school, or simply because we’ve heard the phrases over and over again. Either way, Americans today don’t really analyze what any of this means. To us, it means that soldiers fight for us to be free, to live, and to try and be happy. However, Americans in this time period always analyzed the Declaration and realized that they have the right to live, the right of liberty to hold property, and to pursue happiness. Even the way it was written in the times disregarded slaves in that they could NOT hold property, and how ever could they attain happiness being a slave?

Garrison even compares the American Revolution to what would be their own revolution: “Their measures were physical resistance—the marshalling in arms—the hostile array—the mortal encounter. Ours shall be such only as the opposition of moral purity to moral corruption—the destruction of error by the potency of truth—the overthrow of prejudice by the power of love—and the abolition of slavery by the spirit of repentance” (Page 330). Garrison continues in a fashion that almost seems disapproving of the American Revolution because they didn’t have a worthy cause, in his opinion. “Their grievances, great as they were, were trifling in comparison with the wrongs and sufferings of those for whom we plead. Our fathers were never slaves—never bought and sold like cattle—never shut out from the light of knowledge and religion—never subjected to the lash of brutal taskmasters” (Page 330). Garrison then appeals to the reader’s sense of ethos and pathos by saying that slaves “are ruthlessly torn asunder—the tender babe from the arms of its frantic mother—the heart-broken wife from her weeping husband—at the caprice or pleasure of irresponsible tyrants. For the crime of having a dark complexion, they suffer the pangs of hunger, the infliction of stripes, the ignominy of brutal servitude. They are kept in heathenish darkness by laws expressly enacted to make their instruction a criminal offence” (Page 330).

At this point, it is clear that Garrison is outraged by slavery. He goes on to say: “We further maintain—that no man has a right to enslave or imbrute his brother—to hold or acknowledge him, for one moment, as a piece of merchandize—to keep back his hire by fraud—or to brutalize his mind, by denying him the means of intellectual, social and moral improvement. The right to enjoy liberty is inalienable. To invade it is to usurp the prerogative of Jehovah. Every man has a right to his own body—to the products of his own labor—to the protection of law—and to the common advantages of society. It is piracy to buy or steal a native African, and subject him to servitude. Surely, the sin is as great to enslave an American as an African” (Page 331). The piece then continues to immediately ask for the release of all slaves among other requests/demands.

An Address to the Public

Benjamin Franklin, Nov. 9, 1789

Pages 189-190 

Benjamin Franklin, although he had owned slaves, including Peter, he eventually saw the horrors of slavery and took on the mission of proving to the world that slavery was unjust and attempted to stop it. He even remarked: “Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils” (Page 189).  

 

Benjamin Franklin

I found it interesting how he basically pre-empted Social Darwinism by saying “The unhappy man, who has long been treated as a brute animal, too frequently sinks beneath the common standard of the human species. The galling chains, that bind his body, do also fetter his intellectual faculties, and impair the social affection of his heart” (Page 190). It is for reasons such as this, that he proposes a new plan. “Encouraged by this success, and by the daily progress of that luminous and benign spirit of liberty, which is diffusing itself throughout the world, and humbly hoping for the continuance of the divine blessing on our labours, we have ventured to make an important addition to our original plan, and do therefore earnestly solicit the support and assistance of all who can feel the tender emotions of sympathy and compassion, or relish the exalted pleasure of beneficence” (Page 189). 

Then, Franklin begins bashing slavery, saying it “is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils” (Page 189). He even slightly shows his emotions of slavery by explaining some of what slaves feel. This is quite interesting because you would most already know what slaves are going through and simply don’t care. By doing this, Franklin appeals to their ethos. “Accustomed to move like a mere machine, by the will of a master, reflection is suspended; he has not the power of choice; and reason and conscience have but little influence over his conduct, because he is chiefly governed by the passion of fear. He is poor and friendless; perhaps worn out by extreme labour, age, and disease” (Page 190). He then believes because they are so “accustomed” to this horrible lifestyle that it isn’t within their power to change or even want to change. “Under such circumstances, freedom may often prove a misfortune to himself, and prejudicial to society” (Page 190).  

 

Slave: Am I Not a Man and a Brother?

Franklin knows it would be difficult to have the whole country accept freeing all of the slaves overnight, so he at least hopes to raise awareness of the issue. “Attention to emancipated black people, it is therefore to be hoped, will become a branch of our national policy; but, as far as we contribute to promote this emancipation, so far that attention is evidently a serious duty incumbent on us, and which we mean to discharge to the best of our judgment and abilities” (Page 190). Not only is emancipation, what Franklin is proposing, a very radical idea for the time, he even goes on to say that it will help the national public good of society. “To instruct, to advise, to qualify those, who have been restored to freedom, for the exercise and enjoyment of civil liberty, to promote in them habits of industry, to furnish them with employments suited to their age, sex, talents, and other circumstances, and to procure their children an education calculated for their future situation in life; these are the great outlines of the annexed plan, which we have adopted, and which we conceive will essentially promote the public good, and the happiness of these our hitherto too much neglected fellow-creatures” (Page 190). As Ms. Quosigk would say, “Whoa!” What a powerful statement. It’s a wonder Franklin wasn’t assassinated for this hugely radical idea. The last paragraph is simply asking the general public to make donations to help their cause, which really makes me wonder how many people donated, and if so how much.