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.