All right, class, let's jump straight inside of today's lecture. Another one that I absolutely love as it relates to expression. African-Ribed religions are very heavy inside of artistic expression, specifically music. And today's lecture is actually going to be pretty extensive. It's actually going to be about two weeks worth of lecture.
So. Just give me or bear with me as I go throughout this material, because I really wanted to. I typically do it inside of two different lectures, but I'm starting to see that they kind of go very, very well together.
So you all just hang tight and hopefully it's going to be a very good lecture. You just got finished this past week listening to Redemption Song by Bob Marley. I love having the class look at that song in particular because it number one, the lyrics inside of the song are very, very powerful. Bob Marley has been. gone for quite a few years now, but his music still is very, very liberating.
It still speaks a very liberating message. And one of the things that we have to note with all African-derived religions, whether it be, as we looked at the other week, voodoo, or hoodoo, or sanctuary, or Yoruba, or Baptist, or Pentecostal, or CME, AME, Catholic, all of these African-derived religions, they are some elemistic nature of arts and the expression. Specifically, what we want to look at today is going to be the spirituals or specifically the Negro spirituals and how they played a part inside of American history as well as slave history.
So we're going to jump right into it. Spirituals or slave spirituals are generally Christian songs that were created by African slaves in the U.S. Spirituals were originally... oral tradition that imparted Christian values while also describing the hardships of slavery.
Let's get our notes in here. All songs, all songs, excuse me, all song lyrics had specific meanings and purpose, okay? Some lyrics, as we're going to find out, gave instruction. Some lyrics provided comfort. There we go.
Some lyrics provided comfort. And some lyrics told stories. We're going to look at a couple of examples today and how some of these lyrics, how some of these songs, which you may have heard in in worship settings and religious settings, we sing them today more as a remembrance. But when we look at the lyrics and some of their deeper meanings, we're going to find out some very, very interesting things, okay? Because many slaves knew the secret meanings in the songs, they could be used to signal many things.
For example, we're going to look at Harriet Tubman's Wade in the Water song. Y'all know the song, Wade in the Water, Wade in the Water, children, Wade in the Water. God's going to trouble the water. So typically when we hear this song, it's typically played inside of the Christian church environment during the time of baptism. OK, you all probably heard this song many, many a time.
It's almost like the go to song whenever somebody is being baptized. They always go to this song. But the truth of the matter is that this song has absolutely nothing to do with.
has absolutely nothing to do with baptism, but really is giving the slaves instructions. Harriet Tubman is giving the slaves secret instructions on what to do inside of the Underground Railroad as they're navigating this watery terrain. Okay.
Literally, Harriet Tubman is telling escaping slaves to get off the trail and into the water to make sure that dog slave catchers couldn't sniff out their trail. Here's the thing, people walking through water, the reason why, and I'm going to talk about lightning and thunder in a minute as well, but you always would run to the water because like I already said, the dog sniffers and the slave dog catchers, your scent is lost. And sometimes if it's windy enough, carry downstream so that those slave catchers, when they're coming.
when they're coming after you, they get redirected. Or they lose your scent because of the water. So now let's look at some of the lyrics inside of Wade in the Water and look at some of their secret meanings. OK, first we see Wade in the Water, Wade in the Water, Wade in the Water, children, Wade in the Water. God's going to trouble the water.
So the first thing that we see, and it's going to be very, very, very, very good. The first thing that we see, the wading in the water is. slaves'instructions to find water in order for slave catchers to lose their scent, okay? Then it says God's going to trouble the water. Now, this troubling of the water goes into biblical times.
where Jesus heals a man. Or should I say the connection is that when Jesus goes inside of the temple, he sees this guy next to this pool of water, the pool of Bethesda. And every single time the water is troubled or every single time the water is stirred up, the man or people around are able to jump in and get healing.
Now, that is a biblical connection. But what Harriet Tubman in what this song was literally telling the slaves is that you need to find moving water. OK, you don't want to be inside of stagnant lakes and ponds. No, this troubled water that has the biblical connection really is telling people you need to find moving water, because, again, that moving water is going to carry your scent downstream. There's also going to confuse slave catchers.
But then also one of the things that we see inside of a lot of the slave movies is that if you're going into troubled water, if you're going into moving water. Most dogs at that time were reluctant. So it actually bought you some time. Like literally slave catchers had to drag the dog inside the water because dogs know better. Like I know y'all are trying to go after the slaves, but I'm also trying to worry about my life as well.
But it says, you know, that you need to try to find this troubled water and this moving water for that reason. OK, then the first verse says, who are those children dressed in red? God's going to trouble the water. Must be the ones that Moses led.
God's going to trouble the water. Now, this illustration of red, excuse me, red represents, I'm expecting all of this to be inside of your assignment for this week as well. Okay. Red represents those who died along the way of the Underground Railroad.
okay red being what the color of blood okay be on the lookout for those blood-stained trees where slaves were hung okay the that red represents again all those who died along the way during the underground railroad how do we know that it was those who died along the way during the underground railroad because it says must be the ones that moses led if we know anything you about Harriet Tubman, she was considered to be the Moses. I'm just going to put Harriet Tubman, so HT, was considered to be the Moses of the time, leading her people to freedom. So we have this religious or this spiritual connection. But then we also have this contemporary connection of what's happening inside of the slave times. Now, then it says, who are those children all dressed in white?
God's going to trouble the water. Must be the ones of that must must be one of the Israelites. God's going to trouble the water.
Red. I mean, excuse me. White represents white represents.
those who were working the Underground Railroad. Those were working the Underground Railroad, okay? And if you know anything about African American history and the Underground Railroad, there were white individuals, Caucasian individuals, who were assisting inside of this process. of getting slaves from the South to the North.
And one of the things that they would do is they right before the slaves got into these safe houses, the white slave owner either had to have their white light on or off to signify that it was safe to enter or to approach the house. If they were under investigation, that light would stay on. As soon as that light went off, that was the clear to come on inside the house.
Let's get you all to your next destination, to your next point. This connects to the Israelites because the Israelites, inside the biblical text, were God's chosen people. And these people on the Underground Railroad, these Caucasian individuals on the Underground Railroad, were white, chosen people to assist the slaves go from the south to the north.
Every time y'all hear this song now inside of your churches, I hope that it brings about these memories of this lecture. And then also hope that you all can educate your church communities, if they are still singing this song, what the true meaning behind this is. And then the last verse says, who are those children dressed in blue? God's going to trouble the water, must be the ones that made it through. God's going to trouble the water.
Blue, inside of that time, represented the Confederacy. Blue represents the Confederacy. Okay. This was the color of the soldiers as well.
As the North was fighting with the South and whatnot, you had blue uniform, soldiers. There we go. You have blue uniformed soldiers.
And even that connection, again, must be the ones that made it through. Once you got to the Mason-Dixon line, OK, which is oftentimes blue on a map. The Mason-Dixon line, which is often blue on a map.
OK. So you can already see that these were a lot of the underlying tones and messages that were happening inside of this song in particular, okay? Now here's the thing.
Tubman also used slave songs to relay other messages. For example, sometimes she had to leave a group she was leading north to get food or other items that she needed. She would tell them to hide and wait for her signal. If she came back and sang the song two times, they would know it's safe to come out.
If she only sung the song once, the slaves knew that they had to stay where they were. But here's the thing. But if there was danger, slave catchers in the area, for example, she would sing another song.
She would sing a completely different song. So instead of singing Wade in the Water or Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, she might sing something like This is the Day or Blessed Assurance or Holy, Holy, Holy. And again, I want us to see that this was really like secret code that was happening.
Right in front of these slave owners. OK, and in her singing this different song and communicating to them, I mean, they're just thinking, here's this here's this old black lady singing these crazy songs. They had very, very specific and they were also very, very strategic in how they would be used. OK, this would mean that the group had to stand hiding until Tupmik sang the all clear song. However, if you didn't know the signal, you might think that Tupmik was just singing.
just to pass the time along, okay? And that's what these white slave owners were really thinking, that she was just singing a song just because she had a song inside of her heart, okay? Other slave songs used to signal were stuff like the Virginia slave Nat Turner, who organized a revolt against slave owners who used the song Steal Away, Steal Away.
It's a single to call people together to talk about their plans. Let's look at the words of Steal Away and let's analyze them. And they were also gonna look at the words of Swing Low.
sweet chariot very quickly, okay? The song says, steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus, steal away, steal away, I ain't got long to stay here. So when we see steal away, just interpret this, literally meant to stay in hiding, okay? Steal away to Jesus. Jesus represents salvation in the North.
Steal away home also represents the North as well. Okay. And then this line right here says, I ain't got long to stay here.
When this was sung, it was often sung to other slaves to let them know, hey, I'm finna leave. often sung to other slaves to let them know that they were ready to leave and join the Underground Railroad. Isn't that profound? Okay.
Now, here are instructions now inside of this song that are going to help the slaves, okay? It says, my Lord, he calls me, calls me by the name of Jesus. under the trumpet sounds.
It's in of my soul. I ain't got long to stay here. Then it says, my Lord, he calls me.
He calls me by the lightning, the trumpet sounds in of my soul. I ain't got long to stay here. The great thing about this part of the song is that it introduces the time in which the slaves are leaving. Okay. Introduces the time in which.
Slaves are leaving, which will be during a storm. OK, a storm. Now, why do we leave during the storm?
Because, number one, water is involved. OK, why leave during the storm? You've got water involved.
Again, the water is going to confuse the scent. of the slave dogs, or should I say the slave catchers dogs, okay? You also have thunder, which is going to cover the sound of slaves.
If there's a huge thunderstorm outside and you have slaves that are running through the woods, to hear their footsteps is going to be very, very difficult inside of the middle of a storm, okay? So he says, you know, he calls me by the thunder. In other words, this is the time where we got to go. We're not going in the middle of the day when it's bright, shiny, sun is out, birds are chirping.
No, no, no. We got to go during the time that is smart. OK, you have water, you have thunder, and then you also have time. Because of these elements, it buys the slaves time to get ahead of the slave master or catcher, even realizing that they're gone.
Now, why is lightning used in this? Let's come down here. Because as we discussed.
Not long ago, slaves and also African cosmology is big on astrology and is big on the cosmos and is big on weather and nature. OK, lightning. It was a reminder.
This whole notion of lightning, lightning helps to time our movement. If you did not know. You can actually time when thunder is happening based on the location and intensity of lightning. Literally, I'm just going to give you all an example. Literally, they would be running through the woods, running through the woods.
Thunder, lightning, whole nine yards is going. But then, of course, now you just have rain. And now you just have this moment of silence or whatnot, where it's just rain, where they would stop.
They would literally stop inside of their tracks. They still got the slave masters coming up behind them. And then lightning strikes.
And then thunder comes. Boom. This is time to move.
Keep going. Keep going. Keep going.
And then lightning strikes. You always watch this. You always hear lightning before you. I mean, I'm sorry.
You always see lightning before you hear the thunder. Why? Because light travels. Exactly.
To all of my to all of my science here, light travels faster than sound. And the slaves knew this because of their African connections. So because they know that light travels faster than sound, they were able to time based on when they saw the lightning, when they would hear the thunder, that would then help them move forward.
Okay? The last song we're going to look at is going to be Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, Coming Forward to Carry Me Home. Some of y'all have heard this, and it was made popular inside of, oh my goodness, the song with Mark Cuban Gooding. And Beyonce, y'all put it inside the comments. Y'all put it inside the comments.
I can't remember what it is now. But this song, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, coming for to carry me home. Swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home. The chariot inside of this song was a literal wagon. It told people, told slaves to stay low in the wagon, in the wagon to avoid.
being seen by slave catchers. Okay? Literally told them to stay low, swing low, sweet chariot, come for the carry me home.
Because again, you all might've seen this out of some movies, slaves hung out and hid inside of these wagons. That's going to bother me. And hid inside of some of these wagons as they were traveling along these roads. So this was just a reminder.
Look, stay low. Keep your head down. I know you're nosy.
I know you probably want to see what's going on, but no, stay low. Sweet chariot, because it's going to be carrying you home. What does home represent again?
Home represents the North. I would love for you all to have these kind of conversations with like your grandparents or. older or elders, aunts and uncles, even some of your older pastors in Sunday school, teachers with regards to some of this information, because I believe it's really, really good.
Then it says swing home, swing area, come for the Caribbean. I looked over Jordan, and what did I see? Coming for the Caribbean home.
Jordan inside of the biblical context was this huge, long body of water. The Jordan River literally runs almost all the way through Africa, you could say. What Jordan represents inside of this text And the reason why we have this connection is to what? The Mississippi River, M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I, the Mississippi River, which was the guiding point to going north. Because if you follow the Mississippi River, you know you're going inside of the right direction.
OK, what did I see come from carrying me home? A band of angels coming after me. This band of angels represents, again, those helpers on the Underground Railroad. uh who would literally go from one chariot i mean inside of this uh method slaves would go from one chariot to the next wagon to the next wagon to the next wagon okay uh those workers who were assisting in the underground railroad okay um and then coming up Come for to carry me home.
If you get there before I do, come in for to carry me home. Tell my friends that I'm coming to. Now, inside of the alliteration of this, it's the idea, the idea that home is heaven.
And if you get there before me, tell everyone. I am coming. In actuality, this was code for we are leaving at the same time, taking different routes.
So in other words, things are going to happen along the way. You may have to divide yourself. You may have to...
take the wagon versus the horses. You might have to take a boat instead of you. You have to stay inside of somebody's house longer than normal. This literally meant that, hey, we're leaving at the same time. We're going to take different routes.
Look, if you get to the north before I do, tell my family I'm on the way. Taking different routes. If you get there before me, tell my family I am on. the way. Wow.
Now, like I said, with regards to artistic expression inside of the African-derived religions, we have the Negro spiritual, we have the hymns and whatnot that we just went over. But I also want to go over these last, these other three things that are very prominent inside of the African-American religious experience, which are the ring shout and plantation dances, the call and response, and then the Black preaching styles. Now, I did this a couple of weeks ago. And the audio. And video did not go too well.
So what I'm going to try to do, or as a matter of fact, I want you all to inside of your own research to just to just Google or YouTube, specifically YouTube, YouTube these specific things so you can actually see what they look like. OK, the ring shot and plantation dances was a shout or ring shout. It's an it's an aesthetic, transcendent religious ritual.
First practice by African slaves in the West Indies in the United States in which worshipers moved in a circular notion while shuffling and stomping their feet and clapping their hands. Now, to see this, you have to literally see people inside of a circle, and they're literally just dancing in a circle. They're literally just dancing inside of a circle.
And what this was used for, this was used for community. Let's come up here. Used, oh, that doesn't have to be read. used to perpetuate community or bring community together. It was also used ritualistically.
In other words, if they wanted to, you know, bless the land or if they wanted, you know. to bless their crops or, you know, pray for rain or whatnot. It was used, it was used ritualistically, but then also was used as expression, used as artistic expression.
Y'all know African Americans, Black folk, we just like to dance, okay? This is the bottom line. We just like to dance.
And inside of that dancing, let me just put this in here, what would happen is that those participants, would experience a spiritual transcendence. In other words, they would get so encompassed inside of the dance that it would literally take them somewhere spiritually. Have y'all ever been to like, you know, a worship environment, even if you've been to the club or just been to a party and you're dancing so hard and you're dancing, you're so into it where it literally feels like a spiritual experience. It literally takes you to a different place.
Okay. Then we have the call and response. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago inside of one of the first lectures, but I really want to delve into it a little bit more inside of this lecture. This is the succession of two distinct phrases usually played by different musicians where the second phrase is heard as a direct commentary or response to the first. There's one or a couple actually that I want you all to look up and to Google.
One is God me, O thy great Jehovah. God me, O thou great. And I want you to look at that one in particular, because what you're going to see is this play on communication. OK, in other words, one person is going to say one thing and then the congregation is going to respond. And then the other person is going to say something else.
Then the congregation is going to respond. Then the other person is going to say something else. Then the congregation is going to respond.
OK, there are so many different examples of this, especially inside of specifically like your Baptist. denomination. But the reason behind this has absolutely nothing to do with music, has absolutely nothing to do with hymns. It has absolutely nothing to do with, you know, this religious experiment. No, it literally has to do with literacy and retention, okay?
Because people could not read, the words had to be spoken. or sung to them. This included the Bible, okay?
So if you wanted to learn a song or if you wanted to learn a verse, you couldn't read, so guess what? Somebody had to read it or somebody had to sing it to you, okay? And then also with regards to retention, music is the easiest way to learn anything.
And we even see this inside of our education, which was in my opinion, taken from African-American culture, the fact that most of the things that we know are connected to music. Think about it, A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Even from the very beginning, we're introduced to concepts as far as music. Those who might have learned all the states, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, some kind of rhythm.
There are a lot of people who can't quote the preamble or the... the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence, but they can quote every single word on Kendrick Lamar or Jay-Z or Ariana Grande or whatever musical artist that they like. They can quote every single word on that.
Why is that? Because the call and response. That African influence, even inside of our music and our culture, helps with literacy and retention. Why do you all think, and this is just kind of going deep inside of the second half of the semester, but why do you think that there are certain communities who want to censor hip hop, rap, and other styles of lyrical form? Because as you are hearing it.
As you are retaining it, guess what? It becomes a part of you. OK, so I want you to look up God Me Obed, Great Jehovah.
See if you can find find some old videos. So just you can really see how it's going. And like I said, some of your churches, some of your churches inside of your area might still do this. I know there's my home church here in Atlanta.
They still do it every single Sunday. They line they call it lining. So they line these hymns.
OK, the last thing that you have is then the different preaching styles. OK, you cannot go to any black or should I say no black church is the same as far as the preaching experience. OK, I also want you all to look at look up these three specific styles as well. So you can really see the differences between them.
OK, first is the hooping style. Now, the hooping is this melodic expression, often with musical undertone that creates the climax and the sermonic moment. If you want some examples, just in case you type in hooping inside of inside of Google and you.
And you get like people whooping folk. Let me give you all some examples. E. Dewey Smith. Type in E.
Dewey Smith closing sermon. Type in Reginald Sharp. Reginald Sharp.
These are just some current folk that I know and know that you'll find some good stuff. Reginald Sharp closing sermon. And then Mark Moore Jr.
Let's do Mark. I like these guys. Mark Moore Jr. closing sermon.
This is where you find, and y'all laughing and people make fun of it, but this is where you find those preachers who you know, and the Lord said, be thou not dismayed for God. They do all that kind of stuff. That's the hooping preacher. Then you have the teaching preacher. These are the preachers.
who take more of an academic approach. You can look at people like Dean Carter, Dean Lawrence Carter over at Morehouse. You can also look at Dean Nichelle Guidry, who was actually one of my classmates at Clark Atlanta when I took a class at Clark.
Dean Nichelle Guidry, G-U-I-D-R-Y, sorry. Who else is a good teaching? William Barber.
Bishop William Barber. He was actually one of my Morehouse brothers. I mean, one of my Alpha brothers as well.
But they take on this academic approach. I actually teach. If y'all want to look at some of my surveys. We take on this academic approach to understanding the complexities of God and the Bible.
And we push people inside of our sermons to really think about the context of the scripture, who the scripture was written to, how it was written, why it was written. Just, you know, it's less entertaining. The teaching style is less entertaining and more informational. Okay.
Then you have exhortation and address or communication and urging something to do something, to do something. This is where you have a lot of your prosperity preachers. And I'm going to have to actually look up some and probably send them to you all. But just, I mean, you can just YouTube, you know, prosperity preachers, prosperity gospel. You know, these are people, I mean, you can, I mean, Joel Osteen, Joyce Myers, Jesse Duplantis, just to give some examples.
But look up, look up, look at some of these preachers and kind of listen to how they preach and then just begin to see those different styles. that they use inside of the preaching moment. Like I said, everyone is different.
Everyone is different. I hope and I pray that this lecture was very informative and that you all will share this information. Again, for your papers, your upcoming assignments, make sure that as many of these class notes are inside of your assignment.