Hymns & Spirituals

The "spiritual" is a religious song created by African slaves in the United States. The word "spiritual" was first used as a noun in the 1860s. The phrase "spiritual song" was used previously. Spirituals resulted from the fusion of African music and European music. They were always passed and learned orally due to slaves not being allowed to read and write.

Slavery robbed Africans of their culture, religion, language, etc., which led to slaves taking up the religion of their owners (Christianity). Spirituals were often used as a way to teach and remember Bible stories, but they served the dual purpose of giving advice to those slaves who planned to escape. For example, "Follow the Drinking Gourd" reminded the slaves to escape in the direction of the Big Dipper constellation, to the North

After slavery was abolished, spirituals lost some of their purpose and threatened to die out, but touring groups of African-Americans in the 1870s kept them in the public consciousness. Composers began to use spirituals as bases for their own arrangements. In the 1930s, the WPA (Works Progress Administration) documented the lives of former slaves, the effect music had on their experiences, and the songs themselves.

(Note: The WPA was a part of FDR's New Deal; therefore, without FDR's attempted recovery measures for the Depression, we may never have had spirituals officially documented. Additionally, that means at the time of Mockingbird, spirituals for the most part had no academic or musical documentation of any sort.)

Francis Hall Johnson:

True enough, this music was transmitted to us through humble channels, but its source is that of all great art everywhere—the unquenchable, divinely human longing for a perfect realization of life. It traverses every shade of emotion without spilling over in any direction. Its most tragic utterances are without pessimism, and its lightest, brightest moments have nothing to do with frivolity. In its darkest expressions there is always a hope, and in its gayest measures a constant reminder. Born out of the heart-cries of a captive people who still did not forget how to laugh, this music covers an amazing range of mood. Nevertheless, it is always serious music and should be performed seriously, in the spirit of its original conception.

Links:
The Gospel Truth About the Negro Spiritual: Great explanation of the spiritual vs. the gospel.
Negro Spiritual: Detailed breakdown of the history of the spiritual.