African slaves who were captured and brought to the United States created the Negro spirituals. Their spiritual songs reflected the slaves’ need to express their new faith. They communicated with one another through songs, without the master knowing. This was particularly the case when a slave was planning to escape bondage and to seek freedom on the Underground Railroad. There is a record of approximately 6,000 spirituals or sorrow songs. Spirituals were passed orally from person to person.

Spirituals were call and response, a pattern of musical organization that was ubiquitous in the regions of West and Central Africa. Folk spirituals were typically accompanied only by handclaps and foot stomps. Many spirituals, known as “sorrow songs,” are slow and intense. Songs like “Nobody knows de trouble I’ve seen,” and “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child,” describe the slaves’ struggles with the suffering of Jesus Christ. Other spirituals are more joyful, which is known as “jubilees”. The Negro spirituals experienced a renaissance when a group of students from newly founded Fisk University toured the United States singing Negro spirituals to raise money for their school. Spirituals are not hymns. Hymns are structured and traditional songs which are sung by a church congregation, written in four-part harmony, have a particular rhythm, and the melodies of the lyrics are interchangeable.