Amazing Grace: Influences of the KJB on the Negro Spiritual

Oeida M. Hatcher, Lynchburg College

Dr. Oeida M. Hatcher is Associate Professor of Music and Dean of the School of Communication and the Arts at Lynchburg College. She also conducts the Wind Symphony and LC Orchestra.

Abstract

The King James Bible has been cherished by generations of African American Christians as a source of comfort, inspiration, insight and empowerment. The language and imagery used in this bible continues to support passionate prayers, inform sermons and Sunday School lessons, and stimulate creative expression in art, music, drama, and other forms of cultural performance.

The spiritual is a musical form indigenous to the religious experiences of Africans and their descendants in the United States. Slave composers (Charles Tindley, H.T. Burleigh, John Johnson, Thomas Dorsey, Wallace Willis) created something entirely new when they integrated traditional African rhythms with passages taken from the King James Bible. These new melodies, retranslated texts, and stylistic difference set these hymns apart and soon became known as Negro Spirituals.

Expressions of faith, spirituals served many purposes as each communicated Christian ideals and the hardship that resulted from being enslaved. Africans and their American descendents employed the English Bible, affectionately known as ‘King Jimmy’ with the critical vision shaped by their life experiences and the observations of Christianity shared by the white people who enslaved them. Their music did not focus on resentment or hatred, but instead, carried a message of healing and forgiveness, leaving an unforgettable mark on the black community.

Negro Spirituals represented a turbulent chapter of Antebellum (Pre-Civil War) and Postbellum America and are just as relevant today as a century ago. These hymns and their lessons intersect class, gender, racial, religious, and geographical boundaries. The legacies of the Spirituals are seen in numerous denominations (Baptist, Methodist, Disciples of Christ) that have adopted these works with slight modifications. These beautiful melodies are represented in American Folk-Culture as well as Academia.

 
Oct 1st, 10:45 AM Oct 1st, 12:00 PM

Amazing Grace: Influences of the KJB on the Negro Spiritual

Room A

The King James Bible has been cherished by generations of African American Christians as a source of comfort, inspiration, insight and empowerment. The language and imagery used in this bible continues to support passionate prayers, inform sermons and Sunday School lessons, and stimulate creative expression in art, music, drama, and other forms of cultural performance.

The spiritual is a musical form indigenous to the religious experiences of Africans and their descendants in the United States. Slave composers (Charles Tindley, H.T. Burleigh, John Johnson, Thomas Dorsey, Wallace Willis) created something entirely new when they integrated traditional African rhythms with passages taken from the King James Bible. These new melodies, retranslated texts, and stylistic difference set these hymns apart and soon became known as Negro Spirituals.

Expressions of faith, spirituals served many purposes as each communicated Christian ideals and the hardship that resulted from being enslaved. Africans and their American descendents employed the English Bible, affectionately known as ‘King Jimmy’ with the critical vision shaped by their life experiences and the observations of Christianity shared by the white people who enslaved them. Their music did not focus on resentment or hatred, but instead, carried a message of healing and forgiveness, leaving an unforgettable mark on the black community.

Negro Spirituals represented a turbulent chapter of Antebellum (Pre-Civil War) and Postbellum America and are just as relevant today as a century ago. These hymns and their lessons intersect class, gender, racial, religious, and geographical boundaries. The legacies of the Spirituals are seen in numerous denominations (Baptist, Methodist, Disciples of Christ) that have adopted these works with slight modifications. These beautiful melodies are represented in American Folk-Culture as well as Academia.