Civil War Song in Black and White: Print and the Representation of the Spirituals

This article explores how White writers wrote about African American spirituals during and after the Civil War. While these writers tended to view Black speech as deficient, they were willing to regard Black musical expression as simply different, paving the way for its eventual nationalization as “...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Humanities (Basel) 2022-11, Vol.11 (6), p.142
Main Author: Wells, Jeremy Dwight
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abolitionists
African American
African Americans
American Civil War
American music
Artistic representation (Imitation)
Black culture
Civil war
Collectors
Folk music
music and nationalism
Music history
New York
Publishing
Religious music
spirituals
United Kingdom
White people
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Summary:This article explores how White writers wrote about African American spirituals during and after the Civil War. While these writers tended to view Black speech as deficient, they were willing to regard Black musical expression as simply different, paving the way for its eventual nationalization as “American music”. Noting that White writers were not in the habit of admitting the inadequacies of their preferred modes of representation, the article concludes that the print representation of the spirituals contributed to a transformation of what was meant by the word “American”.
ISSN:2076-0787
2076-0787
DOI:10.3390/h11060142