Songs of Remembrance

The Black Ethos in Slavery," marked a defining moment in research of African American cultural history by challenging stereotypical treatments of slave life and culture published during the first half of the 20th century by such prominent historians as Ulrich B. Phillips, Stanley Elkins, and Samuel E. Morrison, and Henry S. Commager.1 Stuckey argued in "Through the Prism of Folklore" that the dehumanizing process of slavery in North America did not inhibit slaves from forging cultural traditions that allowed them "to maintain their essential humanity. Within such a context Christian slaves created a repertory of sacred oral literature-the Spirituals-to serve a functional role in their society.7 Such songs addressed a variety of needs in the slave community, reaching beyond the theology and spirituality of the enslaved into the innermost aspects of chattel slavery in the antebellum South, where black men, women, and children had little rights respected under the law.