Cone, James H. The Spirituals and Blues. New York: Seabury Press, 197

Eriksson, Vincent E.

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The Spirituals and the Blues

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ConsensusVolume 3 | Issue 3 Article 47-1-1977The Spirituals and the BluesVincent E. ErikssonFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationEriksson, Vincent E. (1977) "The Spirituals and the Blues," Consensus: Vol. 3 : Iss. 3 , Article 4.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol3/iss3/4BOOKS INREVIEWTHE SPIRITUALS AND THE BLUESJames H. ConeNew York: Seabury Press, 1972, paper, $3.75pp. viii, 152, NotesJames H. Cone is a professor of Systematic Theology at Union TheologicalSeminary, New York. He is from the African Methodist Episcopal Church.He previously wrote Black Theology and Black Power, and Black Theologyof Liberation.The book can be instructive for the Church in Canada, in that it providesinsights into the psychology of oppressed peoples. These insights should helpus understand contemporary developments among Canadian Indians andpast developments in Quebec.Cone describes the spirituals as having risen in the period of slavery, andthe blues as an outgrowth of Black experience since the 1860s. Grosslyoversimplified, his theses are: 1) Blacks looked on human nature as a whole.Therefore the spirituals should not be considered as a spiritualized form ofescapism: a) they were often symbolic of earthly historical attempts atescape or rebellion; b) the image of the “darkie” as childlike and not veryinteUigent was one fostered by slaves as a defence-mechanism; c) thespirituals expressed an eschatological hope in God’s deliverance, which wassoon to be revealed. 2) Since the Blacks looked on God as just and asjudging in favour of the oppressed, they looked on themselves as thereforeGod’s people; and because slavery could not be according to the will of God,they looked on whites as not God’s people. 3) The blues reflect not so muchdisillusionment at so-called “freedom” (though a bit of this too), but morethe existentialist turmoil of having to make decisions in situations at thesame time “free” and still oppressed — often arbitrarily dangerous to life; yetthe blues, particularly in their sexual aspect, express again a wholeness ofhuman nature absent among whites.Some quotes may best serve to illustrate the above:. . . “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” referred to the “idea of escape by‘chariot’, that is, by means which a company could employ to proceednorthward.” When black slaves sang, “I looked over Jordan and what did Isee. Coming for to carry me home,” they were looking over the OhioRiver. “The band of angels was Harriot [Tubman] or another conductorcoming for him; and ‘home’ was a haven in the free states or Canada.”“Steal away” meant to sneak into the woods for a secret slavemeeting ... 1 (la)“.. . I had made no display of the little property or money I possessed,but in every way I wore as much as possible the aspect of slavery. Second,I had never appeared to be even so intelligent as I really was. This allcoloured people of the south, free and slaves, find it peculiarly necessaryfor their own conduct and safety to observe.”^ (lb)Black slaves are expressing the Christian contention that the death and1 James H. Cone, The Spirituals and the Blues, New York: Seabury Press, 1972, p. 90. Quotationsare from Earl Conrad, Harriet Tubman, New York, 1969.2 p. 28, quoting "Narrative of Lunsford Lane" in W. L. Katz, editor. Five Slave Narratives, NewYork, 1969.3132 Consensusresurrection of Christ bestows upon people a freedom that cannot betaken away by oppressors. They were saying: “We are human beings andnot even the slave masters can do anything about that!”^ ( Ic and 2)The blues affirm the authenticity of sex as the bodily expression of theblack soul . . . People who destroy physical bodies with guns, whips, andnapalm cannot know the power of physical love.^ (3)Hugh Trevor-Roper^ points out that heresies of an oppressive societyoften become the religion of a rising, previously subjugated people. ThusIslam, arising from Christian and Jewish heresies, was accepted by the Arabs;and Marxism, a Western economic heresy, has been adopted in the East.Also, he says, “When a society is conquered, and apparently absorbed by itsconquerors, it often retains its identity by insisting on a religiousdifference.”® Cone’s book illustrates this latter point. Among U.S. blacks,their conflict with white society led them to accept Christianity as aformative force for their society. Their songs were one expression of theresulting culture. It also led them to explain white society as having in realityrejected the Christianity it hypocritically professed.In Canada, native Indians have recently been attempting to revive theirtraditional religions, or, alternatively, have argued that they were mono-theistic before the coming of the white man. Christianity, these Indiansargue, belongs to whites, and its application to them has been accompaniedby the destruction of their personhood and of their peoplehood, indestruction of respect of young for elders, in alcoholism and moraldegeneration. Therefore, in an attempt to recover the sense of worth ofpersons and community they assert their own religion over againstChristianity.In Quebec, survival of conquest for a long time expressed itself religiouslyin terms of Roman Catholic vs. Protestant. Protestants were seen as potentialsell-outs on the road to anglicization.^ Somewhat like that of the U.S.blacks, Quebec culture has produced a very much greater volume of bothfolk-songs and literature than has English Canada.If the Church in Canada is not to continue fractured in spirit as well as inorganization, and if it is not to be saddled with the image of being a tool ofoppression, we need, to a much greater extent than previously, both to studyand even more necessarily to become involved in the needs of oppressed oralienated groups within our country. We have often almost solely turned ourattention tc^ such people overseas. The work of Pastor Fulmer aroundKenora, and Project North, are steps in this direction. I would see this as thechief lesson from a book like Cone’s The Spirituals and the Blues.More directly, I shall feel hesitant from now on about singing any of thespirituals because of the feeling of the possibility of descration.Vincent E. Eriksson3 p. 92. 4 p. 132.5 For instance, in The Rise of Christian Europe, London: Thames & Hudson, 1965, pp. 57,84-85,152. I believe Trevor-Roper's argument can be regarded as a further development of ArnoldToynbee's description of the place of religion (his Study of History).6 Trevor-Roper, p. 84.7 A recent statement of this point is found in the United Church of Canada's Department of Church& Society's Issue 11, Quebec, 1976.

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