Vol. 8. SPELMAN SEMINARY, ATLANTA, GA., DECEMBER, 1891. No. 2. HE IS OUR STRENGTH. But were my forefathers cultivated Many a dying slave has spent his Tired with the task of living, musicians and noted last breath on this See sobbing humanity stand, composers of earthly shore in Blindly and wearily groping song? If not, then the question For the clasp of a pitying hand. singing “I’m Trusting to man’s frail succor, naturally arises, whence came their going to live with Jesus; Hearts break with the breaking reed; Don’t you grieve after me ; Out from the infinite only power in song and the knowledge to Lord, i don’t want you to grieve after me.” Cometh the help we need. arrange the tunes, which by their Still there were times when he used None but His heart who made us mysterious sweetness have been made his talents for a Can fathom our own hearts’ woes, pleasanter purpose.— immortal? In order answer And teach us to bear the burdens to these It is one peculiar feature of the slave By which the soul strengthens and grows. Rest we content with time’s trials, questions and thereby judge the mu¬ that he sang most when most burdened Sorrow and suffering and loss, sical with mental or The only sinless earth-life capacity of the Negro, let us physical labor.— The Led straight to Calvary’s cross. analyze the music of his own com¬ wood-cutter in the forest seemed to Slow o’er the shameful mountain, position and consider the possibilities drive his axe with greater force when Close curtaining clouds arise, of his talented the notes some Where the Hope of the world is dying power. By the pre¬ of melody accompanied With the glory of God in his eyes. vious comparison of the mu¬ each stroke. From And angel songs in the shadow origin of early morn till Steal softly to souls new-born, sic among other nations with that of With a promise of Easter lilies night the echoing wood told the merry On the resurrection morn. my own, we can see in what ignorance songs of the slaves at work in the the Surely such splendor of loving Negro nursed his art, and unknow¬ neighboring fields. Their souls, oc¬ Should aid us when joys grow dim, ingly characterized his race. Yet To carry, not drag, the crosses cupied wholly in singing, left no room He asks us to bear for Him. when we think of the definition of mu¬ for over Take comfort! The rod of chastening, repining their heavy task. With mystical terrors rife, sic, what its classifications are, and This shows one blessing given the Is a branch of health and healing then notice the From the miracle Tree of Life. perfect meter in the ar¬ Negro in his power to use his voice rangement of the tunes, one cannot in Down from His holy heaven, song. The Infinite Tenderness leans fairly say that their souls were That the O’er ignorant plantation music was the His children struggling toward Him ofthe sentiments Through the death-land that intervenes. expressed in the lan¬ effect of original causes only confirms We have stumbled; our feet are bleeding; guage the fact that it not For rough winds the road from sin. oftheir songs, but that somehow is artificial, or like Dear Christ, with thy words of welcome, they possessed secret Let the weary wanderers in! knowledge of ordinary music, which is designed to Mary Lisbeth Macartney. rhyme and meter. Recall the old-time excite in others pleasing sensations. song— This came from within. Singing was “We are climbing Jacob’s ladder, also the chiefelement in their THE MUSIC OF THE NEGRO. Soldier of the cross.”— worship. Sermons were short and far between. Note the turn given to the measure, No faculty of the Negro strikes one which perplexes until one sees that Formerly, many bits of knowledge with more interest than obtained from God’s word were his musical the movement makes perfect trochees. pre¬ served faculty. His power of song is God’s From the slave’s by being put in song. After song we are able to each supreme gift. Whether this gift was obtain knowledge of his mental feel¬ Sunday meeting, the following realized and exercised in the mother¬ days of labor were shortened ing on different occasions. The mourn¬ by busy¬ land of the Negro, or whether it has ful air, ing their minds in putting in tune the been issuing late in the night from bits of developed by the trial and woe of a slave hut, told that some mother’s scripture they had just learned, and the next Destiny’s hand, the pages of history heart was bleeding over-the loss of her Sunday’s meeting wit¬ fail to nessed their success. In this record; nor has tradition ones way yet in¬ dear and she, having no hope of formed us. The Afro-American can ever they created meeting them in this life, prayed “ find Joshua was the son of Nun ; nothing more marked or that to meet them in heaven. It was He spoke to the Lord to stop the sun; leaves a was pleasanter memory in the his¬ amid God with him till the work was done ; griefs like these that they coined- ! God opened the window and began to look out; The ram’s and tory of his fathers than their power “My daughter, will you meet me horn blew the children did shout; in On Canaan’s happy shore ?” The children did shout until the hour seven; song. If we look at the German The walls fell down ; God heard it in heaven. The Redeemed! Redeemed ! and Italian as only chance the slaves had for musicians, such Hay¬ I’ve been washed in the blood of the Lamb.” den, Mozart, and Mendelssohn, we pouring out their feeling was in and and the familiar song, find that musical talent through their song. When bowed they inherited “Were you there when they crucified my Lord ? from educated with grief at their we ancestors, and were well oppression, have Were you there when he wore the thorny crown ?” their acquainted with all that thoughts in the words ofthe song, pertained to with many others as soul-thrilling, the art in which “My God, delivered thou Daniel, they strove to excel. Why not deliver poor me ? ” that tell at the same time both their 2 SPELMAN MESSENGER. knowledge of the Bible and the mys¬ The men thus served are entirely void inanimate; a menagerie and bazaar combined. A silk chair cushion and terious power of their song. of gratitude and think women are The Negro convicts at work find in bought property and should serve a basket ofkindergarten work show their lords with all their soul and further results of singing a means of lessening the irk¬ busy hours, and three hours of someness of their toil, and though such might. study every afternoon, a song as Any wife failing to come up to her including Saturdays, have cheated “Oh, roll! sun, roll! don’t roll so slow ; husband’s ideal can be taken back to Satan out of his time to find mischief* I’ve been toiling all day,’’ her parents with a demand of the price for idle hands. produces a weird effect on the listener, paid to them for her. She may also But we have had play times, too. yet it proves a balm for the unfortu¬ be cuffed about by her lord, her chil¬ Five afternoons have been spent nate prisoner. Released from bondage, dren taught not to respect her, and romping in the woods, where black¬ they were free to assemble in arbors she may be sold to another, if she is berries, persimmons, and golden-rod and churches of their own, where the from a slave family, to be bartered in were gathered in abundance; and the hymns were “ lined off” by some one a far off district. In the case of a children returned tired and happy, who could read, two lines being read or loaded with woodsy treasures. and king’s wife’s failure to suit please sung alternately, until by degrees him, before the days of Christian The school examinations advance the Negro became acquainted with teachers in the Congo, it was common several little girls a whole grade from other families of the musical world. for such a one to be called out in the where they left off last May, showing With the matter thus furnished them that their summer’s work has not been presence of the public and her sister in are now to in hymn-books, they able wives (for the king’s wives are often vain. arrange many melodies A and their many) and be shot, or killed in a more strong word of encouragement praise worship is not limited to their cruel manner, for an example and comes from our good friend, Mrs. own compositions, as before. The or Swett, who declares there has been a children in the little warning to other quarrelsome diso¬ log school-houses bedient wives. wonderful improvement in conduct. arrange tunes poetry from found in Mothers often are stripped of their Our weekly Roll of Honor makes a their readers. power Though free, the children to be sent back to the town showing of from seven to twelve out of the Negro in song is being dis¬ of their childhood, as selling the girls of sixteen.