Year of Jubilee: Sounding Freedom in Black Sacred Music [A]

Music served an important role in delineating the conditions of enslavement and freedom in African American culture during the nineteenth century. This program examines how Black Christians and abolitionists used sacred music to comment on the effects of slavery and promote emancipation in the United States. Hymns, spirituals, and minstrel songs served as political tools before and during the Civil War, which influenced public opinion regarding abolition and codified a distinct African American religious culture. Sacred music sounded freedom in Black worship services, stage performances, and battlefield camps. Ultimately, this music paved the way for contemporary gospel and positioned liberation theology at the center of African American religious experience.