Soul

UNV-104 21st Century Skills: Communication and Information Literacy

Henry Hellman

Music since the beginning of time has been a form of expression that tells a story of some sort, whether it is someone’s lost love, found love or about life and death. Music has also told the story of people that have been oppressed and the oppressors. Music has always been a form of expression that questions authority and things that are wrong with society as a whole.

Soul music is a form that is basically African but when we as a people were taken from Africa we adapted to the European traditions and kind of made our own new version of music. Musical tradition and dance was basically the only thing that we could keep because it allowed us to hold on to a piece of our identity. Music during slavery was a source of inspiration and also a form of communication just like it was in our homeland. Music helped us through it all, when we were treated less than human music helped us keep our humanity. In African tradition songs told a family or tribe’s history and what was going on during the day it was the same way during slavery.

Music that may have seemed like just mindless rambling to the slave masters was really a way of talking so no one else knew what was going on. Slavery built America and it was the blood sweat and tears of the African American that this was accomplished and music was a part f it all. African Americans adapted to the religious teachings of Christianity because this was all our captors allowed us to read thinking that it would make us obedient and subservient but it did just the opposite. The part of the Bible that resonated with the slaves was the Israelite’s plight and desire to be free.

The Civil Rights Movement just like slavery used music to inspire and motivate a race of people. The freedom songs that accompanied the movement were very powerful songs like We shall overcome and We shall not be moved were sung at sit-ins, marches, or where ever injustice...