to the new land. Despite their persecution, the "slave culture" has

contributed greatly to the development of America's own music, dance, art,

It is understandable that when Africans were torn from their homes and

families, lashed into submission , and forced into lifelong slave labor,

they would be, on the most part, resentful and angry. Various forms of

expression, clandestine yet lucent, developed out of these feelings.

One such form was music. Native African music consisted mainly of wind

and string melodies punctuated by hand clapping, xylophones, and drum

beats. Along those lines, an early type of slave music was the

spiritual, which has its roots in Protestant hymns taught to the slaves.

Spirituals were "long thought to be the spontaneous creation of

African-American slaves and the only original folk music of the U.S."

Spirituals told tales of suffering and struggle, but these true meanings

were often hidden. An example is in the song "Gospel Train" with the

lyrics, "Get on board, little children/There's room for many a-more/The

gospel train's a-leavin'..." The "gospel train" of the song likely

This repression of the slave's creativity doubtlessly impeded the

music, art, religion, language, and science have helped shape American

that Blacks would be respected as scientists. It may be that Africans had

of African-American congregations would use distinctly "Black" preaching

Some topics in this essay:
America Christian, Augustus Jackson, , Native African, Underground Railroad, Black English, Science America's, Blacks America, African-American Almanac, Gospel Train, black english, african-american art, brought world, gospel music, gospel train, black slaves, scientific discoveries, african slaves,