Mat Callahan is a musician and insurgent historian whose latest project is, “Songs of Slavery and Emancipation.” The book and double-album were released on June 17 by Jalopy Records in New ...

Drawn from oral traditions, this Southern spiritual Down by the Riverside became a lasting symbol of renewal, resistance, and ...

Genealogist Kenyatta D. Berry examines how song was used by slaves to both communicate and express feeling in the moment, as well as and pass history down through generations.

Bullock explains that one song is called “Nat Turner,” and chronicles the rebellion against slavery that was led by Nat Turner in Virginia in 1831. “Black folks thought of him as a hero ...

Unfortunately, not all sentiments expressed in songs deserve to live forever. Systemic racism has been known to work itself into music, via lyrics that promote unflattering racial stereotypes and ...

Choir Celebrates Black History With the Songs of Slavery. The Heritage Restoration Chorale revives the past through music, using their voices to honor black history and keep it alive.

The songs in this book are notated in what is known as shape notes which, according to the Smithsonian Folkways website, “first appeared in a book called The Easy Instructor, printed in 1801.

BEREA — Dr. Kathy Bullock and Friends will perform the “Songs of Slavery and Emancipation,” a powerful composition originally written and sung by enslaved people in hopes of freedom on ...