Second Awakening Research Paper

In the early nineteenth century, African Americans were involved in the "Second Awakening". They met in camp meetings and sang without any hymnbook. Spontaneous songs were composed on the spot. They were called "spiritual songs and the term "sperichil" (spiritual) appeared for the first time in the book "Slave Songs of The United States".The negro spirituals "The Gospel Train" and "Swing low, sweet chariot" which directly refer to the Underground Railroad, an informal organization who helped many slaves to flee.The meaning of these songs was most often covert. Therefore, only Christian slaves understood them, and even when ordinary words were used, they reflected personal relationship between the slave singer and God.
A second source was the singing of hymns.Which reintroduced by such 18th-century religious dissenters as John and Charles Wesley, the founders of Methodism. In the late 18th century and up to the mid-19th.The resulting camp meetings and revivals
(Blacks and whites attended the same camp meetings, for instance, and black performance style possibly counter influenced the revival songs.) Black spirituals differ greatly from white ones. Black spirituals were sung not only in worship but also as work songs during slavery. The songs’ text imagery often reflects carrying out tasks. African influence can be heard in vocal style and in complex, rhythmic clapping. African tradition also included the ring shout, a religious dance usually accompanied by the singing of spirituals and clapped rhythms.
After the American Civil War the black spirituals were developed toward harmonized versions, often sung in rural areas. Like the white gospel song, the modern black gospel song is a descendant of the spiritual and is instrumentally accompanied. Black gospel music is closely related to the spiritual, the work song, and blues and often includes jazz rhythms and instruments alongside clapping and often