Singing slaves

While reading Beloved through a New Historical Lens I was surprised by the things the things that I have learned. One thing that I learned was that songs were used for slaves to communicate with each other. They also sang songs while they were working to feel better while working and focus more on their singing and forget about how hard the work they are doing is.

The songs that they sang was mainly about the slaves praying to God and asking him to save them from slavery. The songs that the slaves sang were was a way for them to express how they are feeling or what they are saying inside and turning it into music. All the songs that the slaves sing each have a different meaning to it. Some of the songs mean Freedom or things that they have heard or things about their owners, but the owners wouldn't know because the songs they sing is only meant for the slaves to understand. For example, a song named Wade in the Water gave the slaves a plan to escape, which was to get into the water when they escaped so that the bloodhounds won’t smell their scent. Another song named Drinking Gourd gave the slaves directions on how to escape and where to go by finding the Big Dipper and following that direction. All the songs that slaves sang all saved them and helped from slavery and into freedom.

African Americans made their own music at the time to communicate with each other and express their emotions and share that together. Now instead of playing instruments by yourself artist have access to all kinds of sounds from their computer or other different kinds of instruments.. By having this new technology people can make their kind of music and express their feeling in the music they make. Now a days there are variety kinds of music that express different kinds of emotions or feelings people have. The music from before and now hs been bringing people together with the emotions and thoughts they are feeling.