Black Music Sunday: Songs of enslavement, resistance, and the journey to freedom

As racist right-wing governing bodies attempt to erase teaching the truth about this country’s birth and growth that were sustained by enslaving Black people, it’s important to mark an historic date in that history: the Jamestown landing on Aug. 20, 1619, and The New York Times’ ambitious and award-winning “The 1619 Project,” launched on the 400th anniversary in 2019.

While slavery here actually began earlier, “The 1619 Project” brought enslavement back into the mainstream discussion, which has only intensified over the past four years. Such debates—as well as the pure BS being spewed in support of Florida’s claims of slavery’s “benefits” to those in bondage—got me thinking about the music that tells the story of the brutal voyages here, and the fates that befell enslaved Africans and their descendants once—or if—they arrived.

RELATED STORY: Who’s afraid of the 1619 Project?

Black Music Sunday is a weekly series highlighting all things Black music. With 170 stories (and counting) covering performers, genres, history, and more, each featuring its own vibrant soundtrack, I hope you’ll find some familiar tunes and perhaps an introduction to something new.

Lyrics:

Oh Dambala, come DambalaOh Dambala, come DambalaThink of the wings of a three-toed frogEat weeds from the deepest part of seaOh Dambala, come DambalaOh Dambala, come Dambala

On the seventh day, God will be thereOn the seventh night, satan will be thereOn the seventh day, God will appearOn the seventh night, satan will be thereYou slavers will knowWhat it’s like to be a slaveSlave to your heartSlave to your soulOh Dambala, come DambalaOh Dambala, come Dambala

You slavers will knowWhat it’s like to be a slaveSlave to your mindSlave to your raceYou won’t go to heavenYou won’t go to hellYou remain in your gravesWith the stench and the smellOh Dambala, come DambalaOh Dambala, come Dambala

Enslaved women were often faced with the agony of having their children sold and sent away from them, many of those children born out of rape. In 2017’s “At the Purchaser’s Option,” Grammy award-winning folksinger, musician, and music historian Rhiannon Giddens sings the story of one of those women.

From the video’s YouTube notes:

“Last year I came across an advertisement from the 1830s for a young woman; thinking about her, and how she had to maintain her humanity against horrific odds inspired this song named for the end of the ad: ‘She has with her a 9-month old baby, who is at the purchaser’s option.” — Rhiannon

At the Purchaser’s Option (Rhiannon Giddens/Joey Ryan)

I have a babe but shall I keep him’Twill come the day when I’ll be weepin’But how can I love him any lessThis little babe upon my breast

You can take my bodyYou can take my bonesYou can take my bloodBut not my soul

I’ve got a body dark and strongI was young but not for longYou took me to bed a little girlLeft me in a woman’s world

Day by day I work the lineEvery minute overtimeFingers nimble, fingers quickMy fingers bleed to make you rich

As enslaved people adopted the religion of their enslavers, they often used their permitted Sunday gathering to sing spiritual and gospel songs—songs that carried messages, hopes, dreams, and plans to escape to freedom.

RELATED STORY: Black music is Black history: Our spirituals

One of those such songs was “Old Ship of Zion,” sung below by Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, civil rights activist, ethnomusicologist, and founder of the music group Sweet Honey In The Rock.

In the liner notes of her 1975 album” Give Your Hands to Struggle,” Reagon wrote:

“’The Old Ship of Zion,’ a spiritual and gospel hymn, is also associated with the culture of the 19th century Underground Railroad. A congregational singing of this song goes on for many verses as the singers build it together. You can add as many verses as you like about this image of a ship bringing hope and life, set against the memory of that other ship of slavery and death. The song has probably remained so important because of its connection to those of us who are living evidence of having survived the experience.”

Give it a listen.

When I think of songs providing a roadmap for those running toward freedom, I always think of “Follow the Drinking Gourd,” though on a website devoted to the song, music researcher Joel Bresler challenges that notion.

The Drinking Gourd song was supposedly used by an Underground Railroad operative to encode escape instructions and a map. These directions then enabled fleeing slaves to make their way north from Mobile, Alabama to the Ohio River and freedom. 

[…]

Much of the Drinking Gourd’s enduring appeal derives from its perceived status as a unique, historical remnant harkening back to the pre-Civil War South – no other such map songs survive. But re-examining the Drinking Gourd song as history rather than folklore raises many questions.

No matter the history, my favorite version was sung by folk singer Richie Havens, which he recorded in 1991.

I’m closing this week’s installment with a tribute to the escape to freedom led by Harriet Tubman. Actress and singer Cynthia Erivo wrote and performed “Stand Up” for the 2019 movie “Harriet.”