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Night of songs tell of slaves' history
 Media Credit: Christine Johnson/Editor Joe Carter sings about his enslaved ancestors Wednesday night in the Ruth Gant Recital Hall. The program �A Song in the Night� included the song �Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,� which Carter sang after he explained about his ancestor who was a king in Guinea. The king�s daughters were stolen from him and sent to the U.S. as slaves.
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Everybody has roots. Some have the fortune to know where they came from.
There is one story - a true story - about a family that had great wealth; a king that had three daughters.
In this land, the greatest wealth is the family.
One day, strangers came with guns and chains. And one by one by one, the people of this land disappeared.
The strangers took the three daughters.
The king said, "This is my land. This is my people. I don't know where my children are. Don't you see the tears of their mother? Don't you hear my broken heart?"
The king refused to be comforted and never saw his three girls again.
They were brought by boat to the New World. One went to the McKintosh plantation, one went to the McCloud plantation and the last one to the Witherspoon plantation.
"And my great-great-great-grandmother Sofia told her ancestors of that horrible boat journey," said Joe Carter, vocal performer of Spirituals.
"Sometimes I feel like a motherless child. Sometimes I feel like a motherless child. Sometimes I feel like a motherless child. Long way from home."
The story of this kind of music - Spirituals - has to do with a people that did not choose to come to America.
"It was our need to communicate and our need to dignify," said Carter.
"The master loves our singing, he doesn't know what we sing - what the words are," said Carter.
The songs weren't just to make the master happy. They weren't just to communicate. They were also used to talk behind the master's back and to plan escapes.
"Wade in the Water" was sung for baptism ceremonies and when the escape would take place in the river.
People sang to survive together. When a child would die, the song to sing: "Sweet Low, Sweet Chariot." It was a song of affirmations - God, come send angels with a golden chariot to bring to heaven. Again, it was used as an escape song: Hopefully there won't be death that comes from this escape, but a journey to freedom.
One song slaves loved to sing was "Daniel and the Lion's Den." They thought, "If Daniel could be saved from an angel, why not everyone? If Jonah could be saved from the belly of a whale, why not everyone?"
Carter asked the audience to imagine being slaves and making sure they would make the master happy. "The master always wants to hear the slaves sing, because if he doesn't hear them, he doesn't know where they are."
Anthony Johnson said the performance impacted him as a freshman. He remembers high school as suppressing. Without parents, he sees this performance as part of the whole college experience of learning.
Angela Farrell enjoyed the stories. "They weren't just told in a monotone, but instead intertwined with music." She recognized Christian songs as once being Spirituals. "Rise and Shine and Give God Glory" is one example.
Carter in his travels has been invited to sing for the group the Daughters of the Confederacy. He felt like Daniel going into the lion pit.
After singing for a while, he said, "Ladies, I'm the great-great-great-grandson of the slave that helped your great-great-great-grandmother. And I would like to ask you to forgive me for the prejudice I've had with white Southerners."
Carter continued with a prayer of his ancestors, "Kumbaya, My Lord."
He invited the ladies to sing with and ask for healing to take place.
Carter has hope for the future. "There are people like you and I."
"This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine..."
Tom Meyer can be reached at: [email protected]
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