The music journalism of the Civil War years sparked a national interest in African American music. These revealing writings show a traumatized nation struggling to come to terms with racial diversity.

In my book, The Life and Writings of Ralph J. Gleason, I point out Gleason’s tireless support of underrecognized Black musicians. I respect Gleason’s affinity for Black culture and have published papers on the subject myself.

And so, to honor Ralph, I’m publishing a series of posts on music journalists who supported African American music during the so-called “Redemption Era.” This was a period from the 1870s to the late 1890s in which Black Americans lost the gains made during Reconstruction as the South “redeemed” the cause of White supremacy.

In my February 20 post, I introduced the series. I made the case that music journalism of the Redemption Era is significant because it embodied the complexities and contradictions of that troubled period.       

Today’s post addresses the period leading up to the Redemption Era during the 1850s and 60s. During this time, journalists became increasingly interested in African American spirituals and folk music. This shaped the public reception of this music and its performers.     

Abolitionist Music journalism

Several journalists wrote appreciatively of African American music before the Civil War years. They tended to write for publications that supported the abolition of slavery. One of these was William Lloyd Garrison’s Boston newspaper, The Liberator.

An 1850 Liberator article reported on a speech by an abolitionist that ended with a “fugitive slave song.” The tune elicited an encore followed by “loud and long-continued cheering.”[i] Articles like this cultivated an appreciation for African American music. During a time when even abolitionist Whites belittled Black music, writings like this normalized appreciation for it.[ii]  

Although music journalism preceding the Civil War years often promoted African American musicians, these well-meaning accounts can sometimes be painful to read.  

Case in point: a Liberator article about vocalist Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield.

The formerly enslaved singer was dubbed the “Black Swan” because she was one of the first African American vocalists to sing art music publicly. However, according to the presumably White reporter, this made Greenfield a traitor to her race:  

She sings beautifully. Her voice is of great power … and surprisingly sweet also …

But we don’t like this Black Swan …

Does she tune her sweet voice to sing of freedom? Seldom does she paint the sorrows of slavery … Does she sing to her downtrodden race or in any way try to elevate them? No.

Here and there, she will squeeze in a “Slave Song,” a sort of pathetic ballad without any backbone in it. Or, likely enough, a song of freedom, in the abstract, so delicately finished as to be mistaken for a dream.[iii]

The writer threw in a generous number of N-bombs, a sign that even in abolitionist circles, that derisive term was used.

Complimentary Racism in Music journalism

This type of “complementary racism” can be seen in an Augusta journalist’s review of the extraordinary pianist Blind Tom Wiggins. Even though the writer praised Wiggins’ talent, they refered to Wiggins as an “indifferent sample of a ‘Georgia nigger.’”[iv] Amidst a rain of similar slurs, they said that Wiggins played “piano with great facility … and has caught by ear all the popular airs.”[v]

Contrast this with a slur-free review in another Augusta nespaper:

[Tom is] possessed of memory of tones and sounds and notes in music of the most difficult and complex combination. … musical Tom stands pre-eminent as the most wonderful prodigy of the age. … He is the property of General Bethune of Columbus, in this state, who owns his parents.[vi]   

That last sentence stings. An unspeakably evil definition of “property.”

Three years later, the American Civil War began. For five years, the fate of enslaved musicians hung in the balance. But while gallant ex-slaves fought, White Union soldiers heard their songs. As the end of the conflict drew near in 1865, war correspondents gave accounts of the campfire songs of Black soldiers.

One example is “Contraband Songs,” one of the first lengthy decriptions of African American music. The article began:

Minstrelsy and Slavery have been old yoke fellows, and the echo of the workaday slave song has long haunted the ear of the world.[vii]

The writer heard the disturbing sounds of enslavement in the minstrel music popular at the time. It was a surprising take on Americans’ favorite form of music.

The writer described one song of slavery as a “beautiful dirge,” a phrase expressing sadness’s aesthetic qualities.[viii] The journalist cited familiar songs, such as “Dixieland” and “John Brown’s Body,” and attributed them to African American songwriters. Quoted are lyrics sung by Black plantation workers, firefighters, fiddlers, and boatmen.

Most of the tunes were what the writer called the “spiritual hymns.”

The Coverage of Spirituals During the civil War Years

A spiritual is a type of religious folksong that is most closely associated with the enslavement of African people in the American South. The songs proliferated in the last few decades of the eighteenth century leading up to the abolishment of legalized slavery in the 1860s.

The African American spiritual (also called the Negro Spiritual) constitutes one of the largest and most significant forms of American folksong.[ix]

From: The Library of Congress Celebrates the Songs of America

Thanks to a handful of enlightened American journalists, spirituals became a national enthusiasm following the Civil War years. Abolitionist and Union soldier Thomas Wentworth Higginson led the way.

Higginson published an influential article, “Negro Spirituals,” for The Atlantic Monthly in 1867. Founded in 1857, the magazine began a long tradition of American literary magazines covering popular music. Higginson embraced the African American music he heard in the South. He penned “Negro Spirituals” during his time as a soldier.   

Higginson found the music as “essentially poetic” as the Scottish ballads he studied before the war.[x] “Negro Spirituals” inspired one of the first collections of spirituals, Slave Songs of the United States, released in 1867. Journalists who reviewed Slave Songs and similar collections stirred their readers’ appetites for spirituals written and performed by Black artists.

Articles like this began an appreciation for “authenticity” in popular songs, a central theme in music journalism history. In jazz criticism and elsewhere, “authenticity” is often linked with the ethnic origins of a genre. For example, hot jazz fans in the 1930s believed that Black musicians invented jazz; thus, their music was more authentic than the music of their White counterparts.

Conclusion

Discussions about music’s authenticity, and the appropriation of Black music were just a few of the important contributions made by journalists during the Civil War years and Reconstruction period. As Black musicians came into their own as professional performers, journalists took interest.

Abolition produced publications and writers who saw African American music as a form of empowerment. Yet, at the same time, many of these writers engaged in “complementary racism,” using racist tropes while supporting African American musicians.

Despite the sometimes-scurrilous language, this phase of music journalism history is critically important. Journalists introduced themes and concepts that continue to underpin music criticism today. Mid-19th century writers also established troubling dichotomies, such as signs of White superiority mixed with complimentary prose.    

In my next post, I’ll continue to uncover these dichotomies as I show how “jubilee singers,” such as the Fisk University choir, captured the imagination of American journalists during the rise of the Redemption Era. These writers understood that spirituals brought catharsis and hope to African Americans. Meanwhile, the Redeemers’ tentacles began to choke off progress after the Civil War years.   

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[i] Uncredited, untitled, Boston Liberator, Aug. 9, 1850: 2.

[ii] Uncredited, untitled, Burlington Weekly Sentinel, July 22, 1857: 1.

[iii] Uncredited, “The Black Swan – And So Forth,” The Liberator, Nov. 10, 1854: 4. The article originally ran in the Providence Daily Tribune.

[iv] Uncredited, untitled, Macon Weekly Telegraph, Dec. 22, 1857: 2. I coined the term “complimentary racism” to refer to texts that praise Black music while containing an underlying racist message.

[v] Ibid.

[vi] Uncredited, untitled, Augusta Daily constitutional, Feb. 24, 1858: 2. 

[vii] Uncredited, “Contraband Songs,” Litchfield Enquirer, May 18, 1865: 1. 

[viii] Ibid.

[ix] Uncredited, “Spirituals,” The Library of Congress Celebrates the Songs of America, webpage: https://www.loc.gov/collections/songs-of-america/articles-and-essays/musical-styles/ritual-and-worship/spirituals/

[x] Thomas Wentworth Higginson, “Negro Spirituals,” The Atlantic, June 1867: 685.