Holloway and Sorrow Songs
Black Death In “Oh
Freedom!”
Karla
Holloway presents in the first few chapters of her book, Passed on: African American mourning Stories, how African Americans
have dealt with death in their own way for decades. Her research is thorough
and takes an in depth look ranging from how African Americans have been denied
basic medical care and oppressed in that nature to lynchings and hate crimes of
youths to the actual burial process. She even goes as far to mention how with
these murders of innocent youths slain, it was important for parents to expose their
own children to the funerals to show them that they too were not too young to
die. With regards to the song I have chosen to analyze, Holloway’s use of a
quote from Du Bois is especially pertinent when looking at the song’s lyrical
meaning. She mentions how Du Bois describes the songs as “the music of an
unhappy people, children of disappointment” and concludes by stating how her
understanding of the sorrow songs eluded to a “haunting potential” and the “vulnerability”
of those songs today (Holloway,58).
Oh Freedom! Is very much a sorrow song of
the times. It was written down following the civil war and abolition of
slavery. I don’t think it needs to be mentioned how problems and oppression involving
racism still lingered, hence the song’s persistence through the past century
and a half. The song was first recorded and produced in 1931 by the E.R. Nance Family
with Clarence Dooley as “Sweet Freedom” (Wikipedia). It then drifted in and out
of popularity until it was reintroduced in the mid-twentieth century during the
civil rights movement, specifically the famous March on Washington. It was
performed live and by singer Joan Baez at the march in front of the Capitol (Wikipedia).
The song in
focus is a 1997 A Capella rendition recorded and produced by The Golden Gospel
Singers. The song contains all of the original lyrics that depict African
Americans singing for an end to their servitude and experiencing true freedom
in death. Holloway touches on this by mentioning how suicide was sometimes seen
as a solution for African Americans so that they could truly be free from their
oppression and suffrage that they were facing. The song also mentions in its’
lyrics a more faith-based attribute about “going home to my Lord and be free.” This
demonstrates how in depth some African American’s faith was and just how much
they took to singing sorrow songs that elude to a desire to be truly free from
oppression, racial violence, and inequality. The song in its’ A Capella
rendition is a truly powerful more contemporary take on the sorrow songs of “the
unhappy people.”
Citations:
- Wikipedia-“Oh, Freedom.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Sept. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh,_Freedom. Accessed 29 Sep. 2017.
- Youtube- justthatcoollike. “Oh Freedom! - The Golden Gospel Singers (Lyrics in Description).” YouTube, YouTube, 12 Dec. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=veiJLhXdwn8. Accessed 29 Sep. 2017.
- Book- Holloway, Karla F. C. Passed on: african american mourning stories. Introduction and chapters 1-2. Duke Univ. Press, 2002.
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