The spirituals are the religious folk songs created and first sung by a circumscribed community of African Americans in bondage. The lyrics of Negro spirituals were tightly linked with the lives of their authors: slaves. The influence of these spirituals began as slaves were allowed to meet at churches for Christian services. Spirituals were inspired by the message of Jesus Christ and his Good News of the Bible, "You can be saved". Rural slaves used to gather and listen to itinerant preachers and sing spirituals for hours. The Protestant City-Revival Movement of 1850 allowed the organization of revival meetings by temporary tents that were erected in stadiums, where attendants could sing. During slavery and afterwards, workers were allowed to sing songs while working to express personal feeling and cheer on each other. Negro spirituals like "Wade in the Water" and "The Gospel Train" directly refers to the Underground Railroad. The early spirituals were a way of sharing the hard condition of being a slave, whereas the late spirituals were rearranged in a new way, which was similar to the European classical music. Typical spirituals reflect the African heroic epic in form, content, and performance style, which consists of long narrative recitations and songs interwoven with praise poems, chants, sermons, hymns, prayers, and improvisations. Patricia Liggins Hill, general editor of Call and Response textbook, suggests that all Negro spirituals have a surface meaning as well as an implied meaning. The surface meaning is that the spirituals were a form of worship to God, whereas the implied meaning is the indirect expression of bondage and freedom. .
The spirituals from the video titled Spirituals In Concert were performed by two of the greatest opera divas, Kathlen Battle and Jessye Norman. These women sung Negro spirituals that portrayed slaves trying to escape, parents loosing their children, and Christian worshipping God.
