Week 4: Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen

What astonishes me is the presence of a glimmer of hope in all these songs. Despite their deep sadness and mourning tone, the songs never veer into despair. These songs are an emotional and historical recording from African-Americans that tell their resilience and the suffering they had to endure as slaves torn from their home. One line from the reading this week caught my eye as I listened to 'Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child' by Robeson, “These [slave] children also had to learn about slavery, but there were no centuries of culture to unlearn, or old long-held habits to suppress. The only way of life these children knew was the accursed thing they had been born into”(128). That line affected me the most and made me think about what it was like to be born into a culture you were immediately rejected from. If there is a sorrow that comes with not knowing your future or purpose then there must be an even deeper sorrow that comes with being denied your origin. First generation African-Americans were not allowed to connect with their ancestry yet also not allowed to partake in the culture of their masters. It was incredibly interesting and saddening reading about the forced erosion of African culture in black Americans. Their use of music as a way to stay connected to their heritage and to their fellow people explains the undertones found in a lot of the spirituals. While the songs are beautiful, they come from a place of confusion and desperation. Both music and religion were used by American born African slaves as a method of coping and keeping a sense of their humanity and history in the face of slave masters who considered them animals and property. 

Both Paul Robeson and Marian Anderson have voices that reach into my chest and squeeze my heart. The recording quality of these songs also adds a nostalgic tone to them. I decided to do my piece this week inspired by ‘Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen’ because I feel it summarizes everything I've discussed so far. I tried my best to represent the dignity and hope slaves kept in the face of pain and oppression. Without being too hamfisted, I also wanted to show a piece of the reality behind the origins of these songs.