Exploring Lincoln

“The slave songs represented things to be forgotten… We finally grew willing to sing them privately. We practiced softly… But the demand of the public changed this. Soon the land rang with our slave songs.” Ella Sheppard, 1871 (Musician with the Fisk Jubilee Singers)

What started as an ambitious fundraising idea has influenced music for over a century. The Fisk Jubilee Singers were brought together in 1871 by their school treasurer and musical director George White to raise money for the struggling Fisk University. Fisk was founded in 1866 in Nashville, Tennessee to teach formerly enslaved people. Nearly all of the singers in the original group were formerly enslaved people. The group started off by singing ballads and patriotic anthems, but they didn’t gain notoriety until they added spirituals into their concerts.

They popularized songs such as “Motherless Child,” “Swing Low Sweet Chariot,” and “This Little Light of Mine.” By singing these songs around the world they preserved the spirituals that influenced music from Reconstruction to present day, all while raising thousands of dollars for their school. The Fisk Jubilee Singers continue to sing at Fisk University today learn more about the first group on: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/undergroundrailroad/explore-virtual-ugrr.htm

IMAGE: LOC