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The best-selling masterpiece shows how two forms of song - the spirituals and the blues - helped sustain slaves and their children in the midst of "a powerful lot of tribulation." The spirituals speak about the rupture of black lives, about a people in the land of bondage. The... Read Full Overview

Cone explores two classic aspects of African-American culture--the spirituals and the blues--and tells the captivating story of how slaves and the children of slaves used this music to affirm their essential humanity in the face of oppression.

Cone explores two classic aspects of African-American culture--the spirituals and the blues. He tells the captivating story of how slaves and the children of slaves used this music to affirm their essential humanity in the face of oppression. The blues are shown to be a "this-worldly"... Read Full Overview

Cone explores two classic aspects of African-American culture--the spirituals and the blues--and tells the captivating story of how slaves and the children of slaves used this music to affirm their essential humanity in the face of oppression.