Spirituals → Soul
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
— Jesus · Matthew 11:28From Amazing Grace through the gospel choir into soul, blues and jazz — the family tree of modern popular music runs through the Black church.
Image credit & licence
Olney Hymns was published by John Newton and William Cowper; the image is hosted at the U.S. Library of Congress · Public domain · U.S Library of Congress and
Original image and licensingThe enslaved took the Exodus story for their own, and sang it — Go Down, Moses — because it was the one text in the slaveholder's Book that was on their side. The sorrow songs became the spirituals, the spirituals became gospel, and gospel's harmonic and vocal grammar walked out of the church into rhythm-and-blues, soul, and everything downstream of them.
The juke joint fed the river too — the ministers said so loudly — and both banks are documented. But the family tree's trunk runs through the pews.
This label distinguishes a factual historical record from the interpretation built around it. A well-documented event or influence pathway does not prove that no alternative history could produce a similar result. Grade note: the historical record and pathway are especially well established
Blues also ran through the juke joint, and the ministers said so loudly; the two buildings fed one river, and both banks are documented.