In Baldwin's story Going To Meet The Man, he does a great job of showing the time period the story was set in. The story takes place when black and white people were very opposite in their roles in the world. Black people were segregated and treated less than everyone else. As everyone is aware, enslaved African Americans would develop songs to help them stay connected with each other. Some would even give hidden messages about how to escape their confinement. Baldwin incorporated their singing and songs in this story in a special way.
When the main officer explains the events of the day he had to his wife, he tells her of the prisoners' constant singing. It gets to the officers so much that they try to force them to stop singing, but they never stop. Their singing has such a powerful impact on the man the he continues to hear the singing while he is in bed. He thinks about what it must mean to them and why they sing it and comes to a conclusion that they are not singing black people into heaven, but singing white folks into hell (Baldwin P. 1332).
Here is a link to some popular slave songs that I found.
http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/allen/allen.html
I always enjoy a good musical piece every now and then. Its interesting how a lot of these song reference Jesus, and it harkins back to that one verse found in Galatians where it is said that "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Even thought the slaves were mostly uneducated, as noted by the disjointed wording in the songs from that link that you posted, they still have that spirit of singing and to one day become free.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting post. I read this story and agree with you about the musical aspect. In America's days of slavery music was one of the only things slaves had. As the story tells us it was the one thing slave owners could not take away from them. I also think that he uses there songs as a gateway to the officers past. Music is a great memory inducer and the author uses it to show us this mans past. The music reminded him of a time in his childhood when he let those around him influence his view of other people. I think the music in this story does play an important role just like it did for African Americans many years ago.
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