How The Jubilee Singers Saved Fisk

Give Me Wings: How a Choir of Former Slaves Took on the World by Kathy Lowinger is a beautiful, informative, and inspiring book for readers ages 11 to 14.

Lowinger presents the story of Ella Sheppard who was born a slave. Ella's father bought her freedom, but her mother was considered 'indispensable' and was not for sale. Her father struggled to provide for the family but managed to give Ella a piano and music lessons. She yearned for an education and applied to and was accepted to the Fisk Free Colored School.

The school was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Then came the idea of concerts to raise money. Ella led the school choir, consisting of mostly former slaves, in performing Esther, the Beautiful Queen. Audiences were not impressed and donations were scanty. People expected a minstrel show!

One day Ella had the choir sing Steal Away and discovered that audiences were moved by the slave songs which the freed blacks wanted to leave behind in the past.

Changing their repertoire to Spirituals and finding a promoter in Henry Ward Beecher the choir's success as The Jubliee Singers took them to meet the Queen of England and earned Frisk $20,000. The school was saved. Today Fisk University lists among its graduates W.E.B DuBois, Ida B. Wells, Nikki Giovanni and the Honorable John R. Lewis.

Moving stories illustrate the prejudice the Jubilee Singers had to contend with. When they were introduced by General Fisk himself he noted the singer's values before emancipation and commented that after the audience heard their voices they would agree they were vastly undervalued. In England their introduction warned the audience not to expect sophisticated artistry. After the concert a lady from the audience told Ella that if that wasn't artistry, she didn't know what was.

This book includes side bar stories on slavery and historical background to the story. I suggest that the descriptions of slavery may be upsetting to early elementary readers. At any age, it is upsetting to read about! A timeline is included and further reading suggestions. We learned what happens in the people's later lives. Full color illustrations appear on nearly every page.

I was very impressed with this beautiful book.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for  fair and unbiased review.

Give Me Wings: How a Choir of Former Slaves Took On The World
Kathy Lowinger
Annick Press
Publication August 18, 2015
$21.95 hard cover
ISBN: 13:9781554517473
ePub: 13: 9781554517480
PDF: 13: 9781554517497

+++++

I wrote about Lucy McKim Garrison who collected and published the first slave songs here.
And the The Book of American Negro Spirituals here.

Songs of Sorrow: Lucy McKim Garrison and Slave Songs of the United States by Samuel Charters

Imagine traveling through a treacherous war zone, crossing the sea on a steamer to an unknown island. There is no pier and you are carried through the surf to the beach. The humidity and heat, the mosquitoes, are unlike anything you have ever experienced.

You see for the first time contraband slaves, ten thousand refugees without proper homes or food, but jubilant in their newfound freedom. You hear their songs, weird and otherworldly, in dialect foreign, so unlike the sentimental minstrel songs carried to the North. The plaintive Go Down, Moses with it's cry for freedom; The Lonesome Valley about the emotional preparation for baptism; Michael row the boat ashore; the upbeat Rock O' My Soul and Do Remember Me; Jacob's Ladder, Roll Jordon, Roll and The Stars Begin to Fall--sorrow songs of the plantations that today are well known but in 1861 had been dismissed by the denizens of the Plantation and were unheard by the general public of the North.

Samuel Charter's new book Songs of Sorrow: Lucy McKim Garrison and Slave Songs of the United States chronicles the brief life of McKim and her role in the first documentation of the songs of slavery.

In 1861 nineteen-year-old Lucy McKim left her home in Germantown, outside of Philadelphia, on the biggest journey of her life. Lucy's Abolitionist Quaker father James Miller McKim was head of the Philadelphia Port Royal Relief Committee and was chosen to visit Port Royal in South Carolina where former slaves had sought refuge. He was to report back on conditions. The freemen needed immediate aid and help to prepare them for their new reality. He asked Lucy to serve as his secretary.

The island was surrounded by Confederate troops. It was a dangerous journey. Lucy gloried in the adventure. She had trained in piano and classical music and taught piano students in Philadelphia. She was delaying marriage to "live for herself" first. An ardent Abolitionist, Lucy felt the constraints of her sex, her uselessness compared to what men could do.

Seeing face to face the suffering of the slaves Lucy wrote, "How lukewarm we have been! How little we know!" Encountering the music of the freemen was a revelation. Lucy heard their hopes and dreams, their sorrow and loss in the music. She recorded seeing two "shouts" and one "praise," religious gatherings of the contraband.

She copied down the songs she heard. Within months of returning home she had published Poor Rosy, Poor Gal. 

Poor Rosy, poor gal,
Poor Rosy, poor gal;
Rosy break my poor heart,
Heav'n shall be my home.

Lucy married Wendell Garrison, son of Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. (Her best friend Ellen Wright, niece of Abolitionist and Women's rights activist Lucretia Mott, married Wendell's brother Lloyd Garrison.)

During her first pregnancy Lucy worked to prepare the songs for publication, knowing that motherhood would preclude finishing her work. She was assisted by William Francis Allen and Charles Pickard Ware. Additional songs were collected by Thomas Wentworth Higginson (Emily Dickinson later sent her poems to him), Lucy Towne (who was trained in medicine and gave her life to educating the Port Royal freemen). This first collection of American slave songs was published in 1867.

Lucy's health declined with each pregnancy and miscarriage. She suffered from rheumatism and strokes. At the age of  34, paralyzed and unable to speak, Lucy refused food.

Charter's use of letters and diary entries brings Lucy to life. Lucy would be thrilled to know that the songs she recorded have become known to all Americans, and would be honored to have her brief life's work remembered in this biography.

Included is the full text of Songs of Slavery, complete with Lucy's musical adaptations and words to the songs, and with the introduction by William Francis Allen. Charters draws from Lucy's many letters and other documents, allowing her to come alive. Those interested in America's musical heritage and in women's history will enjoy reading it.

I received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Songs of Sorrow: Lucy McKim Garrison and Slave Songs of the United States
By Samuel Charters
University Press of Mississippi
American Made Music Series
Publication Date April 7, 2015
ISBN: 9781628462067
$55.00 hardcover