Entry · catalog no. 9426
spiritual
/ /ˈspɪɹɪtʃuəl/ /SPIR-ih-choo-ul
noun · Southern United States · 1800s
✓ Verified
1.
A religious song of the enslaved, usually sung in call and response, often with coded hope for freedom.
“They sang spirituals in the cabins at night.”
Origin & Attribution
Religious songs created and sung by enslaved Black people in the American South. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a white colonel of the First South Carolina Volunteers, wrote about the songs he heard from Black soldiers in 'Negro Spirituals' in the Atlantic Monthly in June 1867, one of the first major printed accounts. The Fisk Jubilee Singers then carried them to national and international audiences from 1871. W. E. B. Du Bois discussed such songs as the sorrow songs in The Souls of Black Folk (1903).
1867
Higginson publishes 'Negro Spirituals' in the Atlantic Monthly
1903
Du Bois discusses the sorrow songs in The Souls of Black Folk
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The South
Southern United States · 1800s
Spoken by
Black churchgoers, descendants of the enslaved
$SPIRITThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady159 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
55/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1867
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@nolakid
New Orleans, LA
@htxdri
Houston, TX
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
T. W. Higginson, 'Negro Spirituals', Atlantic Monthly, June 1867
web
■
+ Cite a sourceW. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, 1903
book
See also