"Contraband" Racing to "Freedom"
This week in class, we have been discussing fugitive slaves who escaped to Ft. Monroe, Virginia at the outset of the Civil War and became "Contraband"...I have often thought what it must have felt like to be free (although, as we know they surely weren't free to fight, vote, etc.) after hundreds of years of slavery.
Listen to Paul Robeson sing the classic version...
When I ponder the thought of slavery/ freedom/ denied freedom...I almost always hear the song "Sometimes, I Feel Like a Motherless Child" ringing in my head. This ageless and plaintive Negro Spiritual is clearly a song of pain, hopelessness, anger, and despair.
To me it communicates...
* A literal message that children and families were sold and separated on a regular basis.
* A metaphorical message of longing for Africa and the family left behind.
* A metaphorical message of still feeling like a slave during and after the war...in a "free" country.
* A prophetic message of longing for reunion of family...longing for heaven in this foreign land.
Richie Havens improvises "Motherless Child" aka "Freedom" at Woodstock...
My favorite version of "Motherless Child" was first improvised by Richie Havens at the beginning of the Woodstock Music Festival...Mr. Havens very adeptly cries for freedom in a land of racism, war, hatred, and oppression. POWERFUL!
Is Freedom (are we) metaphorically a motherless child in this land of...
Racial Profiling
Police Brutality
Anti-immigrant Sentiment
Re-segregated Public Schools
Shopping/ Driving/ Living while Black, Brown, etc.
Jim Crow Prisons
Senseless murder in the street
Is it too late to "Let Freedom Ring?"
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