Full Description
Spirituals performed by jubilee troupes became a sensation in post-Civil War America. First brought to the stage by choral ensembles like the Fisk Jubilee Singers, spirituals anchored a wide range of late nineteenth-century entertainments, including minstrelsy, variety, and plays by both black and white companies. In the first book-length treatment of postbellum spirituals in theatrical entertainments, Sandra Jean Graham mines a trove of resources to chart the spiritual's journey from the private lives of slaves to the concert stage. Graham navigates the conflicting agendas of those who, in adapting spirituals for their own ends, sold conceptions of racial identity to their patrons. In so doing they lay the foundation for a black entertainment industry whose artistic, financial, and cultural practices extended into the twentieth century. A companion website contains jubilee troupe personnel, recordings, and profiles of 85 jubilee groups. Please go to: http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/graham/spirituals/
Contents
Title PageCopyrightContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. The Folk SpiritualPART ONE The Rise of a Jubilee Industry2. The Jubilee Singers of Fisk University3. The Fisk Concert Spiritual4. Innovators, Imitators, and a Jubilee IndustryPART TWO Spirituals for the Masses5. The Minstrel Show Gets Religion6. Commercial Spirituals7. Spirituals in Uncle Tom Shows, Melodramas, and Spectacles8. Blurring Boundaries between Traditional and CommercialConclusion: Lessons and LegaciesNotesBibliographyIndex
