The author is credible. He admits in the introduction that he maintains a biased interpretation of the spirituals and the blues, and explains further, that he feels it is impossible to grow up with this music and not be influenced by black music in white society. This admission gives the author credibility with me because he makes me aware from the start, the context from which he has gathered his facts and the reason behind the viewpoints he speaks of.

James Cone wrote on this topic to relate to students of black music and history the significance of cultural expressions of black music that manifested itself in the forms of the spirituals and the blues. And his growing up with the spirituals of Macedonia A.M.E. Church and the Arkansas blues in a small black community in Bearden, Arkansas qualifies him to speak on the subject since my experience with music confirms Cone’s statement that "there is a deeper level of experience which transcends the tools of objective research. And that experience is available only to those who share the spirit and participate in the faith of the people who created the songs."

The forward doesn’t speak of James’ education but it mentions that he is a teacher at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Other books authored by James include Martin & Malcolm & America: A dream or a Nightmare, A Black Theology of Liberation, My Soul Looks Back, and For My People.

James’ main point of the book is "The spirituals and the blues are about the struggle for black survival."

James supports this thesis first by defining the spiritual as the spirit of a people laboring to be set free, then he elaborates calling it their religion and their source of power in times of trouble.

The spirituals speak of the rejection faced by Jesus during his life on earth and his death on the cross. In doing so they affirm that Jesus’ suffering and pain was both real and great.

The significance of this was found in Jesus’ identifying with the poor, sick and the blind throughout his birth, life, death and resurrection. He is the conquering King come to set the lowly free and restore their wholeness. Black slaves clutched this belief raising their voices to the heavens in song for the Lord to be with them.

Specifically Jesus’ death on the cross was symbolic of the torment and affliction suffered by black slaves. Jesus died on the cross for them, and they knew the pain of rejection and suffering of hanging from a tree.

While the troubled souls of the slaves would sing verses full of despair such as "Sometimes I feel like a motherless child, a long way from home," slaves were nevertheless sure that Jesus was with them and would add in the same song, "Glory Hallelujah!"

The sources used by the author span through eleven pages of notes, but some of the sources include;

• Slave Songs of the United States (New York: A. Simpson and Co., 1867.)
• John Lovell, "The Social Implications of the Negro Spiritual" in Bernard Katz (ed.), The Social Implications of Early Negro Music in the United States (New York: Arno Press, 1969.)
• Howard Thurman, The Negro Spiritual Speaks of Life and Death (New York: Harper and Row, 1947.)

The coverage the James provides throughout the book is comprehensive of the slaves plight. He relates how the auction block stood for "brokenness," since family ties were not recognized there. He explains how slavery meant working fifteen to twenty hours a day with the price for showing fatigue being a beating and how it meant having your owner deciding if he should work you to death by calculating the cost of replacing you against the value of your labor.

James takes this account of sorrow and turns it into a recount of the triumph of the black communities spirit as it found in religion a sense of "somebodyness" that contradicted the essence of slavery’s attempt to make black people feel like nobodies.

The only omission that I noticed was how the author often did not distinguish between white people in general and white people who supported the institution of slavery. I believe this is because of James growing up in the south where prejudice was surely rampant, but it does not excuse his neglect in specifying white oppressors when discussing the brutality inflicted on slaves.

James provides a clear perspective segueing from God and black suffering where he speaks of the meaning of death, Satan and sin in the black spirituals where he speaks of the transcendent present and future. James concludes with judgement and the righteousness of God found in the spirituals.

The last chapter on the blues is being ignored here because the blues were born after the civil war which is beyond the time period presently being studied.

Black music defines and affirms the humanity of the black person. I believe it does this not through the words but through the spirit of the person singing. There is a certain kind of excorcism that is performed when a person unleashes the passion from their soul into song. This primal element that puts the emphasis on the rhythm of the soul instead of on technique can be traced as an influence on every single style of popular music alive today with the single exception being art music (musical works from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic eras, etc. in Europe.) This is an achievement accomplished by a people that throughout American history has often been described as worthless.

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