Were coded spirituals effective ways of communication for slaves?

1. At the end of the Civil war a collection of approximately 136 religious and secular songs were published as “Slave Songs of the United States.”

2. Were coded spirituals effective ways of communication for slaves? By: Daiquan Thomasson

3. Why I chose my Topic and Product • My topic kind of just came to me one day as I was sitting in my room. I had just heard a slave spiritual so I searched slaves songs on Google and the result “coded slave songs’ came up and I took it from there. • My product is to create a children's book. I had trouble deciding my topic at first so my teacher and I sat down and discussed it and we came to the conclusion that it would be a good idea to make a children's book.

4. Coded Slave Spirituals Research • Slave spirituals came to their peak in the early 19th century among African-American slaves who had been denied the opportunity to practice traditional African religions. • There were two types of spirituals, map spirituals and signal spirituals. • Slaves sung spirituals to affirm their humanity and to give them hope, faith, and courage to go on living when life seemed to be nothing but endless physical toil, punishment, and deprivation.

5. More Research Facts • Spirituals were often sung in a call and response method led by a strong bass voice. • Many of the coded spirituals were sung to give slaves insight on what they would face when escaping on the Underground Railroad and how to reach the north safely. • Slave owners liked the spirituals because most of them were based on Christian stories from the bible.

6. Research and Product relationship • My research relates with my product by having a lot of information in one place. With my product being a children’s book, I simply truncate all that data I have gathered and make it into a book that is understandable by the audience it is presented to.

7. Explaining product • My product is to create a book. The audience for my book are children, specifically an OCS class. The purpose of my book is to educate children about a part of history that they may not be directly taught about because this topic is still social soft spot to many people.

8. Learning Stretch • My product was a learning stretch for me because it gave me insight on something that I had no prior knowledge about and I can now say that I have more knowledge on this topic since the start of my project. • Something I didn’t do well before this project was applying myself. I learned that once I apply myself to something I can be very successful instead of just doing what I need to get by.

9. Steps taken in project • Come up with topic • Do detailed research • Write JR paper • Find mentor • Come up with product • Create product

10. Mentor • My mentor helped me get a little more information than I already had. • He helped me organize all of the information. • My mentor also helped me place information in my book in a order that made sense.

11. Obstacles • Finding the same information on different sites • Not getting enough information • Making the research understandable and simplifying it

12. Successes • Gathering enough research to create a book • Making the information understandable • Getting every completed in a timely manner

13. Self Reflection • I learned that if you procrastinate you will get behind and it is very hard to catch up. • I think it will help me in the future by having knowledge on a topic that many people don’t know about and I would be able to teach them something.

14. Thank you for your time. Do you have any questions?