- The significance of the “sorrow songs” to African American culture and history would be the struggle that they had to go through for hundreds of years. Today we have musicians who create music in order to express their experiences and situations they encounter in their everyday life. The same case can be made with sorrow songs. The songs were originally created for African slaves to express their deep sadness and turmoil. These songs represent the pain and suffering they had to endure for generations. The songs were also used for mourning family and friends that had their lives taken. Although these songs symbolized a dark and depressing state of mind, they also had the potential to be used for worship. There are songs that the slaves would use to praise God and ask for blessings. They would not only ask for blessings in these songs, but they would ask to be released from the agonizing life they lived so they may be at peace. These are the reasons that made the sorrow songs so significant to the African American culture.
- The most significant song in my opinion would be “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” by Louis Armstrong because it expresses so much with saying so little. This song in my opinion tells the audience that they cannot even begin to imagine what African Americans in the United States have been through. Whether its abuse or torture or death, nobody truly knows the trouble that has been seen by African Americans for hundreds of years but God himself.
