The Fisk Jubilee Singers
The publication of African American spirituals in the 1860s sparked interest in the genre throughout the country. One of the earliest African American vocal groups, The Fisk Jubilee Singers, was established in 1871 at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. Douglass attended a concert of the Fisk Jubilee Singers in Washington D.C. and enjoyed their performance so much that he invited them to his home the following evening.
After hearing them perform, Douglass said to the Fisk Jubilee Singers: “You are doing more to remove the prejudice against our race than ten thousand platforms could do” (Handbill, 1875).
Click on the following link to listen to “Roll Jordan Roll” by the Fisk Jubilee Singers recorded in 1909. The song was a coded message for escape; the River Jordan represented the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers that led enslaved populations northward. The sheet music to this song is printed in the Slave Songs of the United States.