Francis Henry Gribble

“ Their character changed as the Negro, becoming educated, became self-conscious. He is imitative and responsive to cultural influences. The influence of the hymns introduced by Methodist revivalists was succeeded by that of church music of a better character; while, at the same time, the old-fashioned Negro music was deliberately imitated by American composers trained in the European traditions. Present-day American Negro music is the resultant of these conflicting forces. ”

“ By that time, however, American Negro music had undergone considerable transformation. The old and the new in it cannot be sharply separated; but some of the factors in the evolutionary process can be traced. ”

“ But then, after an interval, we come to lines which the plantations certainly did not originate:—
Old Satan tremble when he sees
The weakest saints upon their knees.
That is sophisticated and borrowed. ”