Why We Love the Hymns An African Methodist Episcopal Perspective

“The Israelites celebrated the freedom to observe the Sabbath as a benefit of their escape from Egyptian enslavement. Exodus theology and the liberation of mid-19th c. American blacks have likewise been an oft-recurring theme in the AME church’s rich collection of hymns. Before the Emancipation Proclamation, Sundays represented a time and place when enslaved blacks might gather in a community less (directly) overseen by others. After 1863, hymns reflected social constraints that still made life hard. Social Gospel hymns appeared in the 1900s.”