Free at last

Free at last. African American spiritual*.  The concept of freedom is integral the theology of the spirituals according to liberation theologian James H. Cone (1936-2018):  The divine liberation of the oppressed from slavery is the central theological concept in the black spirituals. These songs show that black slaves did not believe that human servitude was reconcilable with their African past and their knowledge of the Christian gospel. They did not believe that God created Africans to be the slaves of Americans. Accordingly, they sang of a God who was involved in history – their history – making right what whites had made wrong. Just as God delivered the Children of Israel from...