y to the immediate and affirm the bodily expression of black soul". Most believe that the blues began to take form in the late 1800s, but it is widely agreed that the spirit and mood of the blues stretch well into the slavery days. The blues are closely related to the "slave seculars", which are non-religious and express the skepticism of blacks who could not take white preachers religious faith seriously. The blues do not reject God, but rather ignore God by accepting the joys and sorrows of life. The biggest difference between the spirituals and the blues is that just as strongly religious the spirituals are, the blues are worldly. Another important distinction between the spirituals and the blues is that the blues grounds black hope in history, not in a plea for a better life after death. The author tells us that the blues can best be defined as an artistic response to the chaos of life combining art and life, poetry and experience, and the symbolic and the real. They describe the reality of black suffering without seeking to devise solutions for the problem of absurdity and, put simply, recognize that blacks have been "hurt and scared" by the brutalities of white society. The Spirituals and the Blues is a very well-written and informative book. One strength is the fact that the author shows distinct differences between two types of songs which, for the most part, served the same purpose: reflecting the struggle for black survival under the harsh reality of slavery and segregation. The central theme in the black spirituals is the divine liberation of the oppressed from slavery, whereas the blues attempt to "carve out" a significant existence in a very trying situation. The blues had their foundation built upon historical experience and the fact that if it is lived and encountered, then it is real. One of the most convincing tools used by Cone throughout the book are the excerpts of several spirituals and blues used to be...
