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Top Ten Protest Songs and the Events that Inspired Them – 9


00:00:00[Music]

00:00:00hey next on our list is slavery um the

00:00:06motivation here is rather simple people

00:00:08were slaves and I’d like to be able to

00:00:11say that that this was um that I’m

00:00:14talking about Pharaoh and the slaves in

00:00:16Egypt but no unfortunately i’m talking

00:00:18about african americans who were slaves

00:00:20until until the 20th century yes people

00:00:25you didn’t miss here today you didn’t

00:00:27hear me miss speak I mean obviously we

00:00:29heard a lot about the segregation laws

00:00:30further on but I mean it’s really

00:00:32ridiculous and until the Civil War we

00:00:34almost forget that like what the Civil

00:00:36War was about and that within America

00:00:38which is supposed to be the land of free

00:00:41that they really were classifying people

00:00:43as people and some people you know like

00:00:47subhuman subpar which is really rather

00:00:50horrific and obviously led to some right

00:00:54the types of of protest songs that were

00:00:57that we would associate with slavery are

00:00:59mostly spiritual for example the song go

00:01:02down Moses go down Moses is a song that

00:01:04really that really sort of encapsulates

00:01:06the era and it was really it was some a

00:01:08ton by slaves go down Moses and here’s

00:01:11what’s really interesting about the song

00:01:13it tells the story of Moses leaving the

00:01:17slaves out of egypt and and the and the

00:01:20course of the song is let my people go

00:01:22which we all identify with moses or at

00:01:26the very least we identify it with

00:01:27charlton heston playing Moses in the Ten

00:01:29Commandments going let my people go and

00:01:32and I that’s you know in this song and

00:01:35go down Moses another song that was

00:01:37really I find his really interesting was

00:01:39followed the drinking gourd and why I

00:01:41find out really cool is that this is

00:01:44another sort of song that came out of

00:01:45the era another type of song that came

00:01:47out of the era which is a sea of song

00:01:50that’s actually transmitting a secret

00:01:52message and this one particular song

00:01:54followed the drinking gourd actually

00:01:56told slaves through the song how to find

00:02:00the underground railway to Canada which

00:02:03is just unbelievable so people really

00:02:04were singing at that time for two

00:02:05different reasons one was spiritual to

00:02:07keep their morals and their hopes alive

00:02:08all they were slaves and number two was

00:02:10was for a really much more useful

00:02:12purpose which was how do

00:02:13get out of slavery and okay this is how

00:02:15we got out of slavery you know and we

00:02:17can’t really talk about it openly but

00:02:18within the music we can talk about it we

00:02:20can sing to each other and we can sing

00:02:22to our children and by doing so we can

00:02:23tell them how to be free one day

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