Many Spirituals of the South have become part of American Culture. Some of these are Sometimes I feel Like a Motherless Child, Wade in the Water, and the "Shout and Response" Spiritual Swing Low Sweet Chariot. "Shout and Response" is an ancient tradition in African Singing where one person leads the song and the community responds by singing back a refrain. Another type of Spiritual is the "slow and long-phase" melody. An example of this is the Spiritual Roll, Jordan, Roll.

Below is this Spiritual. You can find a recorded copy of it here. (Go two thirds the way down the page and click onto the MP3 file).

This classic Spiritual speaks of the Jordan River in the Middle East. It was in this river that Christians believe that John the Baptist poured water over the head of Jesus. For Christians this became a Spiritual Ritual of Blessing where the person Baptized in Jesus' name was freed from the slavery of sin. In singing this spiritual, the African American slave community understood all of the scriptural metaphors that discussed freedom from slavery in many ways.

Freedom was not just to be experienced in the soul, it was to be grasped like the Israelites when their escaped their bondage under Egypt's Pharaoh. Thus, Spirituals were songs of hope in freedom and faith in God's Promise to Hear the Cry of the Poor.

Today, Spirituals are a global music that is celebrated by people on every continent where humans are to be found.