Ajayi, J. F. A. and Michael Crowder, eds., The History of West Africa, Columbia University Press, 1972.

This collection of scholarly essays provides a West African view on the history of the area, including an article on the slave trade.

Allen, William Francis, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison, Slave Songs in theUnited States, Peter Smith Publications, 1951.

This volume, which was originally copyrighted in 1867, is one of the oldest collections of spirituals. The introductory commentary provides insight into the attitudes towards spirituals at that time.

Lawrence-McIntyre, Charshee Charlotte, "The Double Meaning of the Spirituals," in Journal of Black Studies, June, 1987, pp. 379^01.

A fascinating article which points out many of the double and triple meanings in spirituals.

Peters, Erskine, "The Poetics of the Afro-American Spiritual," in Black American Literature Forum, Fall, 1989, pp. 559-578.

Peters discusses the categories and characteristics of spirituals, focusing on rhetorical devices and...