During slavery, African-Americans secretly created camp meetings in wooded areas called Hush Harbors. In these spaces, away from the eyes and ears of their slave masters, they could worship God as they pleased, encourage one another to hold on, and usher in the presence of God through prayer and singing. Spirituals such as “Oh Freedom” sustained them and inspired resistance to their oppressors.
             It is no coincidence that St. Helena Island in South Carolina was chosen as the place where civil rights activists such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others held periodic strategic planning meetings. St. Helena was the ancestral home of enslaved Gullahs, black South Carolinians. The Gullahs were recognized as a people possessing strong traditions of black culture, independence, communalism, and intense spirituality in their fight to break free from slavery and religious repression.
             The Gullahs developed an ideology of liberation and equality. A recurrent theme was the Exodus story of the Israelites, which contained patterns of oppression similar to those the Gullahs were experiencing and provided a blueprint for freedom. They prayed and sang spirituals such as “Go Down, Moses.”
             Spirituals sent a clear message that African-American slaves refused to be destroyed in mind, body, and spirit. These songs give us a deeper understanding of the pain of oppression and the hope of liberation that slaves found not only in God, but also in Jesus Christ, who became their role model for noble suffering that leads to freedom and equality.