Bruno Chenu provides an extraordinary record of the origin and history of Negro spirituals and offers exceptional historical and sociological insights into their meaning. Section One focus on the origin of the spiritual by examining the odyssey of the North American slave trade from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. Section Two features an exhaustive study of the various themes found within the spirituals, which number today at over 6,000. In the final section, Chenu provides a glimpse into the very soul of the slave through hymns, prayers, and the astonishing personal testimonies of slaves. The reader will see the formation of the spiritual up close. The collections of stories and the interviews with free and former slaves that were used as research for The Trouble I've Seen will undoubtedly leave a profound and memorable imprint. This is a resource no collector of African American books should be without.