Spirituals (also known as Negro spirituals, African American spirituals, Black spirituals, or spiritual music) is a genre of Christian music that is associated with African Americans, which merged varied African cultural influences with the experiences of being held in bondage in slavery, at first during the transatlantic slave trade and for centuries afterwards, through the domestic slave trade. Spirituals incorporate the "sing songs", work songs, and plantation songs that evolved into the blues and gospel songs in church. In the nineteenth century, the word "spirituals" referred to all these subcategories of folk songs. While they were often rooted in biblical stories, they also described the extreme hardships endured by African Americans who were enslaved from the 17th century until the 1860s, the emancipation altering mainly the nature (but not continuation) of slavery for many. Many new derivative music genres such as the blues emerged from the spirituals songcraft. These songs were used to share coded messages, unite people, express feelings and emotions, and to keep their culture alive throughout the generations. They eventually were performed in churches, schools, and concerts. This form of African-American heritage influenced music around the world.

Beyond it's musical significance, spirituals played a crucial role in encouraging and uplifting African Americans throughout history. These songs provided hope, comfort, and resilience during the darkest periods of slavery and segregation. Singing together allowed enslaved individuals to build solidarity, maintain a sense of community, and draw strength from shared struggles. Spirituals often incorporated biblical themes of deliverance and liberation, resonating with listeners who longed for freedom and justice. By turning to stories such as the Exodus, African Americans found inspiration and a spiritual framework to endure hardship and keep faith in the possibility of a better future.

The tradition of spirituals began in the early 1700s among enslaved Africans in the American South, particularly on plantations where communal singing was both a survival strategy and a subtle form of resistance. This genre emerged from the blending of African musical traditions with Christian hymns introduced by missionaries and slaveholders. Spirituals first flourished in secret worship meetings, also known as “hush harbors,” where enslaved people gathered away from the eyes of overseers. Over time, spirituals spread to camp meetings and revivals, becoming central to African American religious and cultural expression. Through these songs, generations found the encouragement and unity needed to persevere and eventually challenge the institution of slavery.[1]

Prior to the end of the US Civil War and emancipation, spirituals were originally an oral tradition passed from one slave generation to the next. Biblical stories were memorized then translated into song. Following emancipation, the lyrics of spirituals were published in printed form. Ensembles such as the Fisk Jubilee Singers—established in 1871—popularized spirituals, bringing them to a wider, even international, audience.

At first, major recording studios were only recording white musicians performing spirituals and their derivatives. That changed with Mamie Smith's commercial success in 1920. Starting in the 1920s, the commercial recording industry increased the audience for the spirituals and their derivatives.

Black composers Harry Burleigh and R. Nathaniel Dett created a "new repertoire for the concert stage" by applying their Western classical education to the spirituals. While the spirituals were created by a "circumscribed community of people in bondage", over time they became known as the first "signature" music of the United States.

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians—one of the largest reference works on music and musicians—itemized and described "spiritual" in their electronic resource, Grove Music Online—an important part of Oxford Music Online, as a "type of sacred song created by and for African Americans that originated in oral tradition. Although its exact provenance is unknown, spirituals were identifiable as a genre by the early 19th century." They used the term without the descriptor, "African American".

The term "Negro spirituals" is a 19th century word "used for songs with religious texts created by African Enslaved in America". The first published book of slave songs referred to them as "spirituals".