Gospel song and Negro spirituals were both based on the Bible (Gospel means Evangiles). The Blacks could identify with the Hebrew people living in slavery under the Egyptians and fighting for freedom; The lyrics of negro spirituals were tightly linked with the lives of their authors: slaves. While work songs dealt only with their daily life, spirituals were inspired by the message of Jesus Christ and his Good News (Gospel) of the Bible, “You can be saved”.There was sometimes a hidden message calling for revolt or escape towards the free states of the North. This songs were a way of sharing the hard condition of being a slave.

	Thomas A. Dorsey (1899-1993, composer of such standards as "There Will Be Peace in the Valley"),
	The father of Gospel music

In rural areas, spirituals were sung, mainly outside of churches. In cities, about 1850, the Protestant City-Revival Movement created a new song genre, which was popular; for revival meetings organized by this movement, temporary tents were erected in stadiums, where the attendants could sing