Once official slavery ended, it seemed possible that the spirituals might no longer be needed. For one, there were many in the African American community who wanted to put behind them anything that would remind them of the painful experience of slavery. Many had also begun to internalize negative views of their music as “extravagant” or “heathen.” However, the early tours of the Fisk (University) Jubilee Singers, in the 1870’s, during which audiences in America and abroad heard spirituals for the first time, served to spark the development of a new concert spirituals tradition that would have a major influence on American and world culture for more than a century beyond the end of slavery.

In the years following the first Fisk tours, interest in the spirituals began to fade. Certainly, the spirituals continued as part of the worship experience in many African American churches. However, lingering ambivalence about what many in the community experienced as a shameful reminder of times past served to diminish interest in the spirituals beyond this circumscribed venue. It also did not help that the spirituals were degraded in the shameful mockery of the prevalent minstrel show tradition. In addition, many of the developing Black colleges were embracing the values of a European-style education, and the spirituals seemed out of step with this focus. In fact, outside the sphere of the Jubilee Singers themselves, even the Fisk community seemed disinterested in these songs.