A more-recent of example of what Douglass describes here is evident in the song “Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)” by Marvin Gaye, which features despairing lyrics that overlay whispered prayers about environmental degradation. The sweet melody of the song is juxtaposed with the sadness of the words’ meaning, recreating a form of melancholy that may be reminiscent of the singing Douglass recalls.

In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs characterizes enslaved black peoples’ singing with the words “If you were to hear them at such times, you might think they were happy. But can that hour of singing and shouting sustain them through the dreary week, toiling without wages, under constant dread of the lash?”