abstract
| - %22All My Trials%22 was a folk song during the social protest movements of the 1950s and 1960s. It is based on a Bahamian lullaby that tells the story of a mother on her death bed, comforting her children, %22Hush little baby, don't you cry./You know your mama's bound to die,%22 because, as she explains, %22All my trials, Lord,/Soon be over.%22 The message — that no matter how bleak the situation seemed, the struggle would %22soon be over%22 — propelled the song to the status of an anthem, recorded by many of the leading artists of the era.The song is usually classified as a Spiritual because of its biblical and religious imagery. There are references to the %22Lord,%22 %22a little book%22 with a message of %22liberty,%22 %22brothers,%22 %22religion,%22 %22paradise,%22 %22pilgrims%22 and the %22tree of life%22 awaiting her after her hardships, referred to as %22trials.%22 There is an allegory of the river Jordan, the crossing thereof representing the Christian experience of death as something which %22...chills the body but not the soul.%22 The river/death allegory was popularised by John Bunyan in his classic, The Pilgrim's Progress and the wording echoes the teaching of Jesus, to %22...fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul.%22 (Matthew 10:28)
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