Several parallel singing traditions were born in the United States during the period of slavery, allowing blacks and whites to engage in four-part singing and draw from a shared vernacular culture (Averill, 2003, 11). As blackface minstrelsy became increasingly popular in the 1850s and 1860s, black and white performers sometimes sang spirituals in quartet fashion.
Throughout the period of Reconstruction, financially strapped black institutions often formed vocal ensembles, the most famous of which...