c- Read the text: what could help slaves to cope with their hard condition?

Black slaves and "Spirituals"

Spirituals are religious songs composed by black Americans.
Before the Civil War, black slaves sang while working in the cotton fields to express their pains and sorrows and their desire for freedom. The rhythm of the song helped them 5 with their backbreaking work of picking cotton and collecting tobacco or sugar.

They used the Spirituals as "coded messages" to communicate within their communities. An example can be found in "Sing Low Sweet Chariot" which is believed to be about the Underground Railroad, a secret network of people that helped black people escape from the South to the North.