What are negro spiritual songs ?
Louis Armstrong

In America, the enslaved¹ Africans would often sing while they worked to create a rythm to drive their tedious² hard labour³. Spiritual songs often fused⁴ together traditional African style with characteristics of European religious hymns. Drumming⁵ was often banned⁶ by the plantation owners⁷ because it might⁸ be sending out messages. However singing was encouraged as a way of lifting spirits⁹. Many songs carried secret messages encouraging enslaved Africans to make their way to freedom from the slave states of the South to the free states of the North. But because the songs often referred¹⁰ to biblical stories they could have perfectly innocent meanings too.

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1 - to enslave : to take someone as a slave
2 - tedious : difficult and borring
3 - labour : work
4 - to fuse together : to join/put together

5 - to drum : to play music on a drum
6 - to bann : to forbid, to make illegal
7 - an owner : someone who possesses something. Here, they possess a plantation.
to own : to possess
8 - it might : it could
9 - to lift spirit (up) :to make someone feel better
10 - to refer : to talk about