Peggy Arthur

Songs that Teach us To Fight 

By Peggy Arthur

Greetings readers, writers, and everyone in between. Please remember you are always welcome here. 

“A soldier is defined as one engaged in military service, typically within an army, who fights for their government and carries weapons; often risking their life.”

What Does It Mean to Be a Soldier?

As we reflect on that definition, we have to ask ourselves:

What does it mean in our spiritual life?

In our natural life?

Do we truly stand for the things we believe in such as our faith, our values, our convictions?

Do we stand up for what is right within our hearts and minds?

Or do we remain tucked safely inside our comfort zones, letting others fight battles we were meant to face?

Have you ever stopped to consider…

Are you a soldier?

Or are you simply someone wading through the difficulties of life?

The First Time I Heard the Song

I remember the first time I heard “We Are Soldiers.” In my early childhood, my family attended Faith Church. The devotion team would sing it a cappella, their voices rising and falling like waves. I sat on an uncomfortable wooden bench, often drawing, but always listening.

The floor would tremble beneath the stomping feet of the adults.

The energy was undeniable.

And at some point, without even realizing it, I would begin to clap along.

There is something deeply powerful about the spirit in a Baptist church. It’s infectious. It creates a rhythm, a synchronicity, that moves through generations.

Just as strength is passed from mother to child,

the spirit travels through song.

What Is a Negro Spiritual?

To understand songs like “We Are Soldiers,” we have to understand the tradition they come from.

Negro spirituals are sacred songs created by enslaved African Americans in the United States, primarily during the 18th and 19th centuries. Rooted in African musical traditions and shaped by the realities of slavery, these songs blended biblical themes with lived experience.

They were more than music. They were communication, resistance, hope, and survival.

Many spirituals carried double meanings. On the surface, they spoke of heaven, faith, and endurance to escape the attention of others. Beneath that, they often contained coded messages about escape, freedom, and perseverance.

They were rarely written down. Instead, they were passed from voice to voice, generation to generation, evolving over time.

Songs like “We Are Soldiers” are believed to have emerged from this tradition and later took root in Black church worship, particularly in Baptist and Pentecostal spaces. While the exact origin date is unclear, as is common with spirituals, the message is timeless:

We are in a fight.

And we must endure.

Songs That Teach Us to Fight

As children, we learn through song. Through song, stories are passed down. Through song, the fight is remembered.

If you really listen, the words carry weight. They come from deep within the belly, the soul. They teach us early that the battle is not easy.

It is bloody.

It is painful.

But it must be endured.

In moments of grief or hardship, these songs rise back up from somewhere deep within us. They remind us:

This fight did not start with you.

And it will not end with you.

It is a song of endurance.

A song that keeps us going when we feel like stopping.

A Legacy Carried in Sound

I listened to the song again a few weeks ago, and it stirred something deep inside me.

I thought about the shouts it once evoked.

The lives it helped sustain.

I imagined my great-grandmother, Nanny, singing it.

And her mother before her.

And when you peel those layers back, you begin to realize:

The past is not as distant as we sometimes believe.

Her father’s mother would have been enslaved.

That kind of history doesn’t disappear. It echoes.

And sometimes…

it echoes through song.

A Message from My Grandmother

My grandmother, Mrs. Peggy Arthur, wrote the opening of this blog.

She reminds me, and perhaps teaches you, that we are born into a spiritual battle older than time.

We are often torn between the heart and the mind, doing what we must to survive.

But survival is not the only goal.

We were left with lessons.

We must fight, even when we don’t understand.

We must lean on the wisdom of those who came before us.

We must build on a faith that lives within our bloodline.

We must remember that the fight will last until we die.

We must understand that the fight will be there long after we’re gone. 

The fight is woven through the fabric of time. 

🌿 Join the Conversation

So I ask you:

What does this song stir in you?

What memories does it bring back?

What strength does it awaken?

I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to share them in the comments below.

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