When I hear the spiritual "No More Auction Block {Many Thousands Gone}
I think about the many people who suffered and died not only during chattel slavery in the United States & elsewhere, but also as a result of other inhuman acts and failures to take action throughout the entire earth, among all peoples, centuries after centuries after centuries and still today.

You would think that "No More Auction Block" would be a joyous song given that people were singing about the end of legal slavery.
But this song is always sung slowly in homage to the memories of all those children, women, and men who died during slavery.

But I have often wondered if another reason why 'No More Auction Block' has such a slow, sorrowful feel is because the people who gathered to sing it could sense that hard times were still not through with them. Therefore they could not wholly rejoice.