Paul Poulton looks at what we can learn from those who were slaves when it comes to dealing with stress.

The human ear usually enjoys simple ratios of musical frequencies such as 1:1 (unison), 2:1 (octave), 3:2 (perfect fifth), 4:3 (perfect fourth), 5:4 (major third), 6:5 (minor third), but suddenly here comes a group of people singing and playing an interval containing a ratio of 45:32.

Interestingly, the flatted fifth interval is now used in security alarms and emergency sirens. But perhaps that is fitting because the songs that emerged from the African-American community raised an alarm - "Something is grossly wrong, we need to address it quickly."

The British Parliament made the slave trade illegal throughout the British Empire in 1807. In America abolition took longer. According to the 1860 US Census the slave population was four million. And in December 1865 the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude.

Every man, woman and child are to be valued regardless of race or heritage; we are all made in God's image. Man was given dominion over the beasts of the earth, not over each other.

Augustine pointed out that "(God) did not intend that his rational creature, who was made in his image, should have dominion over anything but the irrational creation - not man over man, but man over beasts."

However, some goodness emerged from the evil, and light shone from the gloom.

Blues music was medicine for those who first sang it, "When you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it" (1 Corinthians 10:13). What the plantation owners heard as African wailing, moaning and chanting, the world has come to appreciate as a cherished art form.

As blues music evolved its remit grew. Washington Phillips who was born in 1880 became a gospel blues singer and would often address spontaneous gatherings in the street. He sang 'Denomination Blues' highlighting the need for people to overcome sectarianism.

Other singers followed, Blind Willie Johnson born in 1897 wrote 'Everybody Ought To Treat A Stanger Right.' The medicine was now being used for growth, the song says "All of us down here are strangers; none of us have no home."

These are important lessons for us, and for Willie himself, because his own house was destroyed by a fire.

Stress related anxiety can certainly play a part in life whatever age we live in, but the lessons the blues teach us is that our disquiet, doubt and dread are within God's reach. He can support us, give us strength to endure them, He can check them, give us medicine to heal them, He can immobilise their influence, and destroy them, ultimately bringing growth from the downtrodden and downhearted and disenfranchised of the earth.