Ella Sheppard

Ella Sheppard (February 4, 1851 – June 9, 1914) was an American soprano, pianist, composer, and arranger of spirituals. She was the matriarch of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers of Nashville, Tennessee. She also played the organ and the guitar. Sheppard was a friend and confidante of African-American activists and orators Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass.

Early life and education A direct descendant of the brother of Andrew Jackson, Samuella "Ella" Sheppard was born on The Hermitage, Jackson's plantation. Sheppard's father Simon hired himself out as a Nashville liveryman and hack driver. This enabled him to earn $1,800 allowing him to pay for his own freedom. Sarah Hannah Sheppard, Ella's mother, was promised that her freedom could be purchased by Simon, but the slave mistress reneged on the agreement. "Sarah shall never belong to Simon," she declared. "She is mine and she shall die mine. Let Simon get another wife." Sarah took the woman's advice, walked back up the hill to slavery with Ella in her arms. Fearing the loss of the child, the slave mistress allowed Simon Sheppard to purchase his own daughter for $350. When Ella was three, Sarah was sold to a plantation in Mississippi, a state that slaves practically never returned from. Ella stayed with her father in Nashville. After her father's death from cholera in 1866, Ella supported herself, her stepmother and half-sister by playing for local functions, working as a maid, and teaching music in Gallatin, Tennessee.

After about five months she was only able to save a little more than $6, because the poor black pupils were not always able to pay for their lessons. She took that $6, packed her belongings in a "pie box"-sized trunk, and enrolled at the Fisk Free Colored School in Nashville, Tennessee in 1868, where her $6 lasted three weeks.

Fisk was struggling financially at this time, needing better buildings, dining resources, and supplies for their students–worse, the American Missionary Association was considering closing the school. he was so moved by these haunting melodies that he decided to have them arranged for concert performance, in European-style four-part harmony. Sheppard did most of the arranging of these works. The first tours were successful, and the Fisk Jubilee Singers were formed in 1871 to go on a national tour. Sheppard worked as the primary vocal coach and director for the group, collecting over one hundred songs for their repertoire. She sang soprano, accompanied the choir on piano, organ, and guitar, but also oversaw rehearsals and conducted during performances.

They sang for Mark Twain, President Ulysses S. Grant, congressmen, diplomats, and royalty. "These singers," according to one newspaper, "are doing a great work for humanity." The first tours were immensely financially and critically successful, with one tour of Ohio churches raising $50,000 that they donated for relief after the Great Chicago Fire. They performed all this under the racial discrimination of the towns they toured, facing hostility during performances and hazardous travel. Some incidents were documented of the singers moving hostile audience members to tears. Queen Victoria stated when she heard the group while Ella Sheppard served as their matriarch, "[The Fisk Jubilee Singers] sing so beautifully they must be from the Music City of the United States." Sheppard wrote that the British were "so stupid or ignorant" about black people and Americans, but appreciated the praise of a reverend in Berlin and the enthusiasm of the Crown Prince in Pottsdam.

Towards the end of the second European tour, George White resigned and returned home, leaving Sheppard full control over the group. The Jubilee Singers later disbanded in July 1878 because of their grueling touring schedule and dwindling profits due to economic recessions in Europe. However, back in America in 1879, White reorganized the group independently of Fisk, with Sheppard returning as well. The Jubilee Singers had a newly political role when they advocated for the Civil Rights Act of 1875 and politicians like the soon-to-be President James Garfield.

Personal life After Sheppard's mother was sold to a plantation in Mississippi when Sheppard was three, Sheppard did not see her again until she was 15, when she found her along with a sister who had been sold. Sheppard wrote that her mother's heart was broken by slavery and the forced splitting of their family; she recorded that her mother often said, "My back was never struck, but my heart is like a checkerboard with its stripes of sorrow."

George Sheppard Moore, a doctor, was one of their sons and Clinton the other. On November 17, 2009, the Ella Sheppard School of Music was founded by Chicago Native and former Fisk Jubilee Singer George Cooper — who studied piano with Matthew Kennedy, director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers from 1957 to 1986 — with the blessing of Ella Sheppard's great granddaughter Beth Howse. Since its inception, the school has provided free musical instruction to hundreds of children ages 2–14 on Chicago's West Side.