At the turn of the twentieth century, a new dynasty of leadership was emerging over Fisk University's Jubilee Singers and its practice, dating to the 1870s, of publishing spirituals. In just over a decade (1902–1915), brothers Frederick J. Work (1879–1942) and John W. Work II (1873–1925) collected and published three sets of spirituals and one narrative book. In spite of being labeled "Number Two," this edition of Folk Songs of the American Negro shares the same preface as its precursor, also published in 1907, and nearly all of its songs appear in the Work brothers’ previous collections. The volume even repurposed many of the music plates from their first collection, the 1902 New Jubilee Songs. Some of the versions of spirituals collected in these three volumes would go on to become the standard settings in other songbooks.

—Chris Fenner