Final answer:
The song genre that originated in the United States by African Americans imparting Christian values while describing slavery hardships is Spirituals. These spiritual songs manifested both African and Christian musical influences and became the foundational elements for later American music styles like blues and jazz.
Step-by-step explanation:
The genre of songs that originated in the United States and was created by African Americans, which imparted Christian values and described the hardships of slavery, is Spirituals. These spiritual tunes and work songs crafted by slaves and free blacks in the South were not only an expression of religious faith but also a means to convey the heartache and struggles experienced during slavery. The musical styles that developed among blacks in the South reflected their inherited musical traditions, available instruments, and the oppressive living conditions they endured.
African influences on American music included an emphasis on percussion and syncopated rhythms and the use of bent or blue notes. Spiritual songs took various forms such as shouts, anthems, and jubilees, all characterizing a blend of West African spirituality and Christian beliefs, along with the integration of West African rhythms, shouts, and melodies with European American tunes. Additionally, the lined-out hymnody style of singing, with roots in sixteenth and seventeenth-century Europe, was reinvented by African Americans through their own melodies and cultural expressions. As a result, African-American spirituals and hymns became the foundation for future American music genres, including the blues, soul, jazz, and rock n' roll.
Despite the oppressive environment, enslaved Africans in America persevered in creating a uniquely African-American culture, using language, literacy, religion, and music to navigate and resist the slave system, strengthen their communities, and eventually fuel an abolitionist movement within the country.