662 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



my, whom everybody loved. She once said : " Us ole heads use 

 ter make 'em up on de spurn of de moment, arter we wrassle wid 

 de Sperit and come thoo. But the tunes was brung from Africa 

 by our granddaddies. Dey was jis 'miliar songs. Dese days dey 

 calls 'em ballots, but in de ole days dey call 'em spirituals, case de 

 Holy Spirit done revealed 'em to 'em. Some say Moss Jesus 

 taught 'em, and I's seed 'em start in meetin'. We'd all be at the 

 ' prayer house ' de Lord's Day, and de white preacher he'd splain 

 de word and read whar Ezekial done say 



" ' Dry bones gwine ter lib ergin.' 



And, honey, de Lord would come a-shinin' thoo dem pages and 

 revive dis ole nigger's heart, and I'd jump up dar and den and 

 holler and shout and sing and pat, and dey would all cotch de words 

 and I'd sing it to some ole shout song I'd heard 'em sing from 

 Africa, and dey'd all take it up and keep at it, and keep a-addin' 

 to it, and den it would be a spiritual. Dese spirituals am de best 

 moanin' music in de world, case dey is de whole Bible sung out and 

 out. Notes is good enough for you people, but us likes a mixtery. 

 Dese young heads ain't wuth killin', fur dey don't keer bout de 

 Bible nor de ole hymns. Dey's completely spiled wid too much 

 white blood in 'em, and de big organ and de eddication has done 

 took all de Holy Spirit out en 'em, till dey ain't no better wid der 

 dances and cuttin' up dan de white folks." 



The negro usually sang religious music at his work. He was 

 often turned out of church for crossing his feet or singing a " fiddle 

 sing," which is a secular song, but he could steal all the chickens 

 he wanted and never fall from grace. One of the most persistent 

 fancies that the old slaves cherished was that they were the op- 

 pressed Israelites, that the Southerners were the cruel Egyptians, 

 and that Canaan was freedom. Bondage was of course their slav- 

 ery. They believed that some day the Red Sea would come in a 

 sea of blood, which was verified in the civil war. In many of their 

 songs they appropriate Bible prophecies and ideas to themselves. 

 The song given on the opposite page is a characteristic one, illus- 

 trating many peculiarities; and if it did not come from Africa, 

 where did it come from? 



It is often asserted at the North that, as a rule, the negro was 

 punished if he prayed or received religious instruction. On the 

 contrary, many fine plantations had their " prayer houses," where 

 a white minister was employed to hold services and to instruct them 

 in the Bible. In nearly every section they were permitted and en- 

 couraged to hold their own meetings. That this is true is attested 

 by these same thousands of " spirituals," all of which are filled with 



