University of Virginia Library

11. Chapter Eleventh
Religious Revivals, Etc

One of the greatest difficulties we had to contend with
in our work was the occasional spell of madness which
would attack the chief part of the community of colored
people, called a religious revival. When the frenzy was
at its height, all sense of responsibility in other matters
became second to the one idea of saving souls.
Meetings would be held every night far into the small
hours of the morning, where, not only men and
women, but even little children, many not more than
five or six years old, would be exhorted and prayed
for, until frightened and excited, they would be
led trembling and crying to the "mourners bench."
Not infrequently they would seem to fall in fits, and
roll upon the floor, groaning and praying; the more
ignorant the subject, the greater and more wonderful
were the manifestations of a new birth.

Then
would follow days of "mourning," when a subject of
these attacks would go about mechanically with
sober face speaking to no one except to answer a question
or respond to a salute, and cowering by himself in some

secluded spot whenever possible. This might go on for
several days, or possibly two or three weeks, and then
he would proclaim his conversion to the world, and
relate the wonderful experience through which he had
passed. Now he had "found Jesus," and was "born again"
— in short, he had become a "Christian."

Our pupils who became victims of the prevailing
mania, would lose all interest in their studies, and
possibly give up school entirely for a time, until the
heat of the spiritual contest was over, when most of
them would return to us, anxious to be installed in
their old positions as pupils, and some of them rather
ashamed of the figure they cut during the time
of excitement. Before many weeks had passed, the
bountiful harvest of converts would be much reduced
by many backsliders.

A very honest and intelligent
young woman related to me the circumstances
connected with her conversion. She was talking
with several other girls who had passed through truly
wonderful experiences. This girl — Margaret — was
of a naturally serious turn of mind, and anxious to attain the
highest spiritual good through any source that offered opportunity
and she tried to

make her companions understand her feelings in this
matter but with their minds so full of their own crude
ideas of what religion meant they failed utterly to
comprehend her views, and put their own construction
upon her efforts to explain. "O, you have found Jesus!"
"Maggie's done got religion!" etc were the exclamations
that greeted her remarks. She was dazed, and excited
and submitted to be led by them to the "mourners
bench" and finally taken into the fold as a "lamb
of God:" but she always felt there was a mistake, because
her quiet desire for spiritual good seemed so different
from the wonderful experiences she had heard related
by others.

The great mass of the colored
people held very unique views as to what constituted
religion. It seemed to be a subtle something which
elevated its subject to the dignity of a "child of God,"
without in the least affecting his moral attitude towards
his fellow men. There were certain acts in life
which were considered sinful if committed by a
member of the church, although they could bring no
harm to to the unconverted as they were already as
deep as possible under the "wrath of God," and no
act of theirs couldpossibly make them more vile than

they were by nature. All kinds of games were forbidden
to church members, so was the singing of secular songs,
but religion had nothing to do with morals. A pure,
upright, honest life was not considered a necessary part
of the spiritual outfit of a Christian. As is the case
with most rules, this one had its exceptions, and the
more intelligence became disseminated among them,
the more numerous became the exceptions. The
whole idea of a religious revival among the Freedmen
at the time of our work there could be summed up
in the phrase Spiritual intoxication."

Singing seems as natural to the negro as to the
birds and all their religious exercises were varied and
enlivened by Gospel Hymns, and the old plantation
melodies. These latter are of unknown origin and
seem to have sprung involuntarily from the brains
of (shall we say?) possible poets. The words were
usually a fervent invocation, and the music
of a weird nature. I recall very little of them now
only the chorus of one here and there, as

or

These plantation songs became very popular
from about 1870 for about ten years or so, and
some of my old pupils travelled to distant lands
giving concerts consisting almost wholly of these
curious musical waifs. There were other songs written by
white people often spoken of as "Negro Melodies": such
as "Suwanee River," "Old Kentucky Home," "Nellie Grey,"
"Old Black Joe," and others, which were familiar to
our ears about the middle of the 19th century.

I remember one autumn evening in Virginia
hearing a peculiar and monotonous kind of singing
in the distance, and asked my serving woman
what it was. "O." said she "Thats a corn song.
Somebody's having a corn shucking, and the men
are singing the corn song." She went on to explain
that when some farmer had his corn ready to be
husked it was made into a huge pile out of doors,
and a few men set to work "shucking" and singing
the corn song. As whiskey was always liberally served
on such occasions, men and boys who heard the
singing would follow the sound as the rats followed

the music of the Pied Piper of Hamlin. Each one as
he arrived on the scene, lent a hand to the shucking
and a voice to the corn song, to say nothing of a
thirsty throat to the whiskey. In this way the corn
would be quickly undressed with no expense to the
owner except the juice of some cheap whiskey.

Returning to the subject of religion most of
the Freedmen about Charlottesville professed the Baptist
faith, and supported two churches, the 1st and
2d Baptist. There were also some Methodists — enough
to form a small society, which was presided over by a
very ignorant colored man, well stocked with piety
but sadly lacking in moral qualities. In the
earlier years of our life among these people, the
ministers who were supposed to proclaim the word
of God from the desks of the two Baptist churches
were much like their Methodist brother in character,
but sometime in the early seventies, each of these
churches secured the services of a young man of
good moral character and fair education. As the
lives of the church members were so much under
the influence of their minister, it was quite a step
in the right direction for them to secure religious

leaders who really influenced them for their good,
and consequently no little help and encouragement
to us as one can readily believe.

In the celebration of marriages and the conduct
of funerals, the ex-slaves took their cue from the white
people, and aped their manners, and style of dress etc.
as far as they were able. They often spent large sums
which they could ill afford, to procure the clothing and
food they considered necessary for a reasonable display
on such occasions, and perhaps, nearly starved for
weeks afterward to make up for the unusual outlay:
but, perhaps, in this they were no worse than many
people of whiter skins, and a better opportunity to judge
between what is necessary and proper, and what is
simply foolish extravagance.

One of the superstitions of the more ignorant of
these people was the fear of being "conjured" which meant
the same as what is more commonly called "hoo-dooed."
Whether the belief in this peculiar form of the black
art was common among the people of Charlottesville
I am unable to say, as I seldom heard the subject
mentioned except now and then among our pupils
as a matter for a joke; but enough was said to show

that there were some who believed that evil
minded persons could often exercise some
supernatural power for ill over those who were
so unfortunate as to offend them.

The ex-slaves were every whit as fond of creature
comforts as their white neighbors. "Good eatings" and
warm rooms were very essential to their happiness.
Good, well-fitting clothes were also necessary to the
more intelligent, while cheap finery and gew-gaws
filled all the requirements in this line for those of a
less intelligent sense of the fitness of things.

Many of the colored women and girls would
wind pieces of twine around locks of their woolly
hair making it stand up all over their heads
like little tails. The process was called "wrapping"
and was done to straighten it in a measure
and really served to take out some of the kink, so
that on dress occasions they could arrange their locks
more after the manner of white people.

With a wonderful intuition as to what was
becoming in dress, those of very dark skins usually
affected bright colors — reds and yellows predominating —
while those of lighter or very fair complexions were

apt to select softer shades of color. However the style
and color of their dresses werewas not always a matter
of choice with them, as some poor creatures never
knew what it was to have an article of clothing
made expressly for them, but had to consider
themselves happy if made comfortable in the
cast of apparel of others more fortunate, and in
such cases the question of color was necessarily
second to the greater question of comfort.

Any thoughtful, unprejudiced person
could not have lived among these people
very long, without percieving that all the
seeming absurdities in dress, religion etc.
were the efforts of a people to adapt themselves
as best they could to the circumstances by
which they were surrounded, and a reaching
out for "something better than they
had known."