, 1861-02-27
4 Visit to the African Church, Rich
mOul,

Correspondence OF the Wheeling lntel1lgencer.
In the afternoon I went TO the African
Church-t1e great resort Of all strangers, ,once
at least, during their stay in Richmond. could
not, in the bounds Of q letter, do justice to
what is to be seen in this famous resort Of ne.
grodom on Sunday afternoons. The Church,
itself, is a low building, curiously shaped, and
in its galleries aud on its floor, seats upwarda
Of two thousand persons. The Rev. Dr.. Reilly,
of the Baptist College, breaches here to the
It 6aIfpast three o'clock: You can have nd
conception Of what 4 scene the service pre-
sents. I went in after The sermon was partly
through. Many negroes were clustered around
The door. and I expected to find within 4 list
less crowd and plenty Of spare space. But in
scarcely standing room in the aisles much less
sitting room, except just in front Of the pull
pit, where At last I succeeded in getting good
scat, from which could sweep the entire
audience. And it vas sight to look On and
blink On. There before me was one packed
IAN Of colored faces, and relieved only here
:lGd there by the presence Of some benevolent
white man or lady, who seemed to be there as
promoters Of the 1abors Of the good PASTOR
You could hear pin drop all over the house
not whisper was stirring, not q cough even,
but everything was propriery itself The ne
yroes were dressed, many Of them in fine
ct2thes, all Of them In good clothes, md looked
down collars Ct the real jet blacks, among ths
men, contrasted strongly with their sable fa-
ces; and so Of the white handkerchiefs which
many of the more elderly among the negro
women wore around their necks, and which
were ever 50 neatly penned over their breasts.
men portion, and Of them particularly the LIGHT
cosorcd and mulatto kind-had kid gloves On,
and canes in their hands, and gold shirt studs.
Indeed Young Africa, both male and female,
We're dashing1y bedecked. Yet, as said, they
were all attention. The most perfect order
7eigned. Ifthey were not interested in the
sermon they were certainly real adopts in the.
4rt Of s'maEe believe" could readily imap-
inc that they were interested, for the sermon
:gas plain, practical and telling one-oue that
ts:.y could easily understand. All tho illus
Irations we're drawn from common occurren-
ces in every day life.
The sermon being over, the Rev. Doctor
called on some negr0, whom he called sBrother
Cephas, to pray. Brother Cephas stepped
forward from bis scat into the aisle, near BY
Yhere WIS sitting, and turning to theneprocs
MI, said, "let us pray" They bowed fheir
heads most revel emily, and Cephas commenced
IN slow, solemn and resonant tones. By and
by he got warmer and more fluent, and more
eloquent. Eve turn de our thanks for de
privileges Of this here day, we turn de our
thanks for de great privileges Of the morning;
We turn de our thanks for tho privileges Of tiifn
even ng; Q Lord" said he. After little while
he said, Lord, desc are times Of trouble-dese
are cold time; dere is great deal Of confusion
goin on. Lord, do away with de confusion"
in his prayer, and such Wholesale quotations I
never heard. He would appropriate whole
lines Of verses, especially from Pauls Epfstle
to the Romans. Mostly it would be ap-
propriately done, although oftent1mes jun1-
oled and incorrect. The length and fer
ysncy Of the prayer were really curious.
He got into the sing-song in about ten min
utes, and then commenced the responses and
sroans and suppressed calculations Of the ne
groes generally, and they beat all ever heard.
1t was a comicM yet serious scene-all in dead
earnest, yet despite all, 1udicrous in the ex-
trs4s 1s4 Presently, however, "Brothsr cephas
81 the choir in one Of tbe galleries @ especially %
act apart. And such singing. When + tell
you that it WIS excellent and inspiring, do
not convey half the idea to you. It was really
perfect. never heard more perfect time,
more simultaneous and musical intonation
There was not a jar--not one although the
voices were the very finest, the drill was
mechanically exact, and the melody Of the
the perfect attune was re lly moving. The
members had their note books, their leader,
their range and division Of voices, Just as If
they were 2 picked selection of the elite
- o40~G ~A4aI13 ASEH IUFhs NQLAlDG
that I ever heard surpassed it, and nothing
ever pleased me SO well, in the shape Of
singing. They went through two long songs,
one Of them very involved and elaborate.
After these two songs were sung, came the
benedictlon from the pastor, and We oil then
rose up to 60. But Q friend put his hand On
my arm and said, "don't 70, the best is to
come yet" And sure enough it was Just so
soon as the dense mass commenced moving
cut Of the door, at the extreme ends. the ne.
:!1ocs, one and all, commenced with a regular
oEeak down song. You could not distinguish
A word-at least could not, except OCCASION
ally the line, "now wants to 60" If you
ever heard George Christy's minstrels sing
their boatman's song, in which the chorus Is
'*ah hah |! ah hah ali hah !" you will have some
idcu Of the melody and incoherency Of this
song Of the negroes. But the words were not
tue feature. It was the intensity. They threw
themselves away. They shut their eyes,
swinging their heads and rocked back and
forwards on their feet, swaying al over the
house like q forest in high wind. The wo-
men, especially, gave themselves up to their
feelings. They courtesied like 90 many sha-
king Quakers, and seemed completely DOS.
sessed
After singing two songs, this way, the negro
men took up the line Of march down The
aisles, like soldiers defling, keeping step and
tramp to their song. And thus they passed
mt uufi1 fha r},u rrE uyaR eTanraa