The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1878-04-25
A GREAT REVIVAL.
Extraordinary Religious Excitement
Among the COlOred People.
Hundreds OF Sinners Pressing the Anxious
Bench-A Public School Almost Stop
Ped-MOurners CrOwdinG tho Hill
sides to WrestIe with the Flesh.

4 most extraordinary revival of re-
ligion is prevailing among the colored
people of Richmond and vicinity. 1t
has no parallel in our history, and is
remarkable alike for the suddenness
with which it sprang into existence,
for the number who have yielded to
its influences, and for the painful anx-
iety of the mourners and the fervid
Joy of the converted. 1t is so wide
spread that it has reached all classes
Of colored society.
In some tobacco factories the man
ayers have found it difficult to get
their hands to perform THAR usual
tasks, many of the men being disin-
clined to engage in temporal affairs
while bowed down with the weight of
their sins. Nearly every housekeeper
has in the past week or two had to
contend with cooks, chambermaids,
and nurses, who can scarcely be got
ten to utter a word; who move about
the premises with ghost-like quictness,
and who perform their accustomed
duties slowly and in a purely mechan-
zeal way. The teachers of the colored
public schools have had also much to
contend with. In several instances
the children have been 80 wholly given
mp to the religious excitement as to
make it impossible for the usual work
to be performed. In one case to be
related the pupils of public school,
under the impression that they had no
time to devote to books, became so
unmanagcable that the Superintend-
dent of Public Schools had to be in
formed. He sagaciously determined
to get a sensible colored preacher TO
90 there and talk to them. The child
rem yielded to the persuasions of the
worthy spiritual adviser and returned
to their scholastic duties.
Last Sunday there were hundreds
of grown men to be seen sprawled up
on the hill-sides of the suburbs, with
or they had gone, according to the
custom of their race, for purposes of
meditation and the better to find re-
lief for their sin-oppressed souls.
Those who are seeking" manifest
their trouble by deep and voiceless
abstraction, while those who have
found freedom" burst forth into
glad acclaim and joyous songs, and
embrace all the friends they may
chance to meet. The policemen
doing duty in the section of the city
where the great majority of the color
ed people reside have been compelled,
nearly every night, to quiet the new
converts-and threaten some with ar
rest-sO loudly demonstrative were
they.
Many of the superstitions that be-
longed to the race as slaves still sur
vive, and are treasured in the minds
of the ignorant. Happily for these
simple, kind-hearted, and very impress
sible people, their ministers are much
better educated than formerly, and
with few exceptions they sternly dis
eountenance old-time absurdities, such
as seeking hill-sides rather than the
closet for prayer, and the relation of
of miraculous experiences, as seeings
the Lord, &c. Still, there are those
with whom all the ancient supersti-
tons yet linger. In this religious ex-
element these have no doubt been
guilty of some ridiculous conduct.
1t is however, not the object Of this
article to dwell upon the peculiar Gus
toms Of our colored brethren, nor TO
hurlesque OF bring into painful prom
inence their habits Of speeeh.