The Ottawa free trader., 1884-12-20
Negro Life In Florida.

After dinner it was arranged by q
few among the crowd to 90 to camp
meeting, which was held about mile
from the house. Accordingly vehicles
were made ready and away we started.
Long before we arrived upon the
vicinity by stentoran shouts. and pres
emily we came in sight of the sheds. log
huts and cottages built for the accom-
modation of the campers. The Florida
darky knows his value and does not
look up or bow down to the white pop
uiation rs Il rule. like his black brothers
of Southern States. Not he; he rather
patronizes them, except in the cases of
old family slaves who had not outlived
their good manners. 1t must have
been one Of these, an aged man and
STOPPING shoulders and patriarchal
face, who invited us 10 witness de ey-
ercises." We had already witnessed"
some of the exercises of few outsiders
who were very full of whisky. but they
were probably not of the brothers.
There were no seats, The people were
standing, reclining on the ground and
in some instances kneeling, An African
preacher with peculiar countenance
and immense ears was holding forth on
''De Day OBJ Jedgment" ''io'll be
dar, Broder John; n you, Sister Sally
Nudge, n yo'll hef to par befo' de
great jedge oh all de yeth, n what'll
yo' say fo' yo'self when he axes 20 TO
yo' records What'll 20, say? III tole
yo' what; yo'll call on the san ob Flor
idy to jes' scoop n swallow go all up.
Oar amt no hills, nor rocks. nor noun
tains her, out de san is mighty shifty
n de sun mighty hot; but dar's place
hotter'n Floridy." Terrible groans
burst forth at this, and as the daring
preacher pictured the tormentS of that
opposite condition to paradise the yells
and shouts and even shrieks became
deafening. One big black woman.
whose vociferations were louder than
the rest, managed to keep one eye on
us and one on the preacher during the
entire sermon.
The preachers description of heaven
was amusing, the principle delights of
that region seeming to consist in hav-
ing no work to do, no corn to Shuck,
no taters to hoe, no cotton to pick,
and the hallelujahs We're correspondingly
intensified. Then the singing! The
most graphic pen could not 10 justice
to that. One song, in which even the
children participated, swinging and
rolling their small black bodies, was
something like this:
Ho. wo. Come into dis meetin',
Come pore souls:
Come. git yo sins AN pardoned,
Come. pore souls
Come II carry de big cross onward.
Oh, pore souls.
Git on board de gospel train, oh,
Come pore souls.
And so on, to wailing dirge-likc tune.
did not hear any very cheerful music,
but all SmOte the ear with sadness, no
matter what the words were. Present
ly the sexes separated. the men stand
ing off in circle. the women maSsing
together, led by 4 tall crone of Il most
countenanCe, her hair car
ried up from her temples to a point,
to long tusks falling over her lower lip
and growing longer every time she
opened her mouth This strange wo-
man began the exercises, lifting one
hand after the other, wagging her head,
stamping right and left, with a curious
and soon every woman and
child in the meeting engaged in
the holy dance. the men looking on
and appearing to be affected by the
of their wives. sisters,
and children,