Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-08-30
EASTERN VIRGINIA.
PROSPERITY OF THE COLOREO oOp.
uLATIO-l SINCE The WAR.

! Former Infiu nee Of Master and Mistress
Out - Religious service. - Material
Prosperity Extravagant Names
The soft and well bred manners Of
many beautiful negro woman come from
| having been in her early life much about
! the house, observing and Initiating the
manners Of the white family Then the in.
| huenCe of the master and the mistress was
| directed against this religious saVagery
which seems natural to them They were
encouraged t" dance and sing and to be
merry. In harvest time, the head man Of
the long row of reapers with cleaning
| sCythes. WAS under orders by the overseer
to sing his reaping song loudly. and the
| harvest field was full Of melody Whisky
| was given out. and the harvest which WAS
| known as the black mans holiday" was
made "A season Of merriment and feaSting
| 10y the masters who held TO the sound
! doctrine that ChreTfulness and industry
are apt to 90 together On every plan
tatlou were one or more tddlers or banjo
lists their rude music being in demand for
the white people a. much As for the black
ones. a musician enjoyed many privileges
and received many little gratuities justly
credited 10 art
OLD SLAVERY SONGS
Now. all this il changed The negro
preachers have proclaimed that there Is
nothing out Of gehenna worse than dane
ing excepting iiddling and banjOing. The
devil Is represented 10 be the original
dancing master and the father of the pro-
fesSiOn. The accordion is allowed, but
the banjo and fiddle are vigorously Ia
booed The prohibition extends 10 worldly
songs. and the weird melodies they
sang long years ago have given place TO
Moody and Naukey hymns. Their old
slavery songs are rapidly dyirg out. The
negroes have natural prejudice against
them As relics and reminders Of their
slave days, and so Jim Crack Corn,
Johnny Booker, jimmy Is the Hoe Cake
Done and all of their primitive merry
songs are dead and forgotten.
An exception 10 their rule of forgetting
must he made in favor of the Hampton
Normal school. There. the managers ap-
prrCIatins the wild beauty Of these old
plantation airs, have tried to preserve
them and have trained a number of singers
in them But the negroes dislike them
excessively, and perhaps with reason.
They sing hymns with genuine African
teryor and abandon, and at least half Of
their religious services consists Of sing
ing. And such singing, IL is generally
confined TO member rs not to be mem
ber Of a church quarantines a negro
against his own kind The worst foe 10
the civilization of the negroes is their
slavish superstition and their absolute
submission TO their preachers, who are in
turn the victims of tyranny themselves at
the hands OF unsCrupulOus white men.
MATERIAL PROSPERITY.
Not that the negro is not thriving in
this part Of the world On the cont airy
his little patch of ground, with his yoke
Of steers or his scrub Of a horse, yield him
a good living, and every year he rises a
step in material pruSprrity-only that he
has only escaped from one kind of slavery
to fall into another They still retain their
fondness for eNtravagant names, although
they are not as funny as formerly, as
they no longer have the white people to
suggest them. scripture Names as
they are called are great fayorites, among
which Ananas is not the least When
the names of the apostles are selected,
the title is very often given too. Uncle
Apostle James, was Il well known charac-
ter in these parts. One of the planters
hercabOuts named his servants after the
dukedums of England, and Surrey. Nor
folk and Richmond were COlOred Indivi- I
dunl- of a pompOsity corresponding to
their names.
Another master took classical turn.
Terence and Juvenal were in the house I.
and HerOd0tus' place was on the coach ,
box Another named them in pairs lie (
had not only an Ananias but Sapphira,
an Abelard and an Eloise. One day WIS., |
itur al the house not knowing this char
acteristiC, hearing an inky black speci-
men spoken to as Laura, inquired: "Ne ell,
Laura where is Petrarch,' and was cleo
trtied 10y Lauras replying: "PetrarCh. he
IN de kitchen hclpin' to peel de 'taters fer
dinner At another place romantic
mistress surrounded herself with Iris,
Melissa, Venus and Cupid-the last two
especial favOrite in the way of names, so
much 50 that feminine form of Cupid
was evolved Cupid was always short
ened to Gu, and Gus female contemporary
was very apt TO be named Cuetta This
name is still common. SCott's novels
supplied the names at another plantation.
Nora Aveuel, Amy Robsart and Lucy
Aston were handmaids, and the name Of
the cook was Edith Plantagenet This
name was very much admired. and not a
syllable Of il was abated, although il
gradually changed its form to Edith
Plan todgerkit Eastern Virginia Cor
New York Mail and Express.
All uI,irIinr Through SDac.