New Ulm Weekly Review

Negro Life In Florida.

After dinner it was arranged by a few among the crowd to go to camp-meeting, which was held about a mile from the house. Accordingly vehicles were made ready and away we started.

Long before we arrived upon the grounds we were made aware of the vicinity by stentorian shouts, and presently we came in sight of the sheds. log huts and cottages built for the accommodation of the campers. The Florida darky knows his value and does not look up or bow down to the white population as a 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.' It must have been one of these, an aged man and stooping shoulders and a patriarchal face, who invited us to "witness de exercises." We had already 'witnessed' some of the exercises of a 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 op De Day ob Jedgment." "Yo'll be dar, Broder John; 'n you, Sister Sally Mudge. 'n yo'll hef to 'par befo' de great jedge ob all de yeth, 'n what'll yo' say fo' yo'seff when he axes yo' fo' yo' record? What'll yo, say? I'll tole yo' what; yo'll call on the san' ob Florida to jes' scoop 'n swallow yo' all up. Dar ain't no hills, nor rocks, nor mountains her', but de san' is mighty shifty 'n de sun mighty hot; but dar's a 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 preacher's description of heaven was amusing, he principle delights of that region seeming to consist in having no work to do, no corn to shuck. no 'taters to hoe, no cotton to pick, and the hallelujahs were correspondingly intensified. Then the singing! The most graphic pen could not do 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 mcetin',
Come pore souls:
Come, git yo' sins all pardoned,
Come, pore souls;
Come'n carry de big cross onward,
Oh. pore souls!
Git on board de gospel train, oh!
Come pore souls.

And so on, to a wailing dirge-like tune did not hear any very cheerful music, but all smote the ear with sadness, no matter what the words were. Presently the sexes separated, the men standing off in a circle, the women massing together, led by a tall crone of a most unearthly countenance, her hair carried 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 woman began the exercises, lifting one hand after the other, wagging her head, stamping right and left, with a curious monotony, 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 rhapsodies of their wives, sisters, sweethearts and children.