[325] To the Same.
ST. DAVID'S, Sept. 14, 1874.
DEAR FRIEND,--It was very amiable in you to write to me on getting
home; and, not to be outdone, I am going to write to you; and for the
both sad and amusing story you repeated of Mr. G., I will give you a
recital of the same mixed character.
I have been this evening to hear the Hampton Singers. Two of them, by
the bye, are our guests,--for we offered to relieve the company of all
expenses if they would come down here,--and very well behaved young
men they are. The tunes they sing, remember, come from the tobacco and
cotton fields of the South. I asked them how many they had. They said,
two hundred, and that there were a great many more which were sung by
the slaves of the old time. Is it not an extraordinary thing? I do
not believe that more than ten are ever heard from the farms of New
England. I don't remember more than five. What a musical nature must
these people have I imagine that no such musical development, no such
number of songs, can be found among any other people in the world,
The chief interest with me in hearing them was thinking where they
came from, what was the condition that gave birth to them. Their
singing is both sad and amusing, but partakes more of aspiration than
of dejection; and it has not a particle of hard or revengeful feeling
towards their masters. But here again,--what sort of a people it is!
The words of their songs are of the poorest; not a soul among them has
arisen to give us anything like the German folk-songs, or like Burns's.
Still, their songs are a wonderful revelation from the house of [326]
bondage; such sadness, such domestic tenderness, such feeling for one
another, such hopes and hallelujahs lifted above this world, where
there was no hope
Heartily yours,