Musical Practices of Early Black Americans

Nicholas Cresswell, The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell (1774-1781), 91

no

native american

group

voices

voices

meeting house

worship

n/a

The parson was a Dutchman but preached in English. He had an Indian interpreter that explained it to the Indians by sentences. They sing in the Indian language. The men sits on one row of Forms and the women on the Other with the Children in the front each Sex comes in and goes out on their own side the house. The Old men sits on each side the parson.

In this section Cresswell is traveling through the midwest, the "Indian Country." He describes many customs of the different indigenous towns.

Cresswell was an English man visiting America with the goal of acquiring land to live in the future, as stated in the first entry of his journal. His text is often concerned with agriculture and the possibilities of improving the land and farming methods in the US. His writing is usually condescending, pointing out what he sees as the "immorality" or "backwardness" of the territories he visits. This is particularly true in descriptions of enslaved African Americans or Native American people.