Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (Massachusetts, 1845), 69.
Item
Title
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (Massachusetts, 1845), 69.
Includes music itself or text of song
no
Identity of singers; solo/group
enslaved
solo
Voice/instrument
voice
voice
Space/room
plantation
activity
singing a hymn before doing a prayer.
genre
hymn
Geographical location
Maryland
Excerpt
Mr. Covey’s FORTE consisted in his power to deceive. His life was devoted to planning and perpetrating the grossest deceptions. Every thing he possessed in the shape of learning or religion, he made conform to his disposition to deceive. He seemed to think himself equal to deceiving the Almighty. He would make a short prayer in the morning, and a long prayer at night; and, strange as it may seem, few men would at times appear more devotional than he. The exercises of his family devotions were always commenced with singing; and, as he was a very poor singer himself, the duty of raising the hymn generally came upon me. He would read his hymn, and nod at me to commence. I would at times do so; at others, I would not. My non-compliance would almost always produce much confusion.
Context
One of Frederick Douglass's slave owners, Mr. Covey, would have daily prayers and would start off by singing. Douglass writes that Covey was a bad singer, so he had to sing instead. This is one example of how slave owners made the enslaved sing/dance for entertainment.