Samuel Mordecai, Richmond in Bygone Day (Richmond, 1856), 297.
Item
Title
Samuel Mordecai, Richmond in Bygone Day (Richmond, 1856), 297.
Includes music itself or text of song
no
Identity of singers; solo/group
free?
Voice/instrument
voice
voice
Space/room
tobacco factory
activity
working in a factory
genre
sacred music
Geographical location
Richmond, Virginia
Excerpt
It is now a tobacco factory, and its original dimensions are trebled, if not quadrupled in size. A host of blacks now work there in twisting tobacco where the sacred Host was formerly elevated by the priest. A solution of liquorice has taken the place of holy water; but possibly the establishment may be employed in the manufacture of "Christian's Comfort," a commodity already mentioned. Here also fine psalmody may be heard, as of yore, and the organ loft is still occupied by a choir, but one whose music ceases on Sabbaths and Holy days.
Context
Mordecai writes how there is a tobacco factory that a lot of Black Americans work at. The tobacco factory was once a church. He can often hear its workers singing psalms.