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.

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