[Ads-l] Plea for Assistance

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Congratulations on your retirement. I searched in GenealogyBank and
was unable to antedate the target date of August 30, 1858.

There exist some earlier matches for a term that apparently fit the
same semantic niche: negro hymn.

Date: August 20, 1853
Newspaper: The Staffordshire Advertiser
Newspaper Location: Staffordshire, England
Article: Walsall: Slavery
Quote Page 5, Column 2
Database: British Newspaper Archive

[Begin excerpt]
An interesting lecture, on American Slavery, was delivered in the
Baptist Chapel, Goodall-street, on Wednesday evening last, by Mr.
James Watkins, a fugitive slave, driven from his home by the Fugitive
Slave Bill.
...
The lecturer detailed the treatment received by the slaves, and
introduced several illustrations of the habits of slave dealers, and
gave an account of the slaves working in the rice fields, the manner
of the escape of slaves, sung some negro hymns, and treated on other
interesting subjects.
[End excerpt]

Date: March 31, 1855
Newspaper: The Downpatrick Recorder
Newspaper Location: Down, Northern Ireland
Article: Lecture On Slavery
Quote Page 2, Column 2
Database: British Newspaper Archive

[Begin excerpt]
He was sold fifteen times. He sketched an outline of his history while
with some of his masters, and told how he escaped. His life appears to
have been a chequered scene. The narrative was deeply interesting. He
sang some negro hymns, both of an affecting and cheerful character.
[End excerpt]

A citation in 1845 referred to "singing the Negro's Hymn", but I do
not know the identity of this song.

Date: June 28, 1845
Newspaper: Gloucester Journal
Newspaper Location: Gloucestershire, England
Article: Stroud
Quote Page 4, Column 4
Database: British Newspaper Archive

[Begin excerpt]
At the conclusion of Mr. Knibb's speech, which was listened to
throughout with the deepest interest and attention, and received with
loud and long continued cheering, the whole assembly joined in singing
the Negro's Hymn, after which a collection, amounting to about 80l.
was made.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Mon, Jan 6, 2025 at 2:49 PM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> As of January 1, I am now retired from my position at Yale University.  I am in the process of working out an arrangement whereby I will still have access to licensed databases, but that has not yet been implemented.  Therefore I am coming to the list hoping someone can do a search for me.  Is someone at an institution with full access to America's Historical Newspapers (or access to GenealogyBank if that has everything in AHN) willing to search for me to see if there are any occurrences of the phrase "Negro spiritual" earlier than August 30, 1858?
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org