Michael--


Have you actually looked through the Sacred Harp book?    There are LOTS of upbeat songs about death. It is a distinct possibility that with TB, smallpox, typhoid, etc. a lot of the lives of the 19th century folks who sang Sacred Harp were in fact Hobbesian--and that they derived some comfort from songs asssuring them that things would be better in the next world. Why is this not so?