... a recent thread on music prompted me to mention this collection and to comment.
Ruby Pickens Tartt of Livingston, Sumter County, Alabama was a short story writer, painter, librarian, mother, and perhaps more than anything else, a lover and collector of Afro-Americcan folklore, life, and song. The book is called "Honey in the Rock." (have we discussed this before?)
Negro spirituals, in this collection, are said to come in several types: exhortatory, salvation, interior monologue or prayer song, lament, celegration of a state of grace, morale builder, eternal happiness in the promised land, the poetry of mystic salvation, elegiac lyric song of death, apocalyptic song, sermon song, story song...for instance


The ole ark's er movin'

The ole ark she reel,
The old ark she rock.
The ole ark she reel from mounting top.
Sing the old arks' er movin',movin',movin',
Ole ark's er movin',movin''long.

Way down yonder 'bout Jurden stream
Think I heered de chillun say dey been redeemed.
Sing the ole ark's er movin',movin',movin',
Ole ark's er movin',movin',movin' 'long.

Jurden river deep en wide
None can cross but de sanctified.
Sing the old ark's er movin', movin',movin' 'long.

When I gets to heaven, gonna talk en tell
How Jesus freed my soul from hell.
Sing the ole ark's er movin',movin',movin'
Ole ark's er movin',movin', movin', 'long.



Thank god almighty I'm free at last...hg