Camp meeting songs and society

[Mark Wingate]

Definitely click bait. Mea culpa.

Riffing here on a random thought I had the other day.

It's my (unresearched) impression that songs that swap family and community members in to generate new verses -- I'm sure there's a term for that category -- rarely if ever mention the generation "down" -- that is, children or youth of the family or community.

We find "mothers," "fathers," "sisters," "brothers,"  -- even "preachers," "sinners," "gamblers," "drunikards," etc., but no "sons," "daughters," "children," ...  ( I'm sure I'm straying beyond Sacred Harp with "gamblers" and "drunkards" but they do show up in adjacent traditions, as in "Working on a Building," "Traveling Shoes," and more.

My initial thought came from considering how modeling behavior is more powerful than instructing, and that is especially crucial in the home as children learn from observing their parents.

But maybe the whole idea of children as people is different than nowadays.  I know of one book that argues along those lines --  Centuries of Childhood.  And I've often heard that the "dying child" theme in songs flowered in the Victorian era as societal attitudes concerning children evolved.

Having buried the lede rather successfully, do any of you know of examples of hymns that include children as candidates for camp meeting verses?  Might the Victorian Era, whatever that really means, be a cultural inflection point that is reflected in other ways in the poetry of the shape note and related traditions?

Mostly lurking but gratefully,

Mark Wingate

[Carlton, David L]

Hi Mark,

 

                My (equally unresearched) impression is that the “protagonist” of “family” songs is a child him/herself, embracing his/her family relationships.  Why say “child” if you mean “brother” and “sister”?

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

David L. Carlton

Professor of History Emeritus, Vanderbilt University

2307 Belmont Blvd., Nashville, TN 37212

Phone: (H) 615.383.6293 (No Longer in Service) (M) 615.715.6183

E-Mail: david....@vanderbilt.edu

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

From: fasola-di...@googlegroups.com <fasola-di...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Mark Wingate
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2025 10:29 AM
To: Fasola Discussions <fasola-di...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [fasola-discussions] Camp meeting songs and society

 

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