| The story of Jesus' Palm Sunday ride into Jerusalem | | | | like Michael Row Your Boat and Motherless Child |
| reminds me of the praise houses I learned about | | | | were first sung in a praise house. |
| when I went on a historical tour of a South Carolina | | | | Since some slave owners forbid the use of drums |
| Island. We visited one of the few that's still standing. | | | | the slaves used their hands, their feet and walking |
| It was an old white washed wooden hut. Plantation | | | | sticks to keep the beat as they sang. They created |
| owners used to build praise houses as places where | | | | a kind of worship form called The Ring Shout. |
| their slaves could meet to worship. | | | | Participants began to sing slowly, moving in a circle, |
| These tiny churches were always small since slavery | | | | shuffling their feet and clapping their hands. Gradually |
| laws forbid large gatherings of African Americans. It | | | | the tempo of their movements and the volume of |
| was to these praise houses that the slaves came to | | | | their voices would increase till it reached such a high |
| pray about their joys and sorrows, to read the Bible | | | | pitch the participants would sometimes fall down |
| and to sing. It was at these small gatherings that | | | | from exhaustion. |
| many spirituals were born. Popular traditional spirituals | | | | |