In many African-American communities across the United States, the last day of

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1 Date Observed: December 31 Location: African-American Communities In many African-American communities across the United States, the last day of the year is observed as Watch Night, also known as Freedom s Eve. Church services commemorate the night before President Abraham Lincoln s Emancipation Proclamation became effective January 1, 1863, freeing slaves in Confederate-controlled areas. Slaves in other places did not gain their freedom until 1865 with the ratification of the 13th amendment (see also Emancipation Day and National Freedom Day). Historical Background On September 22, 1862, in the midst of the Civil War, President Lincoln issued a preliminary proclamation to free slaves in Confederate states and parts of states that had joined the Confederates. Lincoln declared that he would sign the proclamation making it official on January 1, 1863, if the Confederates did not rejoin the Union. The South continued the fight, and free blacks and slaves alike waited anxiously for the proclamation to become effective. When December 31, 1862, arrived, slaves on some plantations met in praise houses, or if they were not allowed to congregate, they gathered secretly in cabins or in the woods to pray for freedom. In the North, African Americans and prominent abolitionists white and black gathered in churches to pray, sing, and wait hopefully for news from Washington, D.C. According to one legend, in Boston, Massachusetts, where abolitionists had congregated at the Tremont Temple Baptist Church, a man came running down the aisle five minutes before midnight, crying out that the news was on the wire and emancipation was coming. 413

2 African-American Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations This 1863 illustration depicts a watch meeting of December 31, The man at the table holds a watch as the group awaits news of the Emancipation Proclamation. Creation of the Observance After the original December 31 Watch Night or Freedom s Eve in 1862, annual commemorations took place, but they were sometimes dangerous events until slavery was fully abolished in Watch Night remains an important observance each year in countless black churches, although in recent decades some pastors have had to review the significance of the event for congregations unfamiliar with its historical background. Observance Before Watch Night services in African-American churches begin, there may be a feast that includes soul food black-eyed peas, turnip greens, chicken, and other traditional dishes. African drummers and dancers might perform. In many African-American churches, services on December 31 run from 9 or 10 P.M. to midnight or a little after, and feature prayer, singing, testimonies, and a sermon. A pastor or member of the congregation may recall the original Freedom s Eve. Just before midnight the lights in a church may be dimmed or turned off for prayer. As the new year comes in, the Emancipation Proclamation may be read. In places where ties to Africa are recognized, 414

3 the service may include greeting the spirit, an ancient ritual in which a watchman keeps track of the movements of the moon for the exact time when midnight arrives. Because Watch Night occurs during the seven-day Kwanzaa celebration, some services recognize the sixth principle of Kwanzaa, kuumba. Both Watch Night and Kwanzaa celebrate freedom and looking to the future. A Tragic New Year s Eve Ritual Before New Year s Eve became a celebratory event, slave families dreaded the occasion. On the next day slave owners would balance their accounts. Some owners would sell their slaves in order to pay debts, and that could mean breaking up families. Thus New Year s Eve would be a heart-wrenching time, because there was always the possibility that family members would never see each other again. Harriet Jacobs, who wrote Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself, published for the author in 1861, described a mother s anguish on New Year s Eve: She sits on her cold cabin floor, watching the children who may all be torn from her the next morning; and often does she wish that she and they might die before the day dawns. She may be an ignorant creature, degraded by the system that has brutalized her from childhood; but she has a mother s instincts, and is capable of feeling a mother s agonies. On one of these sale days, I saw a mother lead seven children to the auction-block. She knew that some of them would be taken from her; but they took all. The children were sold to a slave-trader, and their mother was bought by a man in her own town. Before night her children were all far away. She begged the trader to tell her where he intended to take them; this he refused to do. How could he, when he knew he would sell them, one by one, wherever he could command the highest price? I met that mother in the street, and her wild, haggard face lives to-day in my mind. She wrung her hands in anguish, and exclaimed, Gone! All gone! Why don t God kill me? I had no words wherewith to comfort her. Instances of this kind are of daily, yea, of hourly occurrence. 415

4 African-American Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations Another type of ritual on Watch Night takes place in Bolden, Georgia, an African- American community near Eulonia. There, members of the Mt. Calvary Baptist Church, known as the McIntosh County Shouters, take part in the ring shout, a tradition that can be traced back to slavery and west African culture. The ring shout is a religious ceremony with holy dancing and shouts of praise to the Lord. Many historians believed that the ring shout had died out completely in the United States, but the McIntosh County Shouters brought the tradition to light when they performed at the Georgia Sea Island Festival in The group includes African-American elders who have passed on the tradition from their enslaved forebears and are committed to preserving the practice. Since its first public appearance in 1980, the group has been featured at many other venues around the United States, including the Lincoln Center in New York City and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The Shouters also have appeared in documentaries, and their songs have been recorded on CDs. For their stage performances, the McIntosh County Shouters recreate the ring shout as close to their traditional practice as possible. The group begins the dance with shuffling movements in a counterclockwise circle, never lifting or crossing their feet foot-crossing is considered unholy. The New Georgia Encyclopedia describes the performance this way: A songster will set or begin a song, slowly at first, then accelerating to an appropriate tempo. These lines will be answered by a group of singers called basers in call-and-response pattern. The stick-man, sitting next to the leader, will beat a simple rhythm with a broom or other wood stick, and the basers will add rhythm with hand clapping and foot patting. The songs are special shout songs, at one time called running spirituals. For the most part they form a separate repertoire from spirituals, jubilees, and later gospel songs. Ranging from light-spirited to apocalyptic, at times they carry coded references to slavery. Sometimes participants pantomime the meaning of the verses being sung for example, extending their arms in the eagle wing gesture to evoke friends urging a slave, Daniel, to fly from the master s whip. 1 Contacts and Web Sites African-American Odyssey: The Quest for Full Citizenship National Digital Library 1 Reprinted with permission from The New Georgia Encyclopedia, a project of the Georgia Humanities Council. 416

5 Library of Congress 101 Independence Ave, SE Washington, DC McIntosh County Shouters home page McIntosh County Shouters New Georgia Encyclopedia, a project of the Georgia Humanities Council Main Library University of Georgia Athens, GA Further Reading Gulevich, Tanya. Watch Night. In Encyclopedia of Christmas and New Year s Celebrations. 2nd ed. Detroit: Omnigraphics, Henderson, Helene. Emancipation Day. In Patriotic Holidays of the United States. Detroit: Omnigraphics, Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself. Edited by L. Maria Child. Boston: Published for the Author, Joyner, Marsha. Gathering Place. Honolulu Star Bulletin, January 1, bulletin.com/2006/01/01/editorial/commentary.htm. Kachun, Mitch. Festivals of Freedom: Memory and Meaning in African American Emancipation Celebrations, Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press,