{
 "id": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper/church-building",
 "title": "Church Building",
 "poet": "Frances Ellen Watkins Harper",
 "poet_slug": "frances-ellen-watkins-harper",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Sketches of Southern Life",
 "book_slug": "sketches-of-southern-life",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 5,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1872,
  "venue": "Sketches of Southern Life (1872)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/frances-ellen-watkins-harper_sketches-of-southern-life-1872",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69249"
  ]
 },
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  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "https://archive.org/details/poemsonmiscellan00harp",
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/frances-ew-harper-poems-1871",
   "https://archive.org/details/poems01harp",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69249",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007491600",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69248",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100774124",
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/frances-ew-harper-poems-full-text-1895",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100488369",
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/frances-ew-harper-idylls-of-the-bible-1901",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100319488",
   "https://archive.org/details/historyofafrican00payn",
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   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000500702",
   "https://archive.org/details/undergroundrailr00stil",
   "https://archive.org/details/frances-ellen-watkins-harper_sketches-of-southern-life-1872",
   "https://archive.org/details/25th-annual-report-of-the-board-of-managers-of-the-home-etc",
   "https://archive.org/details/frances-ellen-watkins-harper_light-beyond-the-darkness",
   "https://archive.org/details/ame-church-review-1900-04"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Uncle Jacob often told us,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Since freedom blessed our race",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "We ought all to come together",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And build a meeting place.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So we pinched, and scraped, and spared,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A little here and there:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Though our wages was but scanty,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The church did get a share.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And, when the house was finished,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Uncle Jacob came to pray;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He was looking mighty feeble,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And his head was awful gray.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But his voice rang like a trumpet;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His eyes looked bright and young;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And it seemed a mighty power",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was resting on his tongue.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And he gave us all his blessing⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twas parting words he said,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For soon we got the message",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The dear old man was dead.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But I believe he’s in the kingdom,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For when we shook his hand",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He said, “Children, you must meet me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Right in the promised land;",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“For when I’m done a moiling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And toiling here below,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the gate into the city",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Straightway I hope to go.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}