Reverend Shegog

A visiting clergyman from St. Louis, Reverend Shegog gives the Easter sermon at the Negro church in Jefferson. Physically he is unimpressive: "The visitor was undersized, in a shabby alpaca coat. He had a wizened black face like a small, aged monkey" (293). But he possesses a powerful voice: the congregation soon forgets "his insignificant appearance in the virtuosity" of his voice (293). And when his "intonation" and "pronunciation" become "negroid" (295) as he preaches about the resurrection of Christ, "the congregation seemed to watch with its own eyes while the voice consumed him, until he was nothing and they were nothing and there was not even a voice but instead their hearts were speaking to one another in chanting measures beyond the need for words . . ." (294).