HOPE

  
High John de Conqueror came to be a man, and a mighty man at
that. But he was not a natural man in the beginning. First off,
he was a whisper, a will to hope, a wish to find something worthy
of laughter and song. Then the whisper put on flesh. ..The sign of
this man was a laugh, and his singing-symbol was a drum-beat. No
parading drum-shout like soldiers out for show. ..It was an inside
thing to live by. It was sure to be heard when and where the work
was the hardest, and the lot the most cruel. It helped the slaves
endure...He walked on the winds and moved fast. Maybe he was in
Texas when the lash fell on a slave in Alabama, but before the
blood was dry on the back he was there...

The thousands upon thousands of humble people who still believe
in him, that is, in the power of love and laughter to win by
their subtle power, do John reverence by getting the root of the
plant in which he has taken up his secret dwelling, and
"dressing" it with perfume, and keeping it on their person, or in
their houses in a secret place. It is there to help them overcome
things they feel that they could not beat otherwise, and to bring
them the laugh of the day. John will never forsake the weak and
helpless, nor fail to bring hope to the hopeless.

--Zora Neale Hurston, "The Sanctified Church"