First published in 1841, Primitive Hymns was the earliest hymnal created specifically for Primitive Baptist use. Still popular among white and black Primitive Baptist communities, this volume is an enduring testament to a singing practice associated with words-only hymnals but spanning both print and oral circulation. Two thirds of the book is comprised of canonical eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century hymns. The remaining texts were collected by compiler Benjamin Lloyd (1804–1860), a businessman, public official, and church elder who edited the book’s earliest editions in Wetumpka, Alabama. Subsequent printings overseen by Lloyd’s widow, daughter-in-law, and granddaughters would preserve the corrected and enlarged edition first issued in 1845. Primitive Hymns has not been substantially revised since the appearance of this 1857 printing. The hymn texts included in this volume remain the core of twenty-first-century Primitive Baptist repertoire.

—Erin Fulton