Prayer and praise hymns have become an integral part of the sacred hymnody of the African American religious experience. Twenty years after the Emancipation, the children of the slaves found themselves living in the reality of separateness, and their religious practice turned increasingly inward. A unique body of hymnody grew out of that period, approximately 1885–1925. These are songs of Southern origin, of a rural people working the land. These songs are different from spirituals and Black meter music, yet show their influences. These songs are Bible-based, highly repetitive in accord with the nature of oral tradition, and of anonymous authorship.