African American Religion

Since its formation, the Black Church worked as a center of resistance for the African American community towards a white dominant society (Baer). In the midst of slavery within the United States, African slaves were able to find sanctuary through religion, primarily using call-and-response through spirituals while working the fields in an effort to inspire

African slaves were brought to America from many tribes and they brought with them a variety of beliefs and practices. In some ways, the religion that many West Africans practiced bears a striking resemble to the practices of Christianity and Judaism. There are however several differences that make it clear that it is its own separate faith. On the plantations in America slaves were taught a “modify” version of Christianity so that they would obey their masters, and often times slaves would hold their own services. Other slaves believed in and practice what was called “conjuration” along with Christianity.

As an African-American in the United States, I participate in activities to help me identify with my race. Yes, there are many types of African-Americans, but we all share similar ideas, values, and traditions that bring everyone closer. As African-Americans, we strongly believe in religion. Since slavery, religion has played a tremendous role in contributing to our beliefs. We believe there is a greater divine who knows our purpose, and has the power to control it. In addition, we believe prayer changes things especially when times become rough and unbearable. It is common for Black children to “grow-up” in the church and attend with their families every Sunday. Although I am in college, this has not change. I attempt to at least go twice out the month.

Africans have, since the early settlement of America, has had a great influence in the nation’s growth. These contributions to the United States from enslaved Africans have been greatly portrayed in American culture. Varying from cuisine, to song and dance are not only portrayed today but it has a deep-rooted impact throughout the United States. During the middle passage, enslaved Africans were forced to abandon their everyday lives, their families and their homes and forced to adapt to a new lifestyle they knew nothing of. However, upon arrival into the New World, due to their prior knowledge and wisdom from back home, they were able to quickly adapt and custom themselves to this new lifestyle in order to survive with the hope of potentially one day returning back to Africa. Unfortunately, African contributions to the culture of the United States has received little to no recognition and it has been taken credit for by Europeans and Whites since the early establishment of the United States.

For almost eight decades, enslaved African-Americans living in the Antebellum South, achieved their freedom in various ways—one being religion—before the demise of the institution of slavery. It was “freedom, rather than slavery, [that] proved the greatest force for conversion among African Americans in the South” (94). Starting with the Great Awakening and continuing long after the abolition of slavery, after decades of debate, scholars conceptualized the importance of religion for enslaved African-Americans as a means of escaping the brutalities of daily life. Overall, Christianity helped enslaved African American resist the degradation

The African slaves in ways recreated Africa in the New World. Slave owners would help retain the culture by referring to the slaves by their African origin. Ritual scarring of African individuals continued to be practiced in America. Religion gives another window into African slavery. A lot of the families continued to practice various African religions. Christianity wasn’t instructed in the early 18th century because it was assumed that they were not under control to learn about Christianity. Slaves did not make a cultural break from their culture but rather merged the culture with new American and European customs. There was a sense of equality when the blacks and whites worshiped together. Blacks were actually able to respond to Christianity with African American roots (lecture).

After living in the colonies a while, the blacks became Christianized. With this, the majority of these Christians embraced American Protestantism. In doing so, they created their own freedom through this faith by altering it to fit their situation and beliefs. Within their religion, they focused on the now. They realized that they were living in hardship and they decided

Historians investigating African American religious history have labeled the secretive slave worship services the “Invisible Institution” because much of it was invisible to the eyes of their masters. They had secret places in which they met. Some of the places were: “In their cabins, woods, thickets, hollows, and brush arbors (shelter of cut branches also called ‘hush harbors’) throughout the South, slaves held their own religious meetings where they interpreted Christianity according to their experience, applying the stories and symbols of the Bible to make sense out of their lives.”

Historically, black religion has been concerned with freedom, liberation, humanization, and the eradication of social evils in this world. Therefore, as opposed to being fixated exclusively with spirituality and heaven, the black church has been the vanguard of social, economic, and political activism within the black community. In fact, some scholars have gone as far as to identify the black church with the black community, and to suggest that neither can be identified apart from the other. The black church was born in protest against racism in the white church. The type of Christianity that Frederick Douglass characterized as “slave holding religion,” was a religion of the white status quo. It sought to justify the enslavement of blacks, rather than resist it and work towards its elimination. Reflecting on the period of American

The Haitian Revolution (1791-1803) and the accompanying slave revolt transplanted many refugees from the revolution into North America. Both former slaves and free people of color began to arrive in cities like Baltimore and New Orleans in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century. The Maryland Gazette published an announcement of “six ships [one a Guineaman, with negroes] four brigs, and four schooners, being part of the fleet which sailed from Cape Francois on the 23d ultimo. The passengers and crews amount to 619 persons…” The blacks on board the Guineaman would become the center of the black religious community that was established in the “chapelle basse” or lower chapel of St. Mary’s Seminary. It was this black

The history of religion in the United States comes a long way dating from the early 1600s when the first pilgrim settlers came to this country. It has been noted that these settlers were highly influenced by the Protestant faith which led to a community level of influence in this country as well. The faith of theses settlers were motivated from the New World of Europe where they practiced their religion in a peaceful environment. Later in history, it was noted that people of Spanish decent started the famous network of the Catholic missions in California. When California became a part of the United States, Catholic churches and institutes were formed. These churches and institutes were also formed in New Orleans and Louisiana.

The slaves from Africa were forced into unimaginable circumstances during the colonial American times, and because of this they were forced to change and adapt their culture and lifestyles extremely. This culture was mainly composed of Christian religion, resistance against slave owners, and their original tribal African culture. The slaves were quickly forced to adapt to these lives, yet they also still strove to retain their traditional African practices and customs. These horrible times also drove the slaves together, forming new communities and strengthening their importance of families. The Africans were forbidden to read or write, and thus responded to this trauma through the use of firm oral traditions. Many prayers, stories, and

Additionally, Long states Black religion emerged from what he refers to as “involuntary presence and orientation.” Customarily, when an individual transitions from one place to another, they have autonomy, within reason, to acclimate themselves to new cultural norms, and ultimately establish their function and worth in society. Africans, not being active participants in the transition, did not experience the traditional customs given to immigrants. Instead, they were consciously conflicted with the reality of inhabiting a land that simultaneously considered them fully human, and fully inhuman. Naturally, through that struggle, expressions of worship developed that could only originate from the subconscious of a people group stressed to find

When slaves were brought to America they were taken from all they had known and forced to live in a land of dark irony that, while promising life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, provided them with only misery. In a situation such as the one in which the slaves found themselves, many people would rely on their religion to help them survive. But would slaves be able to find spiritual comfort within the parameters of a religion that had been passed on to them from the slaveholders? In Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, African-Americans struggle to find a spirituality that is responsive to their needs and that encompasses their experiences in a way that the religion of the dominant

At the start of the transatlantic slave trade, Africans had a variety of religions that they practiced. A lot of the religions were worshiped in the same way, but a few had their differences. Many of the worship methods involved spirituals and dances that were dedicated to the Africans’ beliefs. As time passed and the placement of the slaves changed, some religious beliefs were altered. Many of the Africans were introduced to the practices of the Europeans. The slaves were greatly influenced by missionaries in