African American Religious History

African firmly believes that there is a living communion or bond of life which makes for solidarity among members of the same family. Before Christianity, Africans did have their own system of salvation. In traditional religions, salvation can and does take the form of courage to face the reality of morality. The church was looked art as a place for political activity, a source of economic cooperation, an agency of social control, and a refuge in a hostile white world. Slaves worshiped with great enthusiasm. Religion, after all, provided a ready refuge from their daily miseries and kindled the hope that one day their sorrows might end. Planter's actually encouraged religious observances among their slaves hoping that exposure to Christian precepts might make their laborers more docile, less prone to run away, and more cooperative and efficient workers. But slaves turned biblical scriptures to their own purposes forging a theology that often emphasized the theme of liberation. It was easy for them to see, for example, in the figure of Moses a useful model for their own dreams; like the Israelites, they too were ready to cross a River Jordan into a promised land of freedom. The religious services held in the quarters provided slaves with so many positive experiences that, even as they were being exploited, they managed bravely, but perhaps not too surprisingly, to feel that they were free within themselves. In this way slaves began to achieve a degree of liberation well

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

Methodist missionaries were the first to introduce Christianity to enslaved Africans. The Gullah people converted Christianity into their African interpretation and used the new religion to justify oppressive forces, encourage the community culture, and put emphasis on the vision of freedom. Preaching and singing done in slave quarters led to the development of praise houses. Praise houses functioned as a place of worship and a meeting area. Spirituals were created in praise houses provided a way to continue the African oral history. Spirituals developed within the Gullah culture as a validation of acceptance in Christian churches. While singing spirituals, slaves found an opportunity to release feelings of joy, suffering, and hope. “Spirituals often had dual meanings, and much like the transmission of oral histories in Africa, they acted as ways for slaves to communicate with each other” (Green, G. T. 2013 p

One of the first things that attracted the African American slaves to Christianity was a way of obtaining the salvation of theirs souls based on the Christian’s idea of a future reward in heaven or punishment in hell, which did not exist in their primary religion. The religious principles inherited from Africa sought purely physical salvation and excluded the salvation of the soul. However, they did believe in one supreme God, which made it easier for them to assimilate Christianity.

During the early 1600s, the English colonist began using African slaves in the colonies. The slaves typically believed in Christianity, for that was the primary religion that English colonist followed. Furthermore, many of these slaves couldn’t talk to each other or organize themselves in many plantations where they resided; therefore, they sang Negro spirituals and hymns to each other. This was one of the forms of communication that slaves established. These spiritual songs of hope, faith, and courage that allowed these early “African-Americans” slaves to survive. As a result, it is understood that Christianity is what drives the African-American community to conquer their challenges.

The plantation owners in the Southern states attempted to Christianize the blacks. They would not let the slaves practice their own religions. That doesn’t mean the slaves didn’t secretly practice their native religion at night. Some slaves were originally Christian. Others were Roman Catholic, Islamic, and some even practiced Voodoo or

Long before their contact with whites, Africans were a strongly religious, and deeply spiritual people. During the early history of slavery, the African American spirituality was often seen by whites as a pagan faith. These rituals and dogmas were seen by whites as Voodoo, Hoodoo, Witchcraft, and superstitions. They often commented on these "pagan practices," and fetishes, and were threatened by them. As a result, great effort was put on eradicating these practices, and many were lost within a generation.# Although tremendous efforts was placed on eradicating the “superstitious” religious beliefs of the African slaves, they were not immediately introduced to the religion of white slave masters, Christianity. Many planters resisted the idea of converting slaves to Christianity out of a fear that baptism would change a slave's legal status. The black population was generally untouched by Christianity until the religious revivals of the 1730s and 1740s. The Bible was manipulated to support the institution of slavery and its inhumane practices. Christianity was used to suppress and conform slaves. Slaveholders, priests, and those tied to the Church undermined the beliefs of the millions of African-Americans converts.# White Christianity was used to justify the enslavement of blacks. By the early nineteenth century, slaveholders had adopted the view that Christianity would make slaves more submissive and orderly.

At first, however, slaves were not using their music to glorify the God worshipped by their masters. Obviously, they had brought their religion with them, one considered pagan and inappropriate by Christians in the American colonies. Christian missionaries were very disapproving regarding the religious practices of the slaves, and they began to verbalize their disapproval and work to convert the new African slaves. Seventeenth century author Morgan Godwin describes their religious practices thus: ". . . nothing is more barbarous, and contrary to Christianity, than their . . . Idolatrous Dances, and Revels; in which they usually spend the Sunday . . . And here, that I may not be thought too rashly to impute Idolatry to their Dances, my Conjecture is raised upon this ground . . . for that they use their Dances as a means to procure Rain: Some of them having been known to beg this Liberty upon the Week Days, in order thereunto" (qtd. in Maultsby 3). Apparently, slave owners did not immediately set out to influence the religious practices of their slaves; however, it would not be long before the masters began to insist that their slaves practice their religion, Christianity.

In the 18th century, hymns used by New England choirs began to spread through the Appalachian areas. Following this spread, these hymns were picked up by African slaves, who used them to fuel their passion for the hardships they were overcoming. Africans sang about work, love, family, and pretty much anything else they could come up with.

The archaeological study of enslaved Africans has, in recent years, moved on from the identification of slave homes to the study of the complex power dynamics and relationships between plantation owners (called planters from here on out) and enslaved Africans (Meskell 2002:284). Through archaeological investigations, we are beginning to understand the various ways in which enslaved Africans resisted planter dominance and practiced a limited form of self-autonomy. That being said, this topic requires a certain amount of reflexivity from archaeologists as these investigations still affect the present (Potter Jr. 1991:103). Essentially, archaeologists must be carefully about how the self-autonomy of enslaved Africans is portrayed in order to avoid minimizing their very real mistreatment (Pluckhahn 2010:354).

In twenty-first century America, when reading the Bible, the term “slavery” carries horrific connotations as a result of the seemingly lingering history of African-American slavery in the United States, however; slavery in New Testament Rome, though by no means ethical, is incomparable to that of American history.

Christian worship was not just and experience to visible worship, but also invisible worship. Actually, your private worship prepares you for open worship before people. Sometimes people mistake public worship for the main focus do not get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with public worship, but you learn to establish a relationship with the Lord in private. In fact, this is your personal, intimate time with the Father to hear His voice and get instructions. Slaves’ learned to build a secret connection with the Lord mainly they were led to the Lord because He was their only hope in such a desperate circumstance.

Docility, on the other hand, was not an aspect the slaves apparently considered. They were over-zealous of ensuring their traditions were highly sustained. However, it reached a point in history that they became easy to teach about Christianity, but they did not remain silent for a long time. They allowed the whites to teach them about Christianity but always found a way to make their cultural beliefs integrated and practiced. Christianity had offered them a kind of freedom that was just enough to practice their traditions and stay true to their culture. Slaves’ spirituality or folk traditions were never let go by the slaves even after the introduction of Christianity. According to Levine’ argument, the blacks made the whites think that they

Cultural forms practiced by African slaves on the plantations included music, dance, festivals, food and religion. Music, to slaves was a form of expression of a people who had hope. Music was expressed in the form of singing and drumming. Although the drum seemed like a simple piece

worship of the spirits of family ancestors; the use of singing, drumming and dancing in religious rituals.