Essay on Black Theology

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.

The First African American Baptist Church was originated in 1773 under the leadership of Reverend George Leile. In 1775 of May he was ordained as the pastor and December of 1777 the church was officially consulted as the body of believers. During the decades of slavery in America, slave association were a constant source of concern to slave owners. Religious exercises of slaves were closely watched to detect plans for escape or insurrection. African-American churches showed an air of militancy in the eyes of white Americans. Insurrections such as Nat Turner's in Virginia, born out of the religious inspiration of slaves, horrified white Americans. Understanding the potential end which could result

What if you were captured as a slave how would you feel? Do you think you could survive? In the 1700’s life was very different than it is now. Back then if you were a Negro you would have to be extra careful or you could be sold as a slave. But imagine being sold after witnessing the death of your parents and being a child you would be traumatized. Now we do not have those kinds of worries; life was very different then than it is now. As a child, Aminata was taken away and captured as a slave, faced public humiliation, and lost her family, but in the end she overcame it all.

It is impossible for anyone to survive a horrible event in their life without a relationship to have to keep them alive. The connection and emotional bond between the person suffering and the other is sometimes all they need to survive. On the other hand, not having anyone to believe in can make death appear easier than life allowing the person to give up instead of fighting for survival. In The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, Aminata Diallo survives her course through slavery by remembering her family and the friends that she makes. Aminata is taught by her mother, Sira to deliver babies in the villages of her homeland. This skill proves to be very valuable to Aminata as it helps her deliver her friends babies and create a source of

I found many interesting parts about African American Baptist churches and how it all started and what caught my eye was the very first African American baptist church was the oldest and it was constituted at Silver Bluff about a year or two before he revolutionary war and started early in 1775. The silver bluff was located on the South Carolina side of Savannah River in Aiken County and was only twelve miles in distance from Augusta, GA. In my findings it shows that the founders by the name of Andrew Bryan, George Liele and it was in the 1770s Savannah’s First Baptist Church and it was an independent during the slavery era. It also showed that there was a large number of black baptist secretly worshipped meetings on their own. The black baptist

There are so many views on how the African American community joined a massive movement called, “Christianity”. This religion has been a key role in the lives of the African-American since being bought over to America from the motherland of Africa. It is said that the white British men who kidnapped our ancestors, made them slaves and forced them to believe in this religion. In research, it is found that there were several polytheistic religions in African and Christianity was one. It is believed that when Christians were brought over from Africa, along with most of their own religions, some of them brought Christianity along with them, but those who believed in other religions were soon forced to convert to Christianity which they looked to freedom. During my studies, I came across a book entitled “The Talking Book” by Allen Dwight Callahan. In this book, he speaks about how the African American race accepted Christianity. One interesting story he spoke about in his book was when slave masters use to sit and read their bibles as the slaves were working. He said that while they were reading, the slaves would ask “What is that master?” and the slave owner would reply “the book is talking to me.” So, when the slave owner would leave, the slave would go pick up the book and put it to his ear to hear the book speak. While in Africa, their Christian belief was not molded by the words of a book, but rather the words of their ancestors. In

When slavery finally came to end, a lot of the African Americans had the ability to be free. The white community was no longer in control. The African American community had extended to where they had the chance to have their own churches that (only) allowed the same ethnicity. Having their own church allowed them to speak and express their rights along each other. If they were to

W.E.B DuBois wrote the book titled The Souls of Black Folk in 1903 as a response to the condition of black people in America. The book predates the 1920s Harlem Renaissance, but can be viewed as a precursor to the New Negro Movement. Prior to 1903, blacks lived primarily in the South, but by the 1920s the black population in New York City rose by 115 percent. The movement of blacks from the South to the North occurred for various reasons; discontent with life in the Jim Crow South, widespread violence against blacks and the opportunity for jobs in the North due to WWI. The Souls of Black Folk is the written anthem for the Harlem Renaissance; the book voices the condition of blacks in 1903 and aims to celebrate African-American culture, to strive for equality and break with the philosophy of Booker T. Washington.

As a result of the white clergymen who did not preach the whole gospel? Slaves develop what became known as the invisible church which drew from the African traditions and revivalist forms of worship. “It ain’t enough to talk about God, you’ve got to feel him moving on the altar of your heart,” (45). Therefore, the slaves along with slave preachers instituted the invisible church. The slaves used hymns as coded language to announce prayer meeting. Also hymns were used to talk about plans of escape to the North. Similarly, the invisible church helped to organize the revolts of Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner. Raboteau points out that the invisible church had a dual function in the religious life of the slaves. The invisible church was otherworldly in the sense that this world was not the end nor the final measure of a person’s existence. Likewise, the invisible church was this- worldly because it helped the slaves to experience their own personal value (59). Chapter four examined looking for emancipation and the limits of freedom. The invisible church became visible and education became one of the primary emphasis of the freedman and the church. During the reconstruction period of 1865- 1877, white churches organized some of the historically black colleges. A number of school and colleges were founded by black churches also. What looked like the promise land for the freed slaves soon turned

From the 1790’s to Modern day, starting from the first African-American Congregation and then forward the Black Church has been the target of many dangerous incidents, the Black Church has been involved in numerous controversial event, it started the first African-American Congregation and even played a Crucial role in the civil rights movement. The Black Church’s history dates back to slaves on the plantation.

In the African heritage they see the whole universe as scared, they also had many gods and different cults. Upon their arrival in to America in the early day’s ‘negroes’ were immediately stripped form their social heritage (Frazier,1964). They were now considered property of the whites and forced to be baptized in to Christianity, the white’s

Religion is a social construct embedded in the African American experience through the ages. Whether it be Christianity, Muslim, Judaism and many other religions that found itself in the Americas the religions derived from the African diaspora was very mixed, they had traditional belief about magic which are derived from some Yoruba and Muslim belief system, Christianity was something new to them. As their, ancestors were brought to the Americans they brought their own traditional belief system. African American religious institutions served as contexts in which African Americans create a meaning to their experience during their enslavement, thus they interpret their relationship to Africa and charted a vision for a collective future that will

Historically in the African American community the church has been a one stop shop: a welcoming spot for newcomers, a refuge for the needy, and a source of guidance for

The Rise to Respectability: Race, Religion, and the Church of God in Christ, by Calvin White, Jr. Fayetteville: The University of Arkansas Press, 2012. 239 Pages.

Lincoln, C. Eric, and Lawrence H. Mamiya. The Black Church in the African-American Experience. Durham: Duke UP, 1990. Print.