From Africa to America - History of Slave Religion

The slaves who were brought to America had strong religious foundations dating back to their origins in Africa. The native Africans already had a plethora of thriving religions founded on the worship of nature in all its varied forms before the Europeans arrived in Africa and started their attempts to convert the Africans to Christianity. It was a profoundly spiritual type of religion that united entire cultures, families, clans, and tribes. Therefore, it should come as no wonder that the Africans who were brought to America embraced Christianity and firmly incorporated it into their lives. However, before they were introduced to the salvation of the Christian religion they were divested of anything that would tend to unify them. Their language, tribal customs, religious beliefs and even their clans, families, and tribal affiliations had to be wrenched from their control to make them totally dependent on their new white masters. Even though the Africans would eventually embrace Christianity, many slaveowners initially feared introducing Christianity to slaves because, like the vestiges of the native African ways, they feared that the introduction of Christianity to the slave would be a unifying force and because they feared that being their Christian brothers would encourage slaves to view themselves as equal to their masters.

As noted historian and African-American religious expert Albert J. Raboteau noted in his book, Slave Religion, “One of the most durable and adaptable constituents of the slave’s culture, linking African past with American present, was his religion”. This is because, even though the slave traders and slaveowners of the Atlantic slave trade made Herculean efforts to eradicate all vestiges of the slaves’ past from them, the slaves still held onto these basic tenets of their culture and, as Raboteau explained “they have continued to develop as living traditions putting down new roots in new soil, bearing new fruit as unique hybrids of American origin”.

The enduring nature of African-American religious beliefs owe a great deal to those “African styles of worship, forms of ritual, systems of belief, and fundamental perspectives”. Even as far back as the late 17th century, when Portuguese missionaries first began their efforts on the west coast of Africa to convert some of the native tribesmen to Christianity, the Africans would seem to accept the tenets of Christianity at first but would then return to their former ways. As Portuguese missionary John Barbot noted in 1682, “some seem to embrace the doctrines, yet many mix it with pagan idolatry and Mahometanism; others are no sooner baptiz’d but they return to their wild natural way of living”.

To better explain one of the big tenets of original African religion, it is useful to draw on the idea and the symbiology of rivers. As Bryan T. Sinclair stated in his article, “Merging Streams: The Importance of the River in the Slaves' Religious World”, “the river imagery… embodies the spiritual heritage of the African peoples, connecting and animating that heritage through the ages”. The river has spiritual components attached to it that resonate throughout traditional African religions over the thousands of years of African history and culture. In line with this reasoning, contemporary African sociologist and anthropologist, Camille Talkeu Tounounga, as quoted by Sinclair, notes that Africans have always attached a certain amount of symbolic meaning to rivers because they are seen as “the source of all life, a purifying substance, and a regenerating element”. In addition to this fact, African religions generally indicate that river Gods are the most powerful of those inhabiting the supernatural world and the priests of the river cults were also among the most powerful of all tribal priestly groups. This spiritual attachment that Africans give to rivers is also one of the reasons that slaves flocked to the Baptist church in the early days. The Baptists believe that to be truly baptized, one must be totally immersed in the water just as John the Baptist did for Jesus in the River Jordan.

Even though Christianity was a significant motivator for many of the slaves in their daily lives, it is not often noted that Christianity only accounted for about 14.3 percent of antebellum African-Americans as members of the Baptist or Methodist churches in the North and South combined, or a figure of 634,000 out of 4,441,830. One of the reasons for this relatively small number of slave members in the Baptist and Methodist churches was due in part to the much more stringent membership requirements for church membership during the antebellum period. Because of this fact, Fountain suggests that the claim that Christianity “dominated the slaves’ worldview” is built upon very shaky statistical grounds. Other historians who have studied the position that Christianity was a dominant force in early African-Americans’ daily lives are also in disagreement with Raboteau and his colleagues. For example, Larry G. Murphy has written that a full accounting of African-American religious history has not yet been compiled because of the overwhelming concentration by historians on Christianity. Additionally, historians including Michael A. Gomez and Sylviane A. Diouf agree with Murphy from the perspective that the Muslim religion, and its influence on early African-American slaves has not been adequately studied. Even though these historians disagree with the prevailing opinion of some historians that a large portion of the antebellum had converted to Christianity before the Civil War, they do acknowledge that this belief is due in large part to the writings of 19th century historians. To support this belief, Fountain quotes a 19th century traveler named Thomas Nichols who wrote “[t]he Southern people are eminently religious, and their negroes follow their example”.

However, no matter whether you side with Raboteau or Fountain on the dominance of Christianity in antebellum slave culture, there is no mistaking the conflict that the acceptance and study of Christianity caused among the African-American population. Cheryl J. Sanders, pulling from the studies of Cecil Cone, noted that one of the most influential experiences that early African-American Christians underwent was the process of conversion and receiving “the call”. As Sanders explains in reference to Cone’s research, “the conversion experience introduced the slave to a new level of reality which caused the individual to experience a sense of freedom in the midst of human bondage” which they had to balance with the realization that they would have to wait for “the divine promise of freedom” because of their condition of being enslaved. Therefore, to put a sharper point on this discussion, the ultimate goal of religion in antebellum African-American slave culture was to foment the struggle for freedom. Cone’s views on religion and politics in antebellum American slave culture, and indeed, continuing until the present day, as quoted in Sanders’ research, suggest that these two are inseparable noting that in African-American culture “political struggle has seldom been carried on outside the religious world view, and religion has seldom been devoid of political expressions”.

To make this point clearer, we turn to the case of Nat Turner and the rebellion which became the praxis of his conversion to Christianity. Nat Turner is known in history as a rebellious slave who led one of the largest ever slave revolts in the antebellum South. Joseph Drexler-Dreis has stated that even though Nat Turner was neither an ordained nor an enrolled member of any church, he did hold “religious authority within his slave community and had deep ties to the religiosity of his fellow slaves” and thereby was able to convince a great number of his fellow slaves to join him in revolt. Drexler-Dreis further explains that Nat Turner’s omission from the theological record is conspicuous because Nat Turner, himself, described his rebellion in theological terms. These descriptions were gathered together in a pamphlet entitled “The Confessions of Nat Turner in 1831” written by Turner’s attorney prior to his execution, Thomas R. Gray. In support of the theological way in which Turner framed his rebellion, Turner was even quoted by Gray as having a vision in 1828, three years prior to his rebellion which he described as follows:

I heard a loud noise in the heavens, and the Spirit instantly appeared to me and said the Serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid down the yoke he had borne for the sins of men, and that I should take it on and fight against the Serpent, for the time was fast approaching when the first should be last and the last should be first.

In reading the preceding passage, one cannot only see the theological way in which Turner framed his rebellion but also how he used religious symbols. He used the Serpent for the slaveowners, the yoke for the burden of slavery, and the symbolic representation of the complete turnaround “the first should be last and the last should be first” which denoted the reversal of fortune for the slaves over their masters. Although Nat Turner was not successful in freeing his fellow slaves, he did light the fuse for what would be a movement which eventually would free them.

Another interesting aspect of the African-American conversion to Christianity is the debate over whether it was more of a tool for slaveowners to bring peace to the lives of the slaves they owned or was it an implement used by the slaves themselves which led to their ultimate yearning to be freed from their bondage? Here again, we return to the research of Raboteau who opined that religion could be used both as a tool of resistance as well as one of accommodation. In explanation of this statement, Raboteau notes that since the very beginning of the Atlantic slave trade in the 15th century, Christians in the European world have claimed that one of the goals of the slave trade was to convert what they considered to be heathen and barbaric Africans to Christianity to save them from a life of sin and depravation. However, early British colonists did not hold to the conversion of their slaves as a reason for their enslavement. They feared that allowing their slaves to receive instruction in the Christian way of life would ultimately require manumission of their slaves because it was illegal to hold a fellow Christian in bondage. This quandary was easily solved by the use of legislation. The colonists simply constructed statutes that specified that baptism and acceptance of the Christian way of life had no effect on slave status.

However, the second fear which British colonists held regarding the teaching of Christian values to slaves was the “deep-seated uneasiness” they held for a slave who might lay claim to equality and Christian fellowship with his master based on religious affiliation. This development would threaten the stability of system of slave control and possibly give the slaves the idea that they were equal, if only spiritually, with their white masters. This development, if allowed to flourish, could also lead to rebellion which slaveowners absolutely could not afford and would not tolerate. Therefore, before the slaveowners were going to allow Christian missionaries access to their slaves, the missionaries were going to have to prove to the slaveowners that Christianity would make them better and more obedient slaves, not lead them to think of themselves as free, or worse, equal to their white masters. The missionaries countered with the explanation to slaveholders that “Scripture, far from making an alteration in civil rights, expressly directs that every man abide in the condition wherein he is called with great indifference of mind concerning outward circumstances”. Despite these assurances from the Christian missionaries, slaveowners from the colonial period to the Civil War were continuously wary of letting their slaves practice Christianity and its precepts owing the practice to be like a double-edged sword to their authority over the slaves.

Raboteau points out quite succinctly that the fears of the slaveowners were well-founded. He cites The First Great Awakening of 1740 and The Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century as catalysts for “tumultuous preaching and emotional conversions of revivalistic, evangelical Protestantism” which would see not only a flocking of white Christians but also free and enslaved African-Americans to hear the word preached by the ministers. In addition to this, free and slave blacks alike were joining in the services as exhorters and preachers. More than anything else, the evangelical style of preaching which was widely used during The Second Great Awakening, appealed to the newly converted Christian slaves because it encouraged such practices as congregational response to a preacher’s exaltations, promoted ecstatic religious behavior, and religious exercises of fainting, jerking, barking, and laughing a “holy laugh”. These religious practices had the effect, and still do today, of getting the worshiper physically involved and energized by the experience of attending church services.

An alternative side effect of the spread of Christianity among the slave population of the antebellum South was one that effected the white population as well as the slaves. As Sylvia R. Frey writes in her article “The Visible Church: Historiography of African American Religion since Raboteau”, “young, itinerant evangelists carrying to the hinterlands a radical message of the brotherhood of all believers that was drastically at odds with conventional Southern values.” Frey also notes that the message that these young itinerant evangelists was carrying with them on their travels around the South was especially interesting to white women and the enslaved population, who quickly made up the congregations of a majority of evangelical churches, especially the Methodists. This religious alliance of white women and slaves was a direct assault on the patriarchal ideal of Southern political and domestic hierarchies. Because of this seemingly rebellious stance, instances of mob violence against Black Protestants and assaults on women became more common. Later, seeing that their youthful exuberance for egalitarianism was causing trouble among the gentry of the South, these now aging itinerants sought to shake off their earlier radical stance in favor of a more inclusive view of the realities of Southern beliefs on race and gender. All this uproar was the harbinger of today’s Bible Belt and the deeply religious tenet of the South.

Turning to what motivated slaves to cling to their Christianity even in the darkest of times, Rupe Simms makes note of the fact that in terms of psychological resistance, four terms appear often in slave literature of the antebellum period. These were “trust in God, joy in heaven, comfort in salvation, and judgement of masters”. Simms uses examples from the writings of several African-American slaves of the period to make his points on the psychological strength of the slaves and the solace they found in their newly discovered religion. Illustrating the mental and emotional attitude which typified slaves who trusted in God as their Caretaker, Simms brings forth Sister Kelly, a freed bondswoman raised in Tennessee during the mid-1800’s. As Sister Kelly pointed out:

I tell you… I wuked and lived with good ones [slaveowners] and bad ones, too. You got to know something ‘bout the Lord to get along anywhere. You don’t know nothing ‘bout him? Well, you better know him; better learn ‘bout him, that’s what’ll help you.

Sister Kelly obviously is pointing out that having a Christian outlook will help slaves endure and grow even under the daily brutality of the slaveowner. She encourages her reader to learn about him (the Lord) because knowing the Lord will help you get through the rough times ahead. Another former slave which Simms quotes is Delia Garlic who stated; “Trustin’ [in the Lord] was de only hope of de poor black critters in dem days. Us just prayed for strength to endure it to de end. We didn’t spect nothin’ but to stay in bondage till we died. Mrs. Garlic held true to her faith in the Lord even though all around her she saw her fellow slaves as “black critters” who were just waiting for the day that they died so that they could be released from their bondage. Most of all, the slave reveled in the knowledge that all the evil that their masters set upon them in this life was going to be given back to them in the afterlife. Belief in this fact brought one former Louisiana cotton plantation slave, Mary Reynolds, to note with no remorse of a particularly evil overseer named Solomon, “I know that Solomon is burning in Hell today, and it pleasures me to know it”. To some this might seem callous and very unchristian like, but given the amount of suffering and torture that slaves endured, perhaps we can forgive them a few words in their own defense.

In the beginning years of the Atlantic Slave Trade, Europeans would use the excuse of “spreading the gospel” as the reason for their enslavement of the Africans. Thinking that teaching them about Christianity would somehow uplift them and provide them a path to righteousness and take them away from the evil and pagan idolatry which was their lot in life before they were saved. However, these teachings which many thought would bring them contentment, ultimately brought them to realize that they were in bondage and that they deserved to be free from the chains, both literal and figurative, that bound them to their masters. Slaves found in their new religion not only a strength to endure the bondage that they were saddled with, but also equip them with unity of purpose to oppose and eventually break the bonds of their enslavement. In an ironic twist of fate, the very instrument that the Europeans believed would bring docility and a sense of self-centeredness to the slaves in their daily lives did exactly the opposite. Teaching of Christian values to the African-American slaves ultimately fulfilled the worst fears of the slaveowners from the earliest colonial slaveholders to the last of the antebellum masters, that the slaves would think themselves equal to their masters and demand that they be given equal rights and be set free. The Christian movement of the enslaved Africans not only led to their freedom but also led to one of their own attaining the highest political office in the land, the Presidency of the United States.

Bibliography

Drexler-Dreis, Joseph. "Nat Turner's Rebellion as a Process of Conversion." Black Theology: An International Journal 12, no. 3 (November 2014): 230-250. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed May 6, 2017).

Fountain, Daniel L. Slavery, Civil War, and Salvation: African American Slaves and Christianity, 1830-1870. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2010. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost (accessed May 6, 2017).

Frey, Sylvia R. "The Visible Church: Historiography of African American Religion since Raboteau." Slavery & Abolition 29, no. 1 (January 2008): 83-110. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed May 6, 2017).

Raboteau, Albert J. Slave Religion: The “Invisible Institution” in the Antebellum South. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

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Simms, Rupe. "Slave Christianity: A Critical Feature of Black Studies History." Western Journal of Black Studies 22, no. 1 (Spring98 1998): 49. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed May 6, 2017).