The Religion of the Slaves

8/7/2019 The Religion of the Slaves

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The Religion of the Slaves

By Prof. Terry Matthews. Adjunct Asst. Professor. Wake Forest University

A Review

As we have already seen, the shifting of attitudes

towards slavery resulted in profound changes in

Southern society in general, and in religious circles in

particular. In the 1780's, Methodists--who represent astandard example--had formulated strong rules

against slavery, and slaveholders. Slavery was

deemed to be "contrary to the laws of God, man and

nature, and hurtful to society, contrary to the dictates

of conscience and pure religion." Indeed, by 1784

Methodists were so bold as to say that they "promised

to excommunicate all Methodists not freeing their

slaves within two years." By 1820, however, the

Methodist church in the South was increasingly at

one with its culture on the issue of race, and was

advocating a "Mission to the Slaves."

As the conflict over slavery heated up, and as news of

the Vesey conspiracy broke in 1822, and word spread

about the rebellion of Nat Turner in 1831, a great

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http://www.wfu.edu/~matthetl/index.html



fear enveloped whites. Afraid for their lives, their

investments, the civil peace, and the preservation of

the South's way of life,

whites demanded--and their state legislatures passed--

laws curtailing the rights of African-Americans to

assemble, to worship, to become literate, and to do muchmore, except under strictly controlled circumstances.

At the same time, this fear and anxiety was producing

an outpouring of concern to make Christians of theslaves in the hope that they might learn to turn the

other cheek, and to accept their lot in life.

In the early decades of the nineteenth century,Christianity

had made little or no in-roads among blacks for fear that

they might take literally such narratives as the Exodus.

But as this "crisis of fear" spread across the South,

suddenly rather impressive efforts were made to

address the "needs" of the souls of black folk. These

were well organized evangelistic endeavors,

particularly in those areas with large plantations.

Congregations stepped up their appeals, and refined

their approaches to African-Americans. Preachersand planters alike urged them to fill the gallerys, and

special seating that was set aside for these honored

guests. Some owners were even motivated to build

"praise houses" on their land, and recruited black

preachers to proclaim the Lord's name (as long--of

course--as a white foreman was present to monitor

things so that they did not get out of hand). Large



slaveholders like the Rev. Charles Colcock Jones

worked to comprise a Christian primer for slaves to

instill teachings that were designed as a response to

the portents of revolution, and to serve as preventivemeasures to any insurrection.

I do not mean to suggest that the whole effort to

evangelize the slaves was motivated by a concern for

safety. Certainly, there were numbers of whites who

cared about blacks, both as persons possessing

immortal souls, and as friends with names.

Many others saw the mission to the slaves as an unfolding

of God's divine plan and these early evangelistic efforts as

the first step in a long process that would eventually lead

to the converting of the heathen of the dark continent. But

there were many others who sought to pacify and comfort

the slaves, to make them more dutiful and servile, and to

defer any gratification they might have longed for in thislife to the next.

In other words, the motives of White Southerners

were decidedly mixed. Often there was a genuine

recognition of the human needs of African

Americans, but rare was the time when members of

the "Ruling Race" would overlook the unique casteand economic status of black people.

It would be difficult to determine whose religion--that

of African-Americans or that of whites-- was more

profoundly affected by this preoccupation with racial

matters during the antebellum period. On the

surface, it would appear that the religion of black people was. But the reality is that both were



profoundly affected. Very little of what the white

church attempted and accomplished from 1830 to the

Civil War, remained free of racial and interracial

considerations.

The Religious Life of the Slaves

By the standards of the early nineteenth century, African-

Americans were said to be "a wretched stock of heathen,in utter darkness of a loathsome pagan idolatry." Various

plantation owners expressed the concern that "the

superstitions brought from Africa have not been whollylaid aside." Witchcraft, alleged superstitions, and fetishist

practices were often cited as evidence that the plantation

slave refused to abandon African paganism for American

Christianity.

There certainly may have been an element of truth to

these observations about the persistence of African-American spirituality in the face of efforts of whites toerase it. The Ashanti had a folk saying that "No one

shows a child the Supreme Being." Although the

African's world was populated by a plurality of powers,

including the forces of nature and a legion of magical

spirits, most tribes believed in a Supreme Being who was

viewed as a creator, giver of rain, and sunshine, the all-

seeing one, the one who exists by himself.

Moreover traditional African religion made no distinction

between the sacred and secular. All of life--not part--was

sacred. Nor was there any sense of a division between this

life and the one to come. All of life was part of acontinuum in which both the living and dead took part.

Long before their contact with whites, Africans were a



strongly religious, and deeply spiritual people.

The African beliefs in one Supreme Being, in arealistic distinction between good and evil, in lesser

spiritual powers, and in creation as the handiwork of

God, paralleled much in the Hebraic background of

Christianity. These similarities lessened the cultural

shock as the African came into contact with the tenets

of White Evangelicalism. But on occasion there was

conflict. A white Methodist reported an aged Negro--to whom he had been trying to explain the dogma of

the Trinity--once asked which of the three "was the

head man to which he should go when asking for

anything."

During the early history of slavery, the Africanisms that

were retained in African American spirituality were often

seen to be (by whites) a pagan faith. These rituals anddogmas were variously described as Voodoo, Hoodoo,

Witchcraft, and superstitions, and were particularly prominent among the Gullah speakers of South Carolina.

Whites often commented on these "pagan practices," and

fetishes, and were threatened by them. As a result, great

effort was expended on eradicating these practices, and

many were lost within a generation.

The degree to which whites were successful in this,

however, is the subject of great debate. Melville J.

Herskovits has advanced the thesis that the success of

Baptists in attracting blacks was rooted in the appeal

of immersion which suggests a connection in the

slaves' mind with the river spirits in West African

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religions. Others have attacked this position

including, the black scholar E. Franklin Frazier who

argues that enslavement largely destroyed the social

basis of religion among blacks, and that the appeal of Baptists to blacks concerns the emotional content of

their worship. Stanley Elkins (whose views were

heavily influenced by what took place in the

concentration camps of World War II Europe), has

argued--like Frazier--that slavery was so demeaning

that blacks (like the Jews in the camps) were

eventually stripped of every shred of dignity andhumanity, including their faith. John Blassingame, on

the other hand, has provided a significant body of

evidence that blacks hung on to their religion as a

form of resistence.

What is clear is that African-Americans were fairly

quick to abopt the prevailing evangelical culture.

Denominations such as the Episcopalians andPresbyterians which stressed order did not attract the

slaves. Most African-Americans instead gravitated to

the emotionalism of the Methodists and Baptists.

Indeed, in a number of ways the religion of the

South's black population shared much more in

common with the Evangelical Protestantism of the

region's whites than it diverged from it. After all, itwas the evangelicals among Southern whites who

were motivated to bring the slaves to the Christians

faith. These evangelicals imparted to the black church

many of their forms and practices. (You may recall

that earlier in the semester I argued that the black

church preserves intact several forms of expression

that characterized white evangelicals in thenineteenth century.)



But blacks also bequeathed something back to the

evangelical tradition. There is fair body of evidence

that suggests some whites copied certain practices of

black worshippers. Shouting in worship, for example,was one such borrowing. Many blacks looked down

on whites who shouted in worship being poor copies

of themselves, or in the parlance of our day, as

"wanna-be's." The call and response pattern also

appears to be derived from the African heritage.

Even though Black evangelicalism shared much in

common with its white counterpart, when African-

Americans held their own services, whether approved

and overseen by whites or held clandestinely

("stealing away to Jesus"), they added their own

flourishes and unique styles to the white religious

legacy. In so doing, they created an "invisible

institution," a church that was their own. Because

Black evangelicalism was not identical to its whitecounterpart, the points of difference between the two

tell us a great deal about the religious world of the

slave.

One of these differences was the expressiveness of

spirit that came to characterize black religion. While

it is true that White Methodists and Baptists werealso expressive, as the Reverend Henry Mitchell

suggests in Geneovese's book, "the whites were fiery

mad, while the blacks were fiery glad." For Black

Christians, the message was presented unvarnished

and the response was uninhibited. Such bad news as

one's eternal damnation called for a groaning and

bewailing befitting one's anguish and sorrow. Such

good news as God's gracious offer of forgiveness



through the love of Christ's sacrificial death was

received with shouts of joy and praise for blessed

release. This expressiveness meant that most blacks

felt inhibited in white churches, even though manywere seen at the altar along with whites.

Most African-Americans found their spiritual needs

were best met in secret. They would gather in "hush

arbors" and "praying grounds." A pot would be

turned over to hold in the noise, and in the safety of

the wee hours or a secluded location, they could

express themselves freely, and interpret their faith as

they saw fit.

As Black Christians had the opportunity to develop

their own styles of preaching and singing they did so.

The preacher may have been unlettered, but his

preaching was far from theologically illiterate. He

knew all he needed to know--the biblical message of salvation--and a rich intimate awareness of the Savior

who lived in the believer's heart. Slaves were highly

critical--in these settings--of white preaching that

tried to keep them in their place. They saw sermons

on stealing--for instance--as self-serving in that it

tended to hide a greater evil. It was alright to steal a

ham--they reasoned--if it was needed to feed one'sfamily. This theology is reflected in a song sung by the

slaves:

We raise de wheat,

Dey gib us de corn;

We bake de bread,



De gib us de crust;

We sif de meal,

Dey gib us de huss;

We peal de meat,

Dey gib us de skin;

And dat's de way

Dey take us in;

We skim de pot,

Dey gib us de liguor,

And say dat's good enough for nigger."

Such theologizing helped them to develop what today

might be referred to as a situational ethic.

John Jasper and Black Worship

Interestingly, given the increasing racial proscription

in the mid-1800's, Many Black preachers developed a

significant following across the South among both

whites and blacks. John Jasper of Virginia was one

such man. Slaves would defer funeral ceremonies for

as long as necessary to bring him to the plantation for

the service. And Jasper was equally popular among

whites. During the Civil War, Jasper won a warm

response from the Confederate wounded to whom he

preached and offered solace.



On the surface, Jasper's preaching sounded

unlettered, but his message was informed with a

profound theology. His most famous sermon was

entitled "De Sun DO Move' an De Earth AmSquare." He gave this sermon hundreds of times to

both whites and blacks, who listened to it, but the

message his listeners heard was dependent on their

race.

Jasper had heard that some heretics were misleading

his people into believing that the earth moved around

a stationary sun, and so he choose to respond to this

new scientific understanding. When he arose to speak

many of Richmond's most fashionable whites and the

countryside's poorest slaves had flocked to hear him.

Jasper went on to proclaim that "Joshuar tell de sun

ter stand' still till he could finish whippin de enemy

an de sun was travellin' long dar thew de sky when it

stops for Joshuar. It stopt fer business an' it went onwhen it got thew." The whites had come for their own

amusement, and many left laughing at what they

considered to be Jasper's childish ignorance.

But they missed the power of what Jasper was saying.

Although he sounded illiterate to them, this man was

fully capable of perfect English. Using (for want of abetter term) Black English, he was putting forward

the proposition that God could intervene to alter the

natural order. And what was slavery according to

whites? It was part of the natural order of things. In

their own hearing, Jasper was proclaiming that "the

God of Joshuar" could and would intervene to save

his people. He was putting forward a damnning

critique of their position although few if any of the



whites who heard him recognized it. But slaves did

not miss the point.

Other revolutionary themes were also implicit in the

preaching of men like Jasper, themes that were very

clear to Blacks, but opaque to whites. When the Bible

taught that Jesus came to die for everyone, African-

Americans knew that meant them as well. The story

of Adam and Eve and as it was told by Black

Preachers, had Adam becoming so frightened by his

sin that he turned white.

Nor did Blacks accept the pro-slavery argument that

their condition was a result of a curse for the sin of

Ham. Yes, the conditions in which they lived were

evil. But they did not see themselves as being evil.

(This rejection of Orginal Sin probably reflects a

survival in that West African religions tended to be

life-affirming rather than guilt inducing.)

The spiritual music composed and sung by African-

Americans was as direct, heartfelt, and expressive as

Black Preaching. Such African-American hymns as

"Swing low, Sweet Chariot" conveys a message that

few whites heard: a fundamental equality of persons.

God welcomes both whites and blacks to the skies.

Some Concluding Observations

African-American religion dealt with life as blacks

lived it. It was about pain and sorrow, sin and

shortcoming, pardon and joy, praise and

thanksgiving, grace and hope. This version of

Evangelicalism provided a wonderful benefit; it was



able to accomplish great things in their lives that were

frequently shouted about.

Evangelicalism took root among African-Americans.

Large numbers underwent conversion, baptism,

instruction, worship, and lived the life of Christian

even in face of oppression. Although, the development

of their own religious institutions would await

Emancipation and the war's end, there were many

thousands of Negro Baptists and Methodists by 1850.

In some ways, church life proved to be moreimportant than family life, (which says something

about the impact of slavery on African-American

family life as much as does about the power of

religion and spirituality in the lives of African-

Americans). That is significant, because in the first

decades of the nineteenth century, the impact of

Christianity on the Southern black population hadbeen extremely small. Indeed, the religion of modern

blacks, represents a relatively modern development

that dates back to the last several decades before

slavery was brought to an end.

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