One of the biggest ways Africans were able to endure the institution of slavery was by finding similarities in the European culture that coincided with their native customs. “ The similarities between many European and African Cultural elements enabled the slave to continue to engage in many traditional activities or to create a synthesis of European and African cultures.”1 While there were many
distinctions between African and European culture, their religion shared some characteristics. The Africans believed in a supreme being or a creator, but they had never given this being the name of God or Jesus Christ. They also had lesser gods, but they took on various different names. Blassinggame simply states it as being “In America, Jehovah replaced
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Their form of restraint derived from practicing folk songs and tales, dancing, singing, and superstitions from home. They continued to tell folk songs and tales about small, witty characters and or animals that always out-smart the big animals. Oral tradition was an immense part of the tradition for much of the entire African continent, so its longevity in America illustrates its deep impact. They also sung songs with different rhythms and beats while dancing intricately. The Africans were able to express their sorrows, and angers of slavery but also of their hope and faith of their spirit some day returning back to Africa. “Shouting, singing and preaching, the slaves released all of their despair and expressed their desires for freedom.” 3Such pastimes allowed the slaves to remain connected to Africa in the only way that they could. These traditions …show more content…
Amongst the slaves was a conjurer who supposedly had powers to heal, and tell the future. “Because of the tales they heard from their
nurses and black childhood playmates, many antebellum whites were convinced of the conjurers power” 10. African American influence was seen in worship. They often chanted loudly, and made movements that expressed their emotional and spiritual state. Moving their bodies to the chant or religious praise, the Africans preferred their songs and hymns opposed to hymn book. So when they were alone they made up their own spiritual songs.
The … structure, and call-and-response pattern of the spirituals differ so distinctly from the songs of whites, that one must look outside the white church to discover their origin… According to a number of antebellum white observers, the spiritual was the unique creation of black
In terms of musical history, the primary significance of the Jubilee Singers is that they introduced to the world for the first time a magnificent body of folk music -- slave songs, spirituals -- which celebrated life, survival, victory.
Becoming a true theologian and scholar deals with not limiting the extents of homiletics. The assumption is that the black preaching tradition is distinct and identifiable. What is interesting for any African American student of homiletics is that while many argue for a defined set of African American homiletic characteristics, there is little agreement on what these characteristics are? When people try to characterize what makes African Ame...
Montgomery, William. Under Their Own Vine and Fig Tree: The African-American Church in the South. Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1993. Print.
This paper elaborates on the diverse contributions peoples of African descent have made to the pluralistic religious landscape of America and replicates various passages from our textbook. It focuses on the personal narratives of non-religious to religious leaders—exemplifying their influence on the African American religious movement during slavery and the reconstruction of America. Each section represents different historical periods, regional variations, and non-Christian expressions of African-American religion.
I feel their spirituals is what really relived an was the real motivation for them. Just as Johnson said “Spirituals had extraordinary power to shape the slaves’ experience and identity”) Johnson, 118). Through these songs they expressed their sorrow, fear, hope, and suffering. Cones’ teachings express the “Spirituals” as a way God’s spirts were entering into the lives of the people.
Maffly-Kipp, L. (2001). The Church in the Southern Black Community: Introduction. The Church in the Southern Black Community: Introduction. Retrieved March 17, 2014, from http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/intro.html
were also musical as well as spiritual. The yelling and shouting in the church were
For centuries religion has played a huge role in the black community. From slavery to freedom, religion has help black folk deal with their anger, pain, oppression, sadness, fear, and dread. Recognizing the said importance of religion in the black community, Black poets and writers like Phillis Wheatley and Richard Wright, use religion as an important motif in their literature. Wheatley uses religion as a way to convince her mostly white audience of how religious conversion validates the humanity of herself and others. Wright on the other hand, uses religion in order to demonstrate how religion, as uplifting as it is can fail the black community. Thinking through, both Wheatley and Wright’s writings it becomes apparent that religion is so complex,
Author of “The Negro Family”, E. Franklin Frazier believed that the centrality of the bible, structure of Black worship, and notion of God that evolved from the invisible institution to the Black Church was confirmation of the power of white influence . These tactics and different developments were merely adaptive methods used by slaves in order to worship freely in a confined space. Frazier’s beliefs were undermined by author Gayraud S. Wilmore’s description of Vodun in his book Black Religion and Black Radicalism. Frazier’s contention that black religion was evidence of white influence assumes a blank and passive slate. While Vodun in West Africa did have organization that was probably “infiltrated by Roman Catholicism” the goal of New World Africans was to adapt and understand their lives (Wilmore 43). Although white influence was forced upon New World Africans, slaves did not accept this influence but rather interpreted it to create a new, place-based Vodun religion. Vodun adapted to New World conditions, functioned as a coping mechanism, and possessed evolutionary qualities.
During a most dark and dismal time in our nations history, we find that the Africans who endured horrible circumstances during slavery, found ways of peace and hope in their religious beliefs. During slavery, Africans where able to survive unbearable conditions by focusing on their spirituality.
From the 1500s to the 1700s, African blacks, mainly from the area of West Africa (today's Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Dahomey, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Gabon) were shipped as slaves to North America, Brazil, and the West Indies. For them, local and tribal differences, and even varying cultural backgrounds, soon melded into one common concern for the suffering they all endured. Music, songs, and dances as well as remembered traditional food, helped not only to uplift them but also quite unintentionally added immeasurably to the culture around them. In the approximately 300 years that blacks have made their homes in North America, the West Indies, and Brazil, their highly honed art of the cuisine so treasured and carefully transmitted to their daughters has become part of the great culinary classics of these lands. But seldom are the African blacks given that recognition.
Slave’s masters consistently tried to erase African culture from their slave’s memories. They insisted that slavery had rescued blacks form the barbarians from Africa and introduced them to the “superior” white civilization. Some slaves came to believe this propaganda, but the continued influence of African culture in the slave community added slave resistance to the modification of African culture. Some slaves, for example, answered to English name in the fields but use African names in their quarters. The slave’s lives were filled with surviving traits of African culture, and their artwork, music, and other differences reflected this influence.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church also known as the AME Church, represents a long history of people going from struggles to success, from embarrassment to pride, from slaves to free. It is my intention to prove that the name African Methodist Episcopal represents equality and freedom to worship God, no matter what color skin a person was blessed to be born with. The thesis is this: While both Whites and Africans believed in the worship of God, whites believed in the oppression of the Africans’ freedom to serve God in their own way, blacks defended their own right to worship by the development of their own church. According to Andrew White, a well- known author for the AME denomination, “The word African means that our church was organized by people of African descent Heritage, The word “Methodist” means that our church is a member of the family of Methodist Churches, The word “Episcopal refers to the form of government under which our church operates.”
In chapter thirteen, “The Psalms across Space and Time: The Nineteenth Century,” the author discusses the implications of the usage of the Psalter throughout the world during the 19th century. First, and most interestingly, the author notes the use of the Psalms as a beacon of hope for the African American community (p.238). The Psalms originally served as songs of worship and hope of the Israelite community who experience oppression by the hand of Egypt, and thousands of years later, the Psalms once again served as songs of worship and hope for the African American slave community that underwent the oppression of slavery in America. This insight is crucial because it emphasizes the ability of the Psalms to be used as worship, even in the
The development of Black Theology in the United was one that shocked the nation as a whole. While in slavery, Blacks had to sneak and hold church services. This was partly because Whites felt that Blacks were not able to be accepted into heaven, and they believed that once one as a Christian they could no longer be enslaved. So to appease their conscience they would not allow Blacks to take part in theology. Due to these issues Black Theology soon originated within the United States.