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Slaves religous practices
Slavery movements in america
Slavery movements in america
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It is sometimes hard to believe that slaves could have believed that there was a higher power looking out for them, when they had struggles as large as they had. The slaves were stripped of their humanity, but they were able to keep their humanity by bonding with other slaves through their religion. The religion they adapted after crossing the Atlantic Ocean was very similar to the Christianity their slave masters’ had, but with elements from the religions of Africa. The largest element from the African religion in slave Christianity is the vocal, musical full body worship. Slave Christianity was able to give the slaves something to relate to each other with. The story about the ancestors of Abraham and their freedom from their slavery helped them hope that there could be an end of their slavery. Because Christianity gave them this hope, Christianity played a large role in the slave rebellions.
There were four large slave rebellions that had religion as a factor helping the slaves organize and inspire their rebellions. The first was organized in Gabriel Prosser, the second was organized by Denmark Vesey, the third was organized by Nat Turner, and the fourth was the Stono rebellion. There were several sections of the Bible they looked to for inspiration, three of them were Genesis 14, Exodus, and Amos 5.
Gabriel Prosser’s rebellion was planned for August of 1800 in Richmond, Virginia. The plan Gabriel and other conspirators came up with was to meet by the river by the plantation. From there they would cross the river and go into the town of Richmond. Once in Richmond they planned to kidnap the governor. The governor of Richmond at the time was James Monroe the man that would later become the fifth President of the United Sta...
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...alculator.” West Egg.com. Last modified May 12, 2014. http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi.
“Nat Turner.” Biography.com. Last modified n.d. http://www.biography.com/people/nat-turner-9512211#awesm=~oCqSEDkpEcT8YU.
Oates, Stephen B. The Fires of Jubilees: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1975.
Ogbomo, Onaiwu W. Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and History Encylopedia, vol. 1, s.v. “Gabriel Prosser (1776-1800).
Raboteou, Albert J. Canaan Land: A Religious History of African Americans. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
“Vesey Revolt: Never occurred; planned for June, 1822,.” Gettysburg.edu. Last modified n.d. http://www3.gettysburg.edu/~tshannon/hist106web/site4/vesey_revolt.htm
Waldstreicher, David. The Struggle Against Slavery: A History in Documents. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
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.
Slavery’s Constitution by David Waldstreicher can be identified as a very important piece of political analytical literature as it was the first book to recognize slavery 's place at the heart of the U.S. Constitution. Waldstreicher successfully highlights a number of silences which most of the general public are unaware of, for example, the lack of the word “slavery” in the Constitution of the United States of America. Also, the overwhelming presence and lack of explicit mention of the debate of slavery during the construction of the document.
There are many contradictions pertaining to slavery, which lasted for approximately 245 years. In Woody Holton’s “Black Americans in the Revolutionary Era”, Holton points out the multiple instances where one would find discrepancies that lie in the interests of slaveowners, noble figures, and slaves that lived throughout the United States. Holton exemplifies this hostility in forms of documents that further specify and support his claim.
Roediger, David and Blatt, Martin H. The Meaning of Slavery in the North. JStor. 1998. Vol. 18
What is presented to the slaves as a religious tenet is merely propaganda used to quell rebellious behavior. They fear a society in which they no longer serve to benefit from slave labor, and so they fear rebellion, they fear objection, they fear events like the Nat Turner Insurrection. The system the slaveholders strive so ardently to protect begins to affect even them, those in power, negatively. They begin to cope with their fear the only way they know how, by projecting it upon the slaves.
"A Rebellion to Remember: The Legacy of Nat Turner." A Rebellion to Remember: The Legacy of Nat Turner. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2014.
After the slave trades had ended in the United States the numbers of slaves continue to grow. The slaves where reproducing and birthing new slaves that happen to be Americans. According to a Maffly-Kipp (2001) because the number of slaves from Africa had decrease it gave room for a transformation of their culture styles and roots to blend with their religious practices such as enthusiastic singing, clapping, dancing, and being possessed with the holy spirit. Many white members of society felt threaten by the existence of black religious groups African Americans built a strong faith in God and found safety in their places of worship. Society was not always willing to accept the idea of Christian slaves. As one slave recounted "the white folks would come in when the colored people would have prayer meeting, and whip every one of them. Most of them thought that when colored people were praying it was against them” (McMickle 2002). Despite of that many African Americans organized their own invisible institution in the slave quarters. They used signals, songs, and messages not discernible to whites. These organizations where called hush harbors. Many b...
Because it offers them the possibility of community and identity, many slaves find themselves strongly attached to religion. They cannot build a family structure and they cannot be identified by family name, but through the church, they can build a community and identify themselves as Christians. This comfort becomes virtually non-existent for it too is controlled by the slaveowners who “came to the conclusion that it would be well to give the slaves enough of religious instruction to keep them from murdering their masters” (57). The fact that one person could have the ability to control the amount of religion another person has and his purpose for having it diminishes any sense of community or identity that it may have initially provided.
Moreover, many owners later came to feel that Christianity may actually have encouraged rebellion (all those stories of Moses and the Israelites in Egypt, after all, talked about the liberation of the slaves), and so they began to discourage Christian missionaries from preaching to the slaves. African Americans have taken their own spiritual, religious journey. God was looked upon as a source of peace and encouragement. The community of enslave Africans were able to use religion and spirituality as a way of overcoming the mental anguish of slavery on a daily basis. To a slave, religion was the most important aspect of their life. Nothing could come between their relationship with god. It was their rock, the only reason why they could wake up in the morning, the only way that they endured this most turbulent time in our history.
In their quarters, slaves expressed themselves with some what more freedom from white slave owners. Religion provided a feel of similar freedom and also gave slaves mental support. By attending church, slaves created a Christianity that emphasized salvation for every race, including slaves.
The primary function of the Negro spirituals was to serve as communal song in a religious gathering, performed in a call and response pattern reminiscent of West African traditional religious practices. During these ceremonies, one person would begin to create a song by singing about his or her own sorrow or joy. That individual experience was brought to the community and through the call and response structure of the singing, that individual’s sorrow or joy became the sorrow or joy of the community. In this way, the spiritual became truly affirming, for it provided communal support for individual experiences. Slaves used the characters of the bible, particularly the Old Testament,...
Douglass continues to describe the severity of the manipulation of Christianity. Slave owners use generations of slavery and mental control to convert slaves to the belief God sanctions and supports slavery. They teach that, “ man may properly be a slave; that the relation of master and slave is ordained by God” (Douglass 13). In order to justify their own wrongdoings, slaveowners convert the slaves themselves to Christianity, either by force or gentle coercion over generations. The slaves are therefore under the impression that slavery is a necessary evil. With no other source of information other than their slave owners, and no other supernatural explanation for the horrors they face other than the ones provided by Christianity, generations of slaves cannot escape from under the canopy of Christianity. Christianity molded so deeply to the ideals of slavery that it becomes a postmark of America and a shield of steel for American slave owners. Douglass exposes the blatant misuse of the religion. By using Christianity as a vessel of exploitation, they forever modify the connotations of Christianity to that of tyrannical rule and
The slave owners accepted and rationalized slavery through the Holy Bible. The Bible mentions slavery on numerous occasions, and yet none of these passages condemn it. Timothy 6:1-2 states, “Let slaves regard th...
Slave-owners forced a perverse form of Christianity, one that condoned slavery, upon slaves. According to this false Christianity the enslavement of “black Africans is justified because they are the descendants of Ham, one of Noah's sons; in one Biblical story, Noah cursed Ham's descendants to be slaves” (Tolson 272). Slavery was further validated by the numerous examples of it within the bible. It was reasoned that these examples were confirmation that God condoned slavery. Douglass’s master...
Knowles, H. J. (2007). The Constitution and Slavery: A Special Relationship. Slavery & Abolition, 28(3), 309-328. doi:10.1080/01440390701685514