In the Americas, people of African descent have had to adapt, accept, resist, and create religious practices because of the nature of their forced migration and coerced religious conversions. In spite of the disruptions that the slave trade, slave sales, fugitive state, and even freedom wrought on their lives, their faith endured. The religious practices of African Americans also ensured the survival of their various cultural practices and allowed space for the creation of new ones. By the 1700s, African Americans began to found Christian churches, to reinterpret the Bible to emphasize how enslaved peoples fled bondage in Egypt, and to create a liberation theology that centered Africa. Like the ancient psalmist proclaiming “Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God,” African Americans saw themselves as a chosen people for whom freedom would be gained by a reliance upon their faith and good works.
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Dersāna Mikā’ēl [The Homilies of Michael]. Ethiopian manuscript, Gondar, ca. 1682. This Ethiopian illustrated Coptic sacred text is a fine example of the artisanship of East African scribes and illustrators, all monks. The religious figures are drawn in vivid color on parchment made from the skin of goat, sheep, or calf. The canon of the Ethiopian Bible differs both in the Old and New Testament from that of any other churches. This early Christian text demonstrates the influence of the Oriental Orthodox Church in 17th-century East Africa and how Black people saw themselves reflected in the gospel both figuratively and literally. Thus Ethiopia figured prominently in 19th- and 20th-century Black political movements from Pan-Africanism and Garveyism to Rastafarianism. These groups drew strength from the biblical quote “And Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands unto God and princes shall come from Egypt.” |
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Henry Callaway, The Religious System of the Amazulu (Natal, 1869). The South African Amazulu creation myth served to explain mysteries that affected daily life, such as the causes of sickness and the origin of death. The Amazulu people still link some of their religious beliefs to their social practices. Callaway’s text demonstrated the falseness of the anti-Black belief that African people had not developed complex religious systems. |
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Charles Stearns, “Religious Dancing of the Blacks, Termed
‘Shouting’” from The Black Man of the South and the Rebels
(New York, 1872). This image was published post-Emancipation. However, by the antebellum era, after the Second Great Awakening, a great number of enslaved people converted to Protestant Christianity. The enslaved put their distinctive mark on worship and integrated enthusiastic religious practices with linkages to West Africa like polyrhythmic singing, “holy dancing,” and drums. Although the South banned the creation of Black-controlled churches, Black people found ways to worship privately with each other as a community act. |
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African Methodist Episcopal Church, Articles of Association of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church (Philadelphia, 1799). Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church was the first independent African American denomination in the U.S. In the late 18th century, Mother Bethel cut all ties with the white St. George Methodist Episcopal Church, where their membership originated, because of its racist practices. Many of the articles show the importance of creating a Black site that shielded members from racist indignities. Despite the creation of the articles, the struggle for control between Mother Bethel and St. George lasted until 1815, when Mother Bethel won its independence in court. |
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Alfred Pettitt, Mrs. Amanda Smith (1878).
Carte-de-visite. Amanda Smith was an African American Methodist evangelist preacher, missionary, and temperance advocate who was born to enslaved parents in Maryland. In 1869, she started preaching at Methodist Episcopal churches along the East Coast and throughout the Midwest and later started traveling internationally to England and West Africa to spread the gospel. |
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I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance. Sojourner Truth (1864). Carte-de-visite. Sojourner Truth was an African American preacher, abolitionist, and women’s rights advocate. Born enslaved, Truth did not let her circumstances outshine her greatness! During the period of the Civil War, Truth captioned, marketed, copyrighted, and sold at least eleven different carte-de-visite portraits of herself at her lectures and through the mail to earn personal funds to advocate for the abolition of slavery. |
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The Gospel among the Slaves (Nashville, 1893). |
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William L. Breton, Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church (1829). Lithograph. Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church is a great example of the influence religion had on African Americans. It was a powerful institution in the Black community, not just on religious matters but on other social issues as well. Mother Bethel encouraged activism for the Black community on matters such as education and economy. As the first formal Black-controlled Christian church in the United States, Mother Bethel set the tone for other Black churches to embrace political activism. Most notably, Mother Bethel’s basement was a stop on the Underground Railroad that ushered fugitive slaves to freedom. |
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Rev. Richard Allen, Founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (1779). Engraving. Reverend Richard Allen was born enslaved on February 14, 1760. After purchasing his freedom at the age of nineteen, Allen became a preacher. He drew a large Black following because of his dynamic preaching style. However, the white-run St. George’s Methodist Church that Allen had attended resented their growing Black membership and instituted racist policies like segregated seating between white and Black members. Reverend Allen left St. George and founded Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1794. |
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John Sartain, Certificate of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Philadelphia, ca. 1835). Engraving. |