Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by DF Sparks on May 31, 2011 at 7:09pm

I'd say slave narratives would be a good place to start though the authenticity of some of these narratives (and the degree to which the masters' hands guided some of these narratives) must be questioned.  I chopped this from wiki

 

Tales of religious redemption

From the 1770s to the 1820s, the slave narratives generally gave an account of a spiritual journey leading to Christian redemption. The authors usually characterized themselves as Africans rather than slaves.

Examples include:

• A Narrative of the Most remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert 'Ukawsaw Gronniosaw', an African Prince, by Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, Bath, England: 1772
• The Interesting Narrative and the life of 'Olaudah Equiano' or Gust..., by Olaudah Equiano, London: 1789
• A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a native of Africa: But resident Above Sixty Years in the United State of America, by Venture Smith, New London: 1798
• The Blind African Slave, Or Memoirs of Boyrereau Brinch, Nicknamed Jeffrey Brace, by Jeffrey Brace as told to Benjamin F. Prentiss, Esq., St. Albans, Vermont: 1810; edited and with an introduction by Kari J. Winter, Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004, ISBN 0-299-20140-6)^[1]

Permalink Reply by Dave Kostiuk on May 31, 2011 at 7:22pm

Whattup Robert P.

 

Good question. I recommend a book called Exchanging our Country Marks by Michael A Gomez. This deals with Christianity being introduced. There is also a great book called Servants of Allah by Sylviane Diouf, which chronicles the little discussed fact that a huge percentage of male and females were erudite and literate due to the fact that they needed to be able to read and write in Arabic in order to study the Koran. There are others too: Equiano's much discussed auto-biography is a 1st person account of indoctrination, as well is Sorjourner's Truth bio.

 

DAVE

Permalink Reply by Donald R Barbera on May 31, 2011 at 8:01pm

The first place I'd check is Dr. Anthony Pinn. He's written several books about religion and slavery. Here is a small list that have slave narratives. Varieties of African American Religious Experience (1998),
Why Lord? Suffering and Evil in Black Theology (1999), By These Hands: A Documentary History of African American Humanism (2001), Terror and Triumph: The Nature of Black Religion (2003), Noise and Spirit: The African American Religious Experience in America (2005). Pinn is a great starting point. I have other books in my collection that speak specifically about sla ery and religion. Unfortunately, I'm not home.

Permalink Reply by Eddie E. Hicks Sr. on June 1, 2011 at 7:06am

Dr. Claud Anderson in the following video talks about religion being a controlling device for black people in slavery days in his PowerNomics speech. I never listened to the complete video so I don't know how far he goes into the religion aspect but it may be a little help.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4346067120444327990&hl=en#

 

~eddie

Permalink Reply by Navitta Nelson on June 1, 2011 at 8:57am

Ase'!!!  Dr. Claude is great.  Also, Dr John Henrik Clark.  I will inbox you some things later.

 

Permalink Reply by L.Hunter on June 1, 2011 at 9:36pm

This should be interesting... I'll check back to see how things progress. Unfortunately I dont know any resources.

Permalink Reply by T. Duker on June 29, 2011 at 8:35pm

I am reading Slave Religion by Albert Raboteau right now. It is quite good!