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African Slave Religion

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It 's states that the first African slaves were brought to the United States in 1619 to Jamestown, Virginia. African slaves were brought to the United States to work in the tobacco fields. After so many years of working in the tobacco fields, the owners and the slaves had many more duties. The slaves work evolved into picking cotton, working on plantations in the South, working in the ‘owner 's’ house or babysitting their children. “Snitches” played a big role in the slavery time period, snitches were African slaves that watched other slaves acting as Labor from slaves was not only cheap but since there were tons of African slaves. To ensure Africans remained slaves their owners took necessary steps to ensure they never thought or desired …show more content…

The Religion Christianity has always been a controversial issue among people. However, the most controversial period regarding Christianity and religion has to be when Africans were converted to Christianity during slavery. There are many reasons why they were converted do with being forced into Christianity. The primary reason slave owners gave was the promise to go to heaven. Owners told slaves that their souls will be saved and they would be finally free in the afterlife. Owners told slaves about heaven to give them hope for their after life when the slaves …show more content…

The slaves that snuck away to hold religious services were severely punished or sent away to another plantation. Owners felt that by allowing their slaves to practice or be converted to Christianity would make the slaves think they were better than. The owners that refused to force or even allow their slaves to convert also believed that there possibly were legal complications in allowing slaves to be Christians. Based on laws by the British owners thought if the slaves were baptized, then they would have to be freed. This prompts laws being passed in 1706 changed to reflect that just because slaves were baptized they had to be freed. Slave owners had no problem with the slaves being baptized as long as the services were organized and ran by whites or

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729 Words | 3 Pages

The idea behind keeping the slave’s faith in the Lord was that the Lord allows slavery because white people are better than the blacks. Basically, any slave who disobeyed their owner was disobeying the Lord, resulting in an eternity in hell, “To be good children of the Lord, the slaves must beware of Satan who created their cunning wicked master of Hell – for it was Satan who created their desires for freedom and tempted them to run away” (Oates

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1906 Words | 8 Pages

Instead he began to propagate the belief that sharing religion with the slaves would “lay them under stronger obligations to perform the greatest diligence and fidelity”. Though a number of protestant religions moved throughout at the time the Baptist church eventually took ahold of the south to become the most practiced religion. Frey discusses briefly the African culture that made some influence on the lifestyle of the African slaves. Most of the African cultural practices were bogged down or destroyed by the slave owners and American society.

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555 Words | 3 Pages

1. Fredrick Douglass witnessed harsh and violent actions throughout his slave life, as slave owners utilized Christianity as a justification for these actions and for the system of slavery. Douglass experienced this religious abuse throughout his life as a slave. However, in 1832, when he began working for Captain Auld, he witnessed the misuse of religion in the setting of a violent action. After Auld whipped a young woman, he justified his actions by quoting the Bible: “He that knoweth his master’s will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many strips” (33).

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720 Words | 3 Pages

African Americans that were licensed or ordained had to give up preaching. If an African American continued preaching they could be charged with no more than thirty-nine lashes. Another law stated that if slaves had a meeting without their owners permission could also be charged with a maximum of thirty-nine lashings. A continuation of one of the previous laws stated that making gospel music was illegal. A final law that went in African Americans favor made it so a free African American couldn’t become a permanent slaves

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832 Words | 4 Pages

Reverend Hudgins believed religion was only about keeping the soul pure for the sake of salvation, and this formed his opinions about black people, church, and preforming good deeds. Many people in the Civil Rights Movement were compelled to action because of religion. They thought there was a connection between the message of the gospel and their fight for equality. Other people felt that they were being called by God to protect their local area from the sins of the world, including people who were visiting for the sake of civil rights. Both of these forms of action were based on each group’s interpretation of Christianity.

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517 Words | 3 Pages

Although not every African American was a slave, slavery came to only be limited to people of African descent. Throughout the time of slavery, white people were worried that the slaves were going to rebel. Fearing that the slaves were gonna cause more trouble colonial authorities wrote slave codes. These slave codes prohibited slaves to own their own weapons, leave the plantation without permission and even meet in large groups. The slave rebelled up until slavery ended in 1865.

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1283 Words | 6 Pages

Douglass jolts the white audience with a hyperbole to display the punishments of slaves if they consume holy knowledge from church. In addition to Christianity, slaveholders apply one of the most sacred and religious holidays to win over the hearts and minds of slaves. The original

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1080 Words | 5 Pages

During the time when Douglass wrote this book, there were several myths which were used to justify slavery. The slaveholder during his time justified this inhuman practice using different arguments. The first argument they used was the religion. From the narrative, Douglass says that slaveholders called themselves Christians which was the dominant religion by then.

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1538 Words | 7 Pages

The Life of a Slave Slavery a name known since the beginning of time but I will be focusing on the year of 1619 to 1865. When Africans first arrived at the colonial America and how they got there. They greatly influenced the lives throughout the thirteen colonies. People failed to realize they were humans just like them.

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945 Words | 4 Pages

“I find, since reading over the foregoing Narrative, that I have, in several instances, spoken in such a tone and manner, respecting religion, as may possibly lead those unacquainted with my religious views to suppose me an opponent of all religion.” (Narrative in the Life of Fredrick Douglass, 389). The differences between the faith practiced by Douglass, and the faith practiced by his owners, was the interpretation of what the Bible was saying. Based on Fredrick’s narrative, we can interpret that slave owners used the Bible to justify their inhuman, unmoral actions onto other people. While Douglass interprets the Bible as something a Christian will use to maintain moral habits.

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1590 Words | 7 Pages

He rather rejected the manipulation of doctrine utilized by the slaveholders to achieve their end. Douglass wrote that, "the religion of the south is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes,-a justifier of the most appalling barbarity,-a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds,-and a dark shelter under, which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of slaveholders find the strongest protection" (965). Religion was therefore not only a means of false justification for slave owners, but also a source of unified protection against any criticism of slave practices that could arise. Douglass seemed to insist that there was a genuine form of Christianity that was based upon love of God and love of "thy neighbor," but that these Southern practitioners certainly had not converted to the belief in such a doctrine.

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1246 Words | 5 Pages

This introduced the principle that slavery was a sin and an abomination. Ministers in the North preached about the horrors of slavery, especially the slave trade, and that God would seek vengeance on any nation that committed such cruelties. In New York during the year 1810, Reverend William Miller gave a sermon on the abolition of the slave trade stating, “ According to the basis of the christian religion, we are bound to love God with all our soul, and our neighbor as ourselves: but this sacred injunction does not reach the heart of the oppressors of Africans” (Miller 11). This was the very premise for most of the Abolition Movement: thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

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832 Words | 4 Pages

Two ways a man can be enslaved are by force and by manipulation, to make one think that good will come out of doing what the master’s demands. Religion was used to control the minds of the slaves by manipulating slaves to be obedient and appreciative of their masters. What white slave owners did was almost similar to the Catholic clergy’s actions before the Reformation. They didn’t allow slaves to go to church themselves because they feared rebellion and slave owners would preach the “gospel” or hire someone.

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488 Words | 2 Pages

Africans who were already enslaved saw conversion to Christianity as a road to freedom, and many others who were not already enslaved believed conversion would protect them from becoming

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927 Words | 4 Pages

Religion and its relationship to slavery is a contradictive subject, whether it was forced upon slaves or was a form of hope and freedom is still commonly debated about to this day. However, these individuals were devoted Christians in the abolitionist movement who all

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