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Essay On African American Culture

715 Words3 Pages

A people's ability to endure through the most daunting obstacles is what defines their culture and identity. The struggles that the African-American society went through in the antebellum defined and molded a culture that is arguably the most close-knit in America. Constant abuse, torture, starvation, and rape were all daily events that brought Africans to the point of death and yet brought them closer as a people. As plantation owners methodically punished their slaves, the oppressed people mixed their African customs with American religion, music, and marriage to form a bond that grew into a powerful society that has greatly changed America. The torment that a slave received on a daily basis would have broken a normal man's spirit, but …show more content…

The tribal religions that the Africans brought with them influenced their beliefs and decisions on an everyday basis. When the slavers tried to “christianize” the slaves as a form of brainwash the slaves just took Christian beliefs and mixed them with their tribal beliefs and customs. What developed was a special form of Christianity that preached liberation and salvation from their oppressive masters. They took biblical scripture and interpreted them to support their beliefs that they would soon be freed. The most important biblical figure to the slaves was Moses as he too led a persecuted nation into the “promised land”. The reasons for their worship varied; some did it as a way to escape their daily miseries, some worshiped to kindle hope of ending sorrow, but all shared the sense of freedom that they gained from church sermons and hymns. Years before the Emancipation Proclomation freed the slaves from bondage, a growing sense of liberty was festering in the hearts of church-going slaves. (“Cultural Landscape”) Even though most blacks have converted from their Polytheistic view of Christianity to true Christianity the bond the developed during this time periods religious structure has led African-Americans to develop hundreds if not thousands of all black churches throughout

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