Slave Churches
Directions: Read the following passage and complete the questions from section 20.10
Many slaveholders encouraged their slaves to attend church on Sunday. Some read the Bible to their workers and prayed with them. Owners and white ministers preached the same message: “If you disobey your earthly master, you offend your heavenly Master.”
Not surprisingly, this was not a popular lesson among slaves. “Dat ole white preacher [just] was telling us slaves to be good to our marsters,” recalled Cornelius Garner. “We ain’t kerr’d a bit ’bout dat stuff he was telling us ’cause we wanted to sing, pray, and serve God in our own way.”
Instead, slaves created their own “invisible church” that brought together African roots and American needs. This invisible church met in slave quarters or secret forest clearings known as “hush arbors.” One slave reported that,
When [slaves] go round singing, “Steal Away to Jesus” that mean
there going to be a religious meeting that night. The masters . . .
didn’t like them religious meetings, so us naturally slips off at
night, down in the bottoms or somewheres. Sometimes us sing
and pray all night.
Rather than teach about obedience, black preachers told the story of Moses leading his people out of slavery in Egypt. Black worshipers sang spirituals that expressed their desire for freedom and faith in a better world to come. One black preacher wrote,
The singing was accompanied by a certain ecstasy of motion,
clapping of hands, tossing of heads, which would continue without
cessation [stopping] about half an hour . . . The old house
partook of their ecstasy; it rang with their jubilant shouts, and
shook in all its joints.
Whites sometimes criticized the enthusiasm of black worshipers, saying they lacked true religious feeling. Many slaves, however, believed it was their masters who lacked such feeling. “You see,” explained one man, “religion needs a little motion—specially if you gwine [going to] feel de spirit.”
Religion helped slaves bear their suffering and still find joy in life. In their prayers and spirituals, they gave voice to their deepest longings, their greatest sorrows, and their highest hopes.
Tools
Dictionary
Thesaurus
Previous Page Next Page