Invisible churches among enslaved African Americans in the United States were informal Christian groups where enslaved people listened to preachers that they chose without their slaveholder's knowledge. The Invisible churches taught a different message from white-controlled churches and did not emphasize obedience. Some slaves could not contact invisible churches and others did not agree with an invisible church's message but many slaves were comforted by the invisible churches. [1] [2]
Invisible churches were a branch of Christian churches in the slave community in the colonial history of the United States and antebellum period where enslaved African Americans secretly practiced their own version of Christianity. [3] [4] Inside invisible churches, enslaved and free African Americans practiced Hoodoo. [5] Hoodoo is a spiritual tradition defined by scholars as a folk religion was created by enslaved African Americans during slavery in colonial America for their protection against their enslavers. The practice combines influences from West and Central Africa that was synchronized with Christianity. Scholars call the practice of Hoodoo in Black churches as the invisible institution, because enslaved people concealed their culture and beliefs within the Christian religion. "This phrase [invisible institution] was first used by E Franklin Frazier in [his book] The Negro Church in America to describe the spirituality on slave plantations that was primarily out of view of the mainstream American religious consciousness." [6] European slave traders forbid enslaved and free Black people from practicing their traditional African religions, so they hid many of the practices inside invisible churches. White American slaveholders passed slave codes that prohibited large gatherings of enslaved and free Black people. Slaveholders experienced how slave religion ignited slave revolts among enslaved and free people, and some leaders of slave insurrections were black ministers or conjure doctors. [7] The Code Noir in French colonial Louisiana, prohibited and made it illegal for enslaved Africans to practice their traditional religions. Article III in the Code Noir states: "We forbid any public exercise of any religion other than Catholic." [8] The Code Noir and other slave laws resulted in enslaved and free African Americans to conduct their spiritual practices in invisible churches. [9]
The public churches formed often with controversy within and outside the communities. The 'invisible institution' existed often as a forbidden aspect; slaves might be members of both the independent black church groups or congregations that were racially mixed (Raboteau mentions that some such congregations might have far more slaves than masters in attendance), but also participate in worship gatherings at night in secret locations, risking severe punishment to do so. [10]
Scholars also call invisible churches "plantation churches" because they started during the time of slavery on plantations. Many of these churches were not in buildings but in the woods and were called brush arbors or hush harbors because enslaved and free people had to hush or quiet their church services in nature. Enslaved people suffered punishments if they were caught in a hush harbor meeting. Slaveholders were confident that they would compare treatment, working conditions, and punishments, leaving them worried about revolts and riots. African American churches taught that all people were equal in God's eyes. Instead the African American church focused on the message of equality and hopes for a better future. [13] African-American spirituals (Negro Spirituals) were created in invisible and non-invisible Black churches. The hymns melody and rhythms sounded similar to songs heard in West Africa. Enslaved and free people created their own words and tunes. Their songs mentioned the hardships of slavery, and the hope of freedom from bondage. [14] Spirituals during slavery are called Slave Shout Songs. These shout songs are sung today by Gullah Geechee people and other African-Americans in churches and praise houses. During slavery, these slave shout songs were coded messages that spoke of escape from slavery on the Underground Railroad. The songs were sung by enslaved African-American people in the fields on slave plantations to send coded messages to other slaves. When slaveholders heard their slaves singing in the fields, they did not know they were communicating messages of escape. The slave shout song, Walk, Believer, Walk, Daniel, discusses Daniel, a Biblical figure, in the song taking flight. This message of flight in the song is about escape from slavery. [15] [16] Harriet Tubman sung coded messages to her mother and other enslaved people in the field to let them know she was escaping on the Underground Railroad. Tubman sang: "I'm sorry I'm going to leave you, farewell, oh farewell; But I'll meet you in the morning, farewell, oh farewell, I'll meet you in the morning, I'm bound for the promised land, On the other side of Jordan, Bound for the Promised Land." [17]
Inside slave community churches, "The message of the Invisible Church was, however articulated, God wants you free!" [18] The spiritual practices inside plantation churches (invisible churches) were African based. Enslaved and free African-Americans practiced the ring shout, spirit possession, ecstatic forms of worship, and Hoodoo. [19] African-American root workers and conjurers identified as Christian and blended Hoodoo with Christianity. To conjure healing, spirits, and protection scriptures from the Bible and prayer was used alongside roots, herbs, and animal parts. [20] William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (W. E. B. Du Bois) studied African-American churches in the early twentieth century. Du Bois asserts that the early years of the Black church during slavery on plantations was influenced by Voodooism. [21]
Historians assert that "invisible churches" were where Nat Turner planned his slave revolt in Virginia in 1831. Other slave revolts were planned in Invisible churches. Enslaved African Americans discussed escape from slavery on the Underground Railroad and planned slave revolts inside the invisible church. This practice among the enslaved population created a Hoodoo Christian church or Hoodoonized version of Christianity on slave plantations, where enslaved Africans escaped into the woods at night and practiced a blend of African spirituality with Christianity inside invisible churches. Hoodoo countered European American Christianity as enslaved African Americans reinterpreted Christianity to fit their situation in America as enslaved people. For example, God was seen as powerful and his power can help free enslaved people. This created an "invisible institution" on slave plantations as enslaved Africans practiced the ring shout, spirit possession, and healing rituals to receive messages from spirit about freedom. These practices were done in secret away from slaveholders. This was done in the Hoodoo church among the enslaved. Nat Turner had visions and omens which he interpreted came from spirit, and that spirit told him to start a rebellion to free enslaved people through armed resistance. Turner combined African spirituality with Christianity. [22] [23] African spirituality was synchronized with Christianity inside these churches that created a unique branch of Christianity among enslaved and free Black people called Afro-Christianity or African-American Christianity. [24] [25] These practices became the foundation of the Black church today. [26]
An African-American Episcopal priest, George Freeman Bragg, wrote in his historical journal the history of the Black Espical Church began as invisible churches during slavery, and after the Civil War became visible. [27] Other Christian denominations of African-American churches began during slavery starting as invisible churches. As time progressed, many African-American churches became more Christian and less influenced by Hoodoo and Vodun. However, some aspects of African rituals survived in African American Baptist churches and praise houses, [28] such as, shouting, ecstatic forms of praise and worship with singing, clapping, music with drumming and call-and-response. [29] [30]
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Slave narratives are a collection of recorded oral accounts about formerly enslaved people and their experiences of slavery in the United States. In the 1930s, the Federal Writers' Project part of the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression, provided jobs for unemployed writers to write and collect the experiences of former slaves. Writers, black and white, documented the experiences of the last generation of African Americans born into slavery. Former African American slaves told writers about their slave experience which provided readers a glimpse into the lives of the enslaved revealing the culture of African Americans during slavery. The Library of Congress has 2,300 first-person accounts from former slaves in their digital archive. From these collections, African Americans said they had secret church meetings. [31] For example, enslaved people created methods to decrease their noise when they had church. A former slave in Arkansas named John Hunter said the slaves went to a secret house only they knew and turned the iron pots face up and their slaveholder could not hear them. Enslaved people also placed sticks under wash pots a foot from the ground to decrease their noise as the sound they made during their rituals went into the pots. [32]
A former slave named Taylor said when he was enslaved, his slaveholder hired a white preacher to preach obedience into the slaves. The white preacher told them: "...Serve your masters. Don't steal your master's turkey. Don't steal your master's chickens. Don't steal your master's hawgs. Don't steal your master's meat. Do what-someever your master tells you to do." Taylor later said the slaves would have secret church meetings at night, because what the white preacher preached was not what enslaved people believed. They believed God would free them from slavery. Taylor and the other slaves prayed in a whisper so no one would hear them have church. [33]
A mojo, in the African-American spiritual practice called Hoodoo, is an amulet consisting of a flannel bag containing one or more magical items. It is a "prayer in a bag", or a spell that can be carried with or on the host's body. Alternative American names for the mojo bag include gris-gris bag, hand, mojo hand, toby, nation sack,conjure hand, lucky hand, conjure bag, juju bag, trick bag, tricken bag, root bag, and jomo. The word mojo also refers to magic and charms. Mojo containers are bags, gourds, bottles, shells, and other containers. The making of mojo bags in Hoodoo is a system of African-American occult magic. The creation of mojo bags is an esoteric system that involves sometimes housing spirits inside of bags for either protection, healing, or harm and to consult with spirits. Other times mojo bags are created to manifest results in a person's life such as good-luck, money or love.
Hoodoo is a set of spiritual practices, traditions, and beliefs that were created by enslaved Africans in the Southern United States from various traditional African spiritualities, Christianity and elements of indigenous botanical knowledge. Practitioners of Hoodoo are called rootworkers, conjure doctors, conjure man or conjure woman, root doctors, Hoodoo doctors, and swampers. Regional synonyms for Hoodoo include conjure or rootwork. As a syncretic spiritual system, it also incorporates Islam brought over by enslaved West African Muslims and Spiritualism. Scholars define Hoodoo as a folk religion. Folk religions are syncretic traditions between two or more cultural religions, in this case African indigenous spirituality and Abrahamic religion.
The legal institution of human chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States of America from its founding in 1776 until 1865, predominantly in the South. Slavery was established throughout European colonization in the Americas. From 1526, during early colonial days, it was practiced in what became Britain's colonies, including the Thirteen Colonies that formed the United States. Under the law, an enslaved person was treated as property that could be bought, sold, or given away. Slavery lasted in about half of U.S. states until abolition. In the decades after the end of Reconstruction, many of slavery's economic and social functions were continued through segregation, sharecropping, and convict leasing.
During antebellum America, a hush harbor was a place where enslaved African Americans would gather in secret to practice religious traditions.
Historically, slavery has been regulated, supported, or opposed on religious grounds.
The black church is the faith and body of Christian denominations and congregations in the United States that minister predominantly to African Americans, as well as their collective traditions and members. The term "black church" can also refer to individual congregations.
Africanisms refers to characteristics of African culture that can be traced through societal practices and institutions of the African diaspora. Throughout history, the dispersed descendants of Africans have retained many forms of their ancestral African culture. Also, common throughout history is the misunderstanding of these remittances and their meanings. The term usually refers to the cultural and linguistic practices of West and Central Africans who were transported to the Americas during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Africanisms have influenced the cultures of diverse countries in North and South America and the Caribbean through language, music, dance, food, animal husbandry, medicine, and folklore.
Religion of black Americans refers to the religious and spiritual practices of African Americans. Historians generally agree that the religious life of black Americans "forms the foundation of their community life". Before 1775 there was scattered evidence of organized religion among black people in the Thirteen Colonies. The Methodist and Baptist churches became much more active in the 1780s. Their growth was quite rapid for the next 150 years, until their membership included the majority of black Americans.
Atlantic Creole is a cultural identifier of those with origins in the transatlantic settlement of the Americas via Europe and Africa.
Solomon Bayley was an African American freed slave who is best known for his 1825 autobiography entitled A Narrative of Some Remarkable Incidents in the Life of Solomon Bayley, Formerly a Slave in the State of Delaware, North America. Published in London, it is among the early slave narratives written by slaves who gained freedom before the American Civil War and emancipation. Bayley was born into slavery in Delaware. After escaping and being recaptured, he later bought his freedom, and that of his wife and children. He worked as a farmer and at a sawmill. In their later years, he and his wife emigrated in 1827 to the new colony of Liberia, where he worked as a missionary and farmer. His short book about the colony was published in Delaware in 1833.
Albert Jordy "Al" Raboteau II was an American scholar of African and African-American religions. Since 1982, he had been affiliated with Princeton University, where he was Henry W. Putnam Professor of Religion.
The history of slavery in Kentucky dates from the earliest permanent European settlements in the state, until the end of the Civil War. Kentucky was classified as the Upper South or a border state, and enslaved African Americans represented 24% by 1830, but declined to 19.5% by 1860 on the eve of the Civil War. The majority of enslaved people in Kentucky were concentrated in the cities of Louisville and Lexington, in the fertile Bluegrass Region as well the Jackson Purchase, both the largest hemp- and tobacco-producing areas in the state. In addition, many enslaved people lived in the Ohio River counties where they were most often used in skilled trades or as house servants. Few people lived in slavery in the mountainous regions of eastern and southeastern Kentucky. Those that did that were held in eastern and southeastern Kentucky served primarily as artisans and service workers in towns.
The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South is a book written by American historian John W. Blassingame. Published in 1972, it is one of the first historical studies of slavery in the United States to be presented from the perspective of the enslaved. The Slave Community contradicted those historians who had interpreted history to suggest that African-American slaves were docile and submissive "Sambos" who enjoyed the benefits of a paternalistic master–slave relationship on southern plantations. Using psychology, Blassingame analyzes fugitive slave narratives published in the 19th century to conclude that an independent culture developed among the enslaved and that there were a variety of personality types exhibited by slaves.
The Silver Bluff Baptist Church was founded between 1774-1775 in Beech Island, South Carolina, by several enslaved African Americans who organized under elder David George.
First Baptist Church was the first Baptist church in Petersburg, Virginia; one of the first African-American Baptist congregations in the United States, and one of the oldest black churches in the nation. It established one of the first local schools for black children in the nation.
Gillfield Baptist Church is the second-oldest black Baptist congregation in Petersburg, Virginia and one of the oldest in the nation. It has the oldest handwritten record book of any black church. It was organized in 1797 as a separate, integrated congregation. In 1818 it built its first church at its current lot on Perry Street.
Slavery in Virginia began with the capture and enslavement of Native Americans during the early days of the English Colony of Virginia and through the late eighteenth century. They primarily worked in tobacco fields. Africans were first brought to colonial Virginia in 1619, when 20 Africans from present-day Angola arrived in Virginia aboard the ship The White Lion.
Caesar Blackwell (1769–1845) was an enslaved African-American preacher in Alabama, one of a number of black preachers in the South who preached to a mixed congregation. He was either bought or freed by the Alabama Baptist Association, and preached in the Antioch Baptist Church in Montgomery County, Alabama.
Slavery was legally practiced in the Province of North Carolina and the state of North Carolina until January 1, 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Prior to statehood, there were 41,000 enslaved African-Americans in the Province of North Carolina in 1767. By 1860, the number of slaves in the state of North Carolina was 331,059, about one third of the total population of the state. In 1860, there were nineteen counties in North Carolina where the number of slaves was larger than the free white population. During the antebellum period the state of North Carolina passed several laws to protect the rights of slave owners while disenfranchising the rights of slaves. There was a constant fear amongst white slave owners in North Carolina of slave revolts from the time of the American Revolution. Despite their circumstances, some North Carolina slaves and freed slaves distinguished themselves as artisans, soldiers during the Revolution, religious leaders, and writers.
Slavery as a positive good was the prevailing view of Southern U.S. politicians and intellectuals just before the American Civil War, as opposed to seeing it as a crime against humanity or a necessary evil. They defended the legal enslavement of people for their labor as a benevolent, paternalistic institution with social and economic benefits, an important bulwark of civilization, and a divine institution similar or superior to the free labor in the North.