Religion Amongst the Slaves

By Meghan Williams

In the days of slavery, most African slaves lived their daily lives with the pagan notion that everything on earth was sacred. They had a head priest or spiritual guider within the group that usually practiced some form of Voodoo, Hoodoo, or witchcraft, to whom they would come to if any form of healing was necessary (spiritual or physical). Their Christian owners did not like this, and were quite successful at eradicating most of the pagan views that these slaves worshipped within the first generation of slaves.

Another form of religion amongst the slave community was known as the “invisible institutions.” These came about when slaves began congregating to worship the Christian way. One main way that these institutions (who were often supervised by whites) differed from their white counterparts was that these new spiritual leaders (they were not allowed to call these leaders “pastors” or “preachers” because that is what the whites were called), shouted the word of God without really knowing or reading the Bible. Both the spiritual leader and the congregation shouted with glee when hearing and learning about the Holy Spirit, which was an uncommon practice back then.

There were also slaves that refused to conform to the new ways of Christianity and who found ways to avoid these sermons. A lecture of the www.wfu.edu website stated, “Most African-Americans found their spiritual needs were best met in secret. They would gather in ‘hush arbors’ and ‘praying grounds.’ A pot would be turned over to hold in the noise, and in the safety of the wee hours or a secluded location, they could express themselves freely, and interpret their faith as they saw fit.”

Author Unknown. Lecture 12; The Religion of Slaves.          http://www.wfu.edu/~matthetl/perspectives/twelve.html. (Accessed November 14, 2010).