Overall, this week’s readings moved me to tears in a way no other weeks have. Reading that these people were denied the right to take comfort in the one thing I think no one should ever have to ask access to have or practice- religion, really shook me. But what really got to me is the fact that these people still found the time to preach patience for life through spirituals, in a show of faith that most christians these days can barely think of.

However, one part of the reading got to me in a different way. Religion and Slave Insurrection awakened feelings of guilt within me. I found myself falling into the same type of thought patterns that the white people in those days must have had, that Nat Turner was a crazy fanatic that must have been ill. In some part, I feel like my thoughts were influenced by the manner in which Turner’s thoughts were interpreted and presented: by a white man. I think it is obvious in some parts that his hatred stops him from giving an unbiased account of Turner’s childhood and religious zeal. Because of this, I felt guilty for judging Turner, and then I felt guilty for feeling guilty over judging a murderer. How could I empathize with someone who murdered mothers and children? But along that same line of thought, how could I empathize with people who went along with, and dare I say, advocated, the owning and abuse of human beings? Even typing this right now makes me feel guilty for even attempting to empathize with either, and brings back feelings of confusion.

I won’t lie, I found this week’s reading just a little dry. In comparison to last week’s readings in Sernett, there was a lot of repetition and the same underlying idea in every chapter. That’s to be expected I guess, but reading three accounts of people telling slaves the exact same things: that they are sinners, must repent, and serve god in order to be free in heaven, wasn’t all that interesting.

However, one connection that I made early on was that it seemed that the black preachers were more successful in converting and christianizing slaves. This was later on confirmed in Catechesis and Conversion, and was especially noticeable during The Great Awakening. It seems pretty obvious that slaves were more likely to be converted by people that they shared at least basic commonality with, but it’s something I’ve never learned or heard about.

Through experience, I’ve pretty much always known that there are distinct differences between attending a “black” christian church and a “white” christian church. These differences become pretty obvious when you step into a black church: the shouting, dancing, and singing being the first things you notice. But while I’ve always noticed these differences, and have been able to directly point out what they are, I’ve never stopped to think about why exactly these differences exist. If anything, before I read these books I would have thought that these differences developed during the slave days in some way, with no thought as to why or how. It literally never would have occurred to me that some of the key elements and happenings in the black church, a church I saw as strictly christian, could be remnants of pagan African traditions. Reading the general African shared beliefs in African American Religious History from the Middle Passage to the Great Awakening allowed me to see an inkling of an connection, but it wasn’t until I read about the survival of some religious beliefs and customs in places other than New Orleans in The African Diaspora, that I made the connection between African religious traditions and the going on’s of  black churches.

One connection I found particularly interesting was the resemblance between mediums of particular cults being “mounted” by the African Orishas, and the similar concept of being overcome by the Holy Spirit. Both cases could be seen as a type of possession in a sense, and in both cases the individuals respond to the demands of the spirit with singing, shouting, chanting (I can see “speaking in tongues” being along the same vein as chanting), and in particular, bodily movement. I list bodily movement last, because what really amazed me was the resemblance (or what I think is a resemblance, because I can’t actually find videos of the dance) between one technique described in  The African Diaspora that helps facilitate spirit possession in revival meetings, called “laboring in the spirit,” or trumping,  and  the dances I have seen people perform when “overcome by the Holy Spirit.” This dance obviously had to originate somewhere, and to see that it is a feature of so many African American religions is pretty interesting to me.

Anyway, I’ll end with a video that I think is pretty funny, that also shows through recognition the commonality amongs black christian churches, and what I assume to be black churches in general: