Slave Religion in North America

By the year 1810 the slave trade to the UnitedThey called the believers to hush harbor were they
States came to an end and the population of themixed freely and practiced their traditional religion.
slaves begun to increase naturally. This made way toHowever, they did this in secret because the whites
the transmission and the preservation of the religiouscould not agree because they thought that giving the
practices that were African American. The slaves inslaves the freedom to perform their religious
the slave quarters organized their own invisibleceremonies would give them a chance to plot a
institution through signal, passwords and messagesrebellion against their owners and they feared that.
that were not understood by the white.This made the white in America dictate the religion
 that then slaves were going to follow. They were
It proved very hard for the slave to preserve theirdetermined to eradicate the non-Christian customs
religion in North America. Most of the slaves livedthat the Africans professed.
under harsh conditions and they were high death 
rates, which reduced their numbers. The salves wereMaintaining the slaves was important to the whites
separated from their families and the tribal groupsand if giving the slaves the freedom to practice their
and this made it hard for them to practice. For thosereligious ceremonies was a threat then they were
who tried to practice the concrete efforts of thegoing to be denied that freedom. The civil war is the
white owners to eradicate the non-Christian customscentral event in the American history consciousness.
that saw as heathens made the preservation of theThe historical and the literary elements that were
religious tradition difficult. Traditional beliefs, rhythms,related to the civil war and to reconstruction were
isolated songs and beliefs in the in the curative powermany but the main issue was slavery and the slave
of roots and the efficacy of the world spirit and thetrade. The co existence of the slave owning south
ancestors did not survive well in the nineteenthwith the increasingly anti slavery north made a
century.conflict likely.