Black Christianity Before the Civil War: Recommended Resources
The enslavement of an estimated ten million Africans over a period of almost four centuries in the Atlantic slave trade was a tragedy of such scope that it is difficult to imagine, much less comprehend."
So begins Albert Raboteau in Slave Religion: The "Invisible Institution" in the Antebellum South (Oxford, 1978), the benchmark work on slave Christianity. But he and other scholars have done much to help readers comprehend and imagine life for African Americans before the Civil War—without downplaying the overwhelming tragedy of the situation.
As W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington both noted, the story of the black church and black America are unalterably linked. It would be impossible to write about the black experience without reference to Christian faith. But until Raboteau's book, there were few noteworthy tomes specifically on black religion. There are more now, but scholars still lament the breadth of such works.
Some of the better books are collections of primary source material, most notably Afro-American Religious History: A Documentary Witness (Duke, 1985), edited by Milton C. Sernett. He argues that such a work "does not constitute a history of Afro-American religion," but merely serves to enable readers "to think about Afro-American religious history." It certainly does that.
A more specific collection is Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans (HarperCollins, 1994). The prayers here are less historically important, but they do serve to show the vitality of black spirituality firsthand.
The main evangelical publishers have issued disappointingly few books on black Christianity, historical or otherwise. But based on recent releases, they might be starting to come around. InterVarsity Press recently issued a few introductory works to the black experience, including No Easy Walk (1998) by Harry Louis Williams II. Baker has a similar introduction: Breaking Down Barriers (1998) by Dwight Perry.
The bigger picture
Two of the most exciting and comprehensive resources about early African-American experience are not books. One is the Microsoft's Encarta Africana (1999), a multimedia CD-ROM co-edited by Harvard's Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Kwame Anthony Appiah. With more than 3,000 articles, it's being hailed as the culmination of Du Bois's dream of such a compendium of knowledge.
The other is Africans in America, a PBS documentary series with an incredibly comprehensive supplementary website and book (Harcourt Brace, 1998). Great emphasis is placed on Christianity's role in black life, and the website (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/) includes hundreds of primary source documents, photos, and interviews with scholars to extend its narrative.
Among the nonelectronic media, however, Vincent Harding's There Is a River: The Black Struggle for Freedom in America (Harvest/ HBJ, 1981) is grand and thorough—and perhaps the most dynamic narrative on the subject. Bullwhip Days: The Slaves Remember (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988) and Remembering Slavery (New Press, 1998) are primary source collections that will both educate and haunt their readers.
Copyright © 1999 by the author or Christianity Today/Christian History Magazine.
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"Kristo wa Weusi Kabla ya Vita vya Wenyewe kwa Wenyewe: Vifaa vinavyopendekezwa ""Utumwa wa Waafrika milioni kumi katika kipindi cha karibu karne nne katika biashara ya watumwa ya Atlantiki ulikuwa msiba wa kiwango ambacho ni vigumu kufikiria, na hata kuelewa." "Albert Raboteau, mwandishi wa ""Slave Religion: The Invisible Institution in the Antebellum South"" (Oxford, 1978, toleo la Kiingereza) anaandika hivi: ""Kila mtu anaamini kwamba kuna Mungu." Lakini yeye na wasomi wengine wamefanya mengi kusaidia wasomaji kuelewa na kufikiria maisha kwa Wamarekani wa Kiafrika kabla ya Vita vya wenyewe kwa wenyewe - bila kupuuza msiba mkubwa wa hali hiyo. Kama vile W. E. B. "Basi, kama Du Bois na Booker T. Washington walivyosema, ""Hadithi ya kanisa la weusi na Amerika ya weusi ni uhusiano usioweza kubadilika.""" Ingekuwa vigumu kuandika juu ya uzoefu wa weusi bila kurejelea imani ya Kikristo. Lakini hadi kitabu cha Raboteau, kulikuwa na vitabu vichache vyenye kutokeza hasa kuhusu dini ya weusi. Kuna vitabu vingi zaidi sasa, lakini wasomi bado wanalalamika juu ya wingi wa vitabu hivyo. "Kama kitabu cha kwanza cha kitabu cha ""Afro-American Religious History: A Documentary Witness"" kilichochapishwa na Milton C. Sernan, kitabu hiki kinapatikana katika vitabu vingi." Anasema kwamba kitabu kama hicho "si historia ya dini ya Waafrika-Wamarekani", bali kinasaidia tu wasomaji "wafikirie historia ya dini ya Waafrika-Wamarekani". Bila shaka, inafanya hivyo. "Kulingana na kitabu cha ""Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans"" cha HarperCollins, kitabu hicho kinazungumzia mambo mengi kuhusu maisha ya watu wa asili ya Afrika." Maombi hapa hayana umuhimu mkubwa kihistoria, lakini yanaonyesha nguvu za kiroho za weusi. Wachapishaji wakuu wa kiinjilisti wametoa vitabu vichache vya kukatisha tamaa juu ya Ukristo wa weusi, wa kihistoria au vinginevyo. Lakini kulingana na matoleo ya hivi karibuni, wanaweza kuwa na kuanza kuja karibu. InterVarsity Press hivi karibuni ilitoa kazi chache za utangulizi kwa uzoefu mweusi, ikiwa ni pamoja na No Easy Walk (1998) na Harry Louis Williams II. "Kama ilivyoelezwa katika kitabu chake cha ""Breaking Down Barriers"" cha Dwight Perry." Picha kubwa: Rasilimali mbili za kuvutia na kamili kuhusu uzoefu wa mapema wa Waafrika-Wamarekani sio vitabu. Encarta Africana ni CD-ROM ya Microsoft iliyoundwa na Henry Louis Gates, Jr. na Kwame Anthony Appiah. Kwa kuwa ina makala zaidi ya 3,000, inaitwa kuwa kilele cha ndoto ya Du Bois ya mkusanyo kama huo wa maarifa. "Kama ilivyoelezwa hapo juu, ""Wafirika katika Amerika"" ni mfululizo wa filamu za PBS na tovuti ya ziada ya kina na kitabu (Harcourt Brace, 1998)." "Kama sehemu ya ""Ukristo katika Maisha ya Weusi,"" tovuti ya PBS ina mamia ya nyaraka za msingi, picha, na mahojiano na wasomi ili kupanua hadithi yake." "Katika vyombo vya habari vya elektroniki, hata hivyo, kitabu cha Vincent Harding ""There Is a River: The Black Struggle for Freedom in America"" (Harvest, H.B.J., 1981) ni kitabu kikubwa na kina, na labda ni kitabu chenye nguvu zaidi kuhusu suala hili." Bullwhip Days: The Slaves Remember (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988) na Remembering Slavery (New Press, 1998) ni makusanyo ya chanzo cha msingi ambayo yatakuwa wote kuelimisha na haunt wasomaji wao. Copyright © 1999 na mwandishi au Christianity Today, Christian History Magazine. Bonyeza hapa kwa habari ya kuchapisha tena juu ya Historia ya Kikristo.