“S” is for slave religion

“S” is for slave religion. Enslaved Africans arriving in South Carolina brought their traditional belief systems with them and until the early nineteenth century Christianity only marginally affected them and their descendants. By the late 1820s slaveholders allowed, and even supported, missionary efforts to evangelize enslaved persons. Conversions occurred because eventually the power of African spirits diminished in the new environment and--Christianity offered an explanation of the suffering plight of the enslaved and a hope for the ultimate redemption. In addition, for all their differences, traditional African beliefs and Christianity had important points of convergence making the latter more easily understood. A creator God was present in both, and the Christian Trinity and angels were suggestive of a multiplicity of deities. In myriad ways slave religion created a vital psychic buffer enabling Black Carolinians to survive slavery's potentially devastating impact