Rebellious Religion: Slave Christianity

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It is sometimes hard to believe that slaves could have believed that there was a higher power looking out for them, when they had struggles as large as they had. The slaves were stripped of their humanity, but they were able to keep their humanity by bonding with other slaves through their religion. The religion they adapted after crossing the Atlantic Ocean was very similar to the Christianity their slave masters’ had, but with elements from the religions of Africa. The largest element from the African religion in slave Christianity is the vocal, musical full body worship. Slave Christianity was able to give the slaves something to relate to each other with. The story about the ancestors of Abraham and their freedom from their slavery helped them hope that there could be an end of their slavery. Because Christianity gave them this hope, Christianity played a large role in the slave rebellions.

There were four large slave rebellions that had religion as a factor helping the slaves organize and inspire their rebellions. The first was organized in Gabriel Prosser, the second was organized by Denmark Vesey, the third was organized by Nat Turner, and the fourth was the Stono rebellion. There were several sections of the Bible they looked to for inspiration, three of them were Genesis 14, Exodus, and Amos 5.

Gabriel Prosser’s rebellion was planned for August of 1800 in Richmond, Virginia. The plan Gabriel and other conspirators came up with was to meet by the river by the plantation. From there they would cross the river and go into the town of Richmond. Once in Richmond they planned to kidnap the governor. The governor of Richmond at the time was James Monroe the man that would later become the fifth President of the United Sta...

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