A History of African American Christianity, week 4

African American Faith, Struggle, and the Civil War:

“African Americans are the children of slavery in America. And the Bible, as no other book, is the book of slavery’s children. . . . American slaves and their descendants have taken the texts of the Bible in every sense of the word: embraced them, endured them, seized them, stolen them, caught them, and captured them. . . . African Americans embraced the Bible, a poison book, because it was so effective, in measured doses, as its own antidote.” (Allen Dwight Callahan, The Talking Book: African Americans and the Bible)

  1. A basic chronology 1818 (Missouri Compromise debates) to 1861 (“Harriet Jacobs”)

  2. Maria Stewart (1803-1879)

  3. Frederick Douglass (1817-1895)

  4. Solomon Northup (1808-ca. 1863)

Hist Af Am ChristianityJoel & Karin .