African American Religious History: A Documentary Witness / Edition 2

by Milton C. Sernett

Overview

This widely-heralded collection of remarkable documents offers a view of African American religious history from Africa and early America through Reconstruction to the rise of black nationalism, civil rights, and black theology of today. The documents-many of them rare, out-of-print, or difficult to find-include personal narratives, sermons, letters, protest pamphlets, early denominational histories, journalistic accounts, and theological statements. In this volume Olaudah Equiano describes Ibo religion. Lemuel Haynes gives a black Puritan's farewell. Nat Turner confesses. Jarena Lee becomes a female preacher among the African Methodists. Frederick Douglass discusses Christianity and slavery. Isaac Lane preaches among the freedmen. Nannie Helen Burroughs reports on the work of Baptist women. African Methodist bishops deliberate on the Great Migration. Bishop C. H. Mason tells of the Pentecostal experience. Mahalia Jackson recalls the glory of singing at the 1963 March on Washington. Martin Luther King, Jr. writes from the Birmingham jail.
Originally published in 1985, this expanded second edition includes new sources on women, African missions, and the Great Migration. Milton C. Sernett provides a general introduction as well as historical context and comment for each document.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2900822324491
Publisher:	Duke University Press Books
Publication date:	01/17/2000
Pages:	608
Product dimensions:	6.09(w) x 9.19(h) x 1.56(d)

About the Author

Milton C. Sernett is Professor of African-American studies at Syracuse University. He is the author of several books, including Bound for the Promised Land, also published by Duke University Press.

Table of Contents

	Preface to the Second Edition	ix
	Introduction	1
I.	From Africa Through Early America
1	Traditional Ibo Religion and Culture	13
2	African Religions in Colonial Jamaica	20
3	Slave Conversion on the Carolina Frontier	25
4	"Address to the Negroes in the State of New York"	34
5	Letters from Pioneer Black Baptists	44
6	A Black Puritan's Farewell	52
II.	Slave Religion in the Antebellum South
7	Plantation Churches: Visible and Invisible	63
8	"Proud of that 'Ole Time' Religion"	69
9	Conjuration and Witchcraft	76
10	"Great Moral Dilemma"	81
11	Religion and Slave Insurrection	89
12	Slaveholding Religion and the Christianity of Christ	102
13	Slave Songs and Spirituals	112
III.	Black Churches North of Slavery and the Freedom Struggle
14	"Life Experience and Gospel Labors"	139
15	Rise of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church	155
16	A Female Preacher among the African Methodists	164
17	African Baptists Celebrate Emancipation in New York State	185
18	"Our Wretchedness in Consequence of the Preachers of Religion"	193
19	"Mrs. Stewart's Farewell Address to Her Friends in the City of Boston"	202
20	"To the Citizens of New York"	211
21	Black Churches in New York City, 1840	218
22	Protesting the "Negro Pew"	224
23	"I Will Not Live a Slave"	228
24	"Welcome to the Ransomed"	232
IV.	Freedom's Time of Trial: 1865-World War I
25	From Slave to Preacher among the Freedmen	245
26	"The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church"	251
27	Black Religion in the Post-Reconstruction South	256
28	"Education in the A.M.E. Church"	261
29	The Travail of a Female Colored Evangelist	270
30	"The Regeneration of Africa"	282
31	Emigration to Africa	289
32	The First African American Catholic Congress, 1889	296
33	1899 Presidential Address to the National Baptist Convention	301
34	Bishop C. H. Mason, Church of God in Christ	314
35	"Of the Faith of the Fathers"	325
36	"The Race Problem in a Christian State, 1906"	337
37	"What Induced Me to Build a School in the Rural District"	347
V.	From The Great Migration To World War II
38	African Methodist Episcopal Council of Bishops, Address on the Great Migration	359
39	Letters on the Second Exodus: "Dear Mary" and "My dear Sister"	364
40	Social Work at Olivet Baptist Church	368
41	Effects of Urbanization on Religious Life	372
42	Report of the Work of Baptist Women	376
43	Address to the Suehn Industrial Mission, Liberia	403
	A Letter from the "Foreign Field"	410
44	"Things of the Spirit"	415
45	"The Genius of the Negro Church"	423
46	"The Churches of Bronzeville"	435
VI.	Twentieth-Century Religious Alternatives
47	Garvey Tells His Own Story	453
48	"Organized Religion and the Cults"	464
49	Black Judaism in Harlem	473
50	"The Realness of God, to you-wards..."	478
51	Elder Lucy Smith	487
52	"Self-Government in the New World"	499
VII.	Civil Rights, Black Theology, and Beyond
53	"National Baptist Philosophy of Civil Rights"	511
54	"Letter from Birmingham Jail-April 16, 1963"	519
55	Singing of Good Tidings and Freedom	536
56	"The Anatomy of Segregation and Ground of Hope"	548
57	National Conference of Black Churchmen, "Black Power" Statement, July 31, 1966, and "Black Theology" Statement, June 13, 1969	555
58	"Black Theology and the Black Church: Where Do We Go from Here?"	567
59	"The Black Churches: A New Agenda"	580
	Index	589

Editorial Reviews

"[A]n effective tool for the study and introduction to many of the ideas, issues, and people in African American religious history. . . . [T]he . . . accessible primary source material in a concise form as an introduction to particular topics is invaluable. Those who use the text with knowledge of African American history will find it an interesting springboard for article and research topics. Others assigned to read excerpts from the text as part of course requirements will find it accessible and entertaining. In short, this is a text that has legs, so to speak, and will serve a variety of tasks quite well. . . ."
--Anthea Butler, "H-Net Reviews"

"[E]ven more useful and consonant with recent themes in the scholarly literature [than the first edition]. . . . Essential for students of American religious history."
--Paul Harvey, "Religious Studies Review"

"Sernett's book provides a masterfully 'wrapped around' selection of insights that should lead to greater appreciation of the impact of African American religious tradition on American culture as a whole."
--Nan Sumner-Mack, "Providence"

"This book remains one of the premier choices for a collection of documentary histories on African American religion. This second edition is greatly improved over the first. . . . [A]n excellent documentary collection . . . . Highly recommended for all levels. . ."
--L. H. Mamiya, "Choice"

From the Publisher