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  • Preface to the Second Edition  ix
    Introduction  1
    I. From Africa Through Early America  
    1. Traditional Ibo Religion and Culture / Olaudah Equiano  13
    2. African Religions in Colonial Jamaica / Bryan Edwards  20
    3. Slave Conversion on the Carolina Frontier / Francis Le Jau  25
    4. "Address to the Negroes in the State of New York" / Jupiter Hammon  34
    5. Letters from Pioneer Black Baptists / George Liele and Andrew Bryan  44
    6. A Black Puritan's Farewell / Lemuel Haynes  52
    II. Slave Religions in the Antebellum South  
    7. Plantation Churches: Visible and Invisible / Peter Randolph  63
    8. "Proud of the 'Ole Time' Religion" / Sister Kelly  69
    9. Conjuration and Witchcraft / Henry Bibb  76
    10. "Great Moral Dilemma" / James W.C. Pennington  81
    11. Religion and Slave Insurrection / Nat Turner  89
    12. Slaveholding Religion and the Christianity of Christ / Frederick Douglass  102
    13. Slave Songs and Spirituals / Thomas Wentworth Higginson  112
    III. Black Churches North of Slavery and the Freedom Struggle  
    14. "Life Experience and Gospel Labors" / Richard Allen  139
    15. Rise of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church / Christopher Rush  155
    16. A Female Preacher among the African Methodists / Jarena Lee  164
    17. African Baptists Celebrate Emancipation in New York State / Nathaniel Paul  185
    18. "Our Wretchedness in Consequence of the Preachers of Religion" / David Walker  193
    19. "Mrs. Stewart's Farewell Address to Her Friends in the City of Boston" / Maria Stewart  202
    20. "To the Citizens of New York" / Peter Williams  211
    21. Black Churches in New York City, 1840 / Charles B. Ray  218
    22. Protesting the "Negro Pew" / Jeremiah Asher  224
    23. "I Will Not Live a Slave" / Jermain W. Loguen  228
    24. "Welcome to the Ransomed" / Daniel Alexander Payne  232
    IV. Freedom's Time of Trial: 1865-World War I  
    25. From Slave to Preacher among the Freedmen / Isaac lane  245
    26. "The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church" / Lucius H. Holsey  252
    27. Black Religion in the Post-Reconstruction South / William Wells Brown  256
    28. "Education in the A.M.E. Church" / Daniel Alexander Payne  261
    29. The Travail of a Female Colored Evangelist / Amanda Smith  270
    30. "The Regeneration of Africa" / Alexander Crummell  282
    31. Emigration to Africa / Henry McNeal Turner  289
    32. The First African American Catholic Congress, 1889 / African American Catholics  296
    33. 1899 Presidential Address to the National Baptist Convention / Elias C. Morris  301
    34. Bishop C.H. Mason, Church of God in Christ / Elsie W. Mason  314
    35. "Of the Faith of the Fathers" / W.E.B. Dubois  325
    36. "The Race Problem in a Christian State, 1906" / Reverdy C. Ransom  337
    37. "What Induced Me to Build a School in the Rural District" / Rosa Young  347
    V. From the Great Migration to World war II  
    38. Address on the Great Migration / African Methodist Episcopal Council of Bishops  359
    39. "Dear Mary" and "My dear Sister" / Letters on the Second Exodus  364
    40. Social Work at Olivet Baptist Church / S. Mattie Fisher and Mrs. Jessie Mapp  368
    41. Effects of Urbanization on Religious Life / Lacy Kirk Williams  372
    42. Report of the Work of Baptist Women / Nannie H. Burroughs  376
    43. Address to the Suehn Industrial Mission, Liberia / Jasper C. Caston  403
    A Letter from the "Foreign Field" / Lula E. Cooper  410
    44. "Things of the Spirit" / Carter G. Woodson  415
    45. "The Genius of the Negro Church" / Benjamin E. Mays and Joseph W. Nicholson  423
    46. "The Churches of Bronzeville" / St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Clayton  435
    VI. Twentieth-Century Religious Alternatives  
    47. Garvey Tells His Own Story / Marcus Garvey  453
    48. "Organized Religion and the Cults" / Miles Mark Fischer  464
    49. Black Judaism in Harlem / Rabbi Matthew  473
    50. "The Realness of God, to you-wards..." / Father Divine  478
    51. Elder Lucy Smith / Herbert Morrisohn Smith   487
    52. "Self-Government in the New World" / Wallace D. Muhammad  499
    VII. CIvil Rights, Black Theology, and Beyond  
    53. "National Baptist Philosophy of Civil Rights" / Joseph H. Jackson  511
    54. "Letter from Birmingham Jail--April 16, 1963" / Martin Luther King, Jr.  519
    55. Singing of Good Tidings and Freedom /Mahalia Jackson  536
    56. "The Anatomy of Segregation and Ground of Hope" / Howard Thurman  548
    57. "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?" / James H. Cone  567
    59. "The Black Churches: A New Agenda" / Lawrence N. Jones  580
    Index  589

  • “[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

    “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

    “[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

    “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

    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

    “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

    “[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

    “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

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  • Description

    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.

    About The Author(s)

    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.
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