Author Albert Raboteau’s book will find a place in any American religious history canon. Raboteau, being an African American himself, was able to bring out the compassion and earnestness in his cause – which is to bring to light the plight and travails of enslaved Black Americans from a religious perspective. The book is written in such a tone that it opens more profound levels of understanding and appreciation for the reader. In this way, the book is a piece of art as well as a document of history. The book succeeds in taking the reader to the original setting and milieu that forms its background. More importantly, the book adopts simple prose style that appeals to readers from all walks of life. The rest of the essay will be a summary of the central points in the book.
The book takes the form of Raboteau’s responses to some of the reactions he had experienced over the years. In line with his literary mentor Sydney Ahlstrom’s anticipation, the revival of African-American history as a field of inquiry in its own right also helped rejuvenate the allied subject of religion and history with respect to America. This is also made necessary by the fact that any attempt to trace African-American history is inevitably linked to the associated religious traditions, and likewise, “the religious history of America cannot be told adequately without incorporation of the African-American experience”.
Raboteau’s narrative gives vent to the suppressed voices of African Americans of the past, quite reminiscent of some of the narrative techniques employed by African American novelists of the eighteenth and nineteenth century. This also serves as the “central theme in other liberation theologies”, and applies in significant ways to secular as well as religious history, leading up to contemporary practices. Alongside the expression of black American sentiments, the book also notes the parallel historical events in the American continent. The fact that most of the African American immigration to America has been un-volitional is recognized through out the text.
In an attempt to explicate the true implications of “slave culture”, the author is compelled to touch upon the political aspects of religion and argues in favor of their necessity. In other words, this “creative means of continuation” of African cultural influences, frequently intertwined with European and Judeo-Christian origins, provides a sense of belonging and identity to the community, while leaving aside other aspects of slavery. The book essentially provides the necessary foundation for the oppressed masses to rebel against authority and to free themselves from the repressive mental shackles of slavery.
The author claims that the basic motivation for writing this book “was the passing-on of unwritten traditions, oral traditions no longer heard”. Also, he intends to invoke interest in the subject through conventional methodology to educate the reader. This, Raboteau believes, is the spiritual effort of contemplating about “a tradition that stands a continuing challenge to the complacency exhibited by most of Christianity”.
In respect of the task of documenting long-standing traditions, the book is quite good. The author includes hymns and songs, and anecdotes and verses, historical narratives as well as scholarly interpretations of various sources for the documentation of this little studied aspect of American religious history. Raboteau incorporates in the text extracts from native African languages in addition to adaptations by black Americans already living in the Americas. The author also depicts in depth several practices and customs, including the “ring shout and belief structures”. For instance, the preservation of aspects of African deities and gods was usually more pronounced in the South American continent when compared to the predominantly Protestant North America. Raboteau also gives different rationales for it, which takes into consideration “the greater possibility of syncretism and cross-identification of practices”. Raboteau notes that, after a while, most of the American slaves were “native-born”, while elsewhere in the world (Caribbean and Latin American regions), there was a steady and gradual influx of immigrants from the African continent.
Raboteau also delves into some of the contradictions inherent in American Christianity which uses religious conversion as a justification to enslave other people. In recent times such practices are very rare, but the primary reason for allowing the enslavement of certain communities was to make them subordinate to the faith of convenience (which in the case of African Americans was Christianity). Furthermore, there was this conception that “there were not only spiritual benefits to the slaves, but also the contact of the slaves with Western civilization was by itself a better state than that in which the people had lived as free persons”. There were hindrances for a short while in allowing slaves to convert to Christianity, for it would allow them to expect just, fair and equal treatment.
The author’s depiction of the governing institutions and the way the “invisible institution” is run is quite interesting. The public churches of the day were always surrounded by controversies as a result of their exclusive nature. The ‘invisible institution’, as the author refers to it, “existed often as a forbidden aspect”. African American slaves were allowed to participate in both black churches (the congregations of which also contained members of other racial and ethnic minorities). According to Raboteau, these congregations usually see more number of slaves, many of whom risk punishment when they join other worshippers in secluded locations.
Close to the end of the Civil War, the culture of slavery prevailing in America was to a great extent associated with Christianity, especially in the southern states. The author asserts that “the secular/sacred clash often present in the modern-day culture was present even in the slave cabins, where secular music that provided antecedents to rhythm and blues would sometimes compete with the more religious-oriented calls to worship”.
The only criticism that could be attributed to Raboteau is it emphasis on Christianity alone, while not taking into consideration other religions. Also, the author can also be criticized for not representing the viewpoints of women, especially given their significance in “the preservation of slave culture and religion”. Although these criticism in them don’t take away the many merits of the book, more revisionist history is required in this field before a complete picture of this controversial aspect of the country’s past is understood properly. In the final analysis, the book is a landmark in the quest for the true history of American minorities in general and African American Christians in particular. In this sense, it is one of the most important pieces of literature, pertaining to the political, religious and sociological evolution of America.