NHC Home TeacherServe Divining America 19th Century Essay:

African American Christianity, Pt. I: To the Civil War
by Laurie Maffly-Kipp, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
©National Humanities Center


Illustration Credits

Links to repositories provided in the initial listing for each.
Description
Repository/ID Information
Map, West Africa from Gabon in the south to Niger, Mali, and Mauritania in the north; French, produced by the firm Homann Erben, 1743, detail; entitled Gvinea propia, nec non Nigritiæ vel Terræ Nigrorvm maxima pars : geographis hodiernis dicta utraq[ue] Æthiopia inferior, & hujus quidem pars australis / ex delineationibus Anvillianis itineri guineensi D. de Marchais insertis secundum leges projectionis stereographicæ Hasianæ designata & edita studio & labore Homannianorum Heredum. Norimb. cum privil. S.C.M. A. 1743 – La Gvinee de meme que la plus grande partie du Pais des Negres: appellées par les geographes modernes Ethiopie inferievre & meridionale / tirées des morceaux geographiques de Mr. d'Anville, qu'il a inseres au voyage du Chev. de Marchais, & puis desinées suivant les loix de la nouvelle projection de feu Mr. le Prof. Has, par les Heritiers d'Homan A., 1743. Library of Congress, Geography & Map Division. G8735 1743 .H6 Vault.
Catholic missionary celebrating Mass, Congo, 1740s. Commentary from website The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record: "Capuchin Missionary celebrating Mass, Sogno, Kingdom of Kongo, 1740s. Source: Paola Collo and Silvia Benso (eds.), Sogno: Bamba, Pemba, Ovando e altre contrade dei regni di Congo, Angola e adjacenti (Milan: published privately by Franco Maria Ricci, 1986), p. 115. Comments: Missionary in vestments conducting mass at altar in forest clearing; several alter boys and local chief or village head ("sova") kneeling in worship in front of alter. This source in Italian is a modern printing of a 1747 manuscript (located in the Biblioteca Civica of Turin) which describes Capuchin expeditions to the Kingdom of Kongo. The watercolor paintings record moments in the daily lives of missionaries Bernardino Ignazio and Gaspare da Bassano, who were resident in Sogno from 1743-1747. Sogno (Sonyo in English) was a province of the kingdom. The illustrations and accompanying manuscript were done by Ignazio." Biblioteche Civiche Torinesi (Civic Library of Turin), Italy. Reproduced by permission.

Digital image courtesy The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record, by Jerome S. Handler (Southern Illinois University) and Michael L. Tuite, Jr. (University of Virginia Library), a project of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the Digital Media Lab at the University of Virginia Library. Image ID: sogno115.
Black African Muslims at prayer, Senegal, 1780s. Commentaroy from website The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record: "René Claude Geoffroy de Villeneuve, L'Afrique, ou histoire, moeurs, usages et coutumes des africains: le Sénégal (Paris, 1814), vol. 4, facing p. 102 (copy in Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library). Comments: Caption, 'Temple des Talbes ou Marabouts.' The Talbes, according to the author, were Moorish clerics (pretres maures) while the Marabouts (in the Wolof language called Serime) were Black Muslim clerics; the latter were disciples of the former and there was a great deal of contact between the two. Their mosques are an uncovered straw enclosure forming a long square at the end of which is found another square for those at prayer (pp. 99, 101-102). The author lived in the Senegal region for about two years in the mid-to-late 1780s; he writes that the engravings in his book were carefully made from drawings that were mostly done on the spot during his African residence (vol. 1, pp. v-vi). The same illustration appears in color in the English translation of Villeneuve; see Frederic Shoberl (ed.
Africa; containing a description of the manners and customs, with some historical particulars of the Moors of the Zahara . . . (London, 1821), vol. 3, facing p. 63 [The Library Company of Philadelphia]."
University of Virginia Library, Special Collections. Reproduced by permission.

Digital image courtesy The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record, University of Virginia Library. Image ID: VILE-102.
Funeral in Guinea, west Africa, drawn by French painter Bernard Picart, ca. 1789 (detail). Commentary from website The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record. "Source: Bernard Picart, Ceremonies et Coutumes Religieuses de tous les Peuples Du Monde (Amsterdam, 1789), vol. 1, plate 67, facing p. 131 (copy in Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library). Comments: Caption, 'CEREMONIE FUNÈBRE DES HABITANTS DE GUINéE' (funeral ceremony of the inhabitants of Guinea); shows procession, corpse carried in a litter and various members of the procession playing musical instruments. Artist's imaginative rendition, presumably based on published and/or unpublished accounts." University of Virginia Library, Special Collections. Reproduced by permission.

Digital image courtesy The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record. University of Virginia Library. Image ID: VILE-102.
Slaves baptized in a Moravian congregation, entitled "Excorcism-Baptism of the Negroes," drawing in a German history of the Moravians (United Brethen) in Pennsylvania, 1757 (detail). Commentary from website The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record: In "David Cranz, Kurze, Zuverlässige Nachricht, von der, unter den Namen der Böhmisch-Mährischen Brüder Bekannt, Kirche Unitas fratrum, (United Brethren, 1757). Comments: Moravian congregation of blacks with white ministers, shows congregation witnessing 'the ceremony in which newly baptized slaves prostrated themselves and were then embraced by their previously converted fellows.' Caption (translated): Excorcism-Baptism of the Negroes. A) the pastor leading the ceremony; B) the deacons who assist him; C) three [male] baptismal candidates; D) four female baptismal candidates; E) the Negro congregation. The geographical area has not been identified." Digital image courtesy The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record. University of Virginia Library.Image ID: NW0174. Copyright ownership, if any, undetermined from research.
House slave preaching to slaves and the plantation owner's family in a chapel built for the slaves on a cotton plantation near Port Royal, South Carolina, engraving in The Illustrated London News, 5 Dec. 1863. Source and commentary from website The Atlantic Slave Trade: "The Illustrated London News (Dec. 5, 1863), vol. 43, p. 561. Comments: A slave preaching to a congregation of slaves and the plantation owner and his family. The preacher was a house slave who could read but not write. This illustration is from a 'sketch made in a rude chapel erected for the slaves' on this cotton plantation, near Port Royal, South Carolina. 'The Methodist persuasion is the one which finds most favour among the slaves in the Southern as well as among the free Negroes in the Northern States.' (p. 574)." University of Virginia Library, Special Collections. Reproduced by permission.

Digital image courtesy The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record, University of Virginia Library. Image ID: VILE-102.
Praise house reflecting Gullah traditions with origins in African culture, on the Mary Jenkins plantation, St. Helena Island (Frogmore, Beaufort County), South Carolina, 1995. Rev. Henderson was the pastor of the praise house and lived across the street. Copyright Julia Cart, Julia Cart Photography. Reproduced by permission.
John Lewis Krimmel, Black People's Prayer Meeting, watercolor, ca. 1811, depiction of a Methodist service in Philadelphia Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, Roger's Fund, 1942. 42.95.19. Permission pending.
Raphaelle Peale, Absalom Jones, oil on paper mounted to board, 1810 Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware. Gift of Absalom Jones School, 1971. DAM #1971-8. Reproduced by permission.
Freedom's Journal, 15 March 1827, first page of the first independent African American newspaper, founded by two free black men, one a Presbyterian minister (Samuel E. Cornish) Library of Congress, General Collections, in online exhibition African American Odyssey.
Bethel A.M.E. [African Methodist Episcopal] Church, Baltimore, Maryland, interior, print, ca. 1845 (no date recorded on shelflist card); entitled "The Presentation of a Gold Snuff Box to the Rev. R.T. Breckenridge. In Bethel Church, by Rev. Darius Stokes in behalf of the colored people of Baltimore as a gift of gratitude. A.D. Decr 18th 1845" Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division. LC-USZ62-22957.
"Religious dancing of the Blacks, termed 'Shouting,'" engraving, 1872. Commentary from website The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record: "Source: Charles Stearns, The Black Man of the South (New York, 1872), facing p. 371. Comments: Although dating from the post-emancipation period, this scene is evocative of the late slave period. Only a portion of the author's detailed description is given here: 'Just before they break up, when the "spirit is upon them" . . . they engage in a kind of shaker dance, which they term singularly enough, shouting . . . . A ring of singers is formed in an open space in the room, and they, without holding on to each other's hands, walk slowly around and around in a circle . . . . They then utter a kind of melodious chant, which gradually increases in strength, and in noise, until it fairly shakes the house, and it can be heard for a long distance . . . . I know of nothing similar to this dancing or shouting, in the religious excercises of any other class of people. It is entirely unknown among the white Christians here' (Stearns, pp. 371-72)." Digital image courtesy The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record, University of Virginia Library. Image ID: Stearns.
"Lament of the Slave," (2004-05) Liberty Hymn #4) by a "Freedomite," Palladium of Liberty (freedmen's newspaper), vol. 1, issue 24, p. 1, 10 July 1844 Ohio Historical Society; image in the online collection The African American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920, Newspaper Roll #17259. Reproduced by permission.

Collection also in Library of Congress, American Memory.
Entries in account book of George Clark, overseer, Eustatia Plantation, Mississippi, 1860:
--18 March 1860 (detail)
--22 April 1860 (detail)
--25 Dec. 1860 (detail)
Ohio Historical Society; images in the online collection The African American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920. Call no: Vol649. Reproduced by permission.

Collection also in Library of Congress, American Memory.
(1) Pewter sheep figurine found near sheep remains buried in the yard of a slave cabin (evidence of African rituals involving animal sacrifice), Cherry Hill plantation, Georgia, late 1990s

(2) Intact skeleton of a sheep unearthed near a slave cabin, probably used for ritual sacrifice rather than food, Cherry Hill plantation, Georgia, late 1990s
Photographer: Dr. Thomas G. Whitley,Vice President, Brockington and Associates, Inc., Norcross, Georgia. Reproduced by permission.

Digital images courtesy the Georgia Dept. of Natural Resources, Historic Preservation Division.
Staff archaeologist Anna Agbe-Davies collecting soil from the root cellar of an 18th-century slave cabin, (former) Rich Neck plantation near Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, ca. 1995 Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Dept. of Archaeological Research. Reproduced by permission.

» Return to essay: African American Christianity, Pt. I: To the Civil War

TeacherServe Home Page
National Humanities Center Home Page
Revised: June 2005
nationalhumanitiescenter.org