When were ex-slaves in America first introduced to Christianity, not until after

[Roberta]

the cilvil war? I could only find this one pamphlet written in 1884, but it doesn't say what/when states adopted a formal policy of converting their former slaves.

http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/jones/jones.html
Sorry...1842 it was proposed to educate slaves on Christianity

 

[PROBLEM JPAS A.R.T.]

No, there were black churches on some plantations.

 

[shirleykins]

Come on! The American way would be to do that as families, as that is precisely how it began, I am sure.

 

[lynn]

As soon as they came over here, I think

 

[J. Douglas Wolfe]

It says right in your pamphlet that Africans were instructed in Christianity way back in the 1600s. Many slaveowners tried to make their slaves Christians. In part this was to help the owners feel better about what they were doing. They deluded themselves with the belief that they were 'helping' or 'saving' their captives.

Many slaves pretended to adopt the outer trappings of their owners churches, while mixing in elements of the faith practices that they brought with them from Africa. These churches exist today. Later mixing of elements from these churches into mainstream white churches has given American protestantism some of its unique flavor.

So there is no 'first' instance of African Americans being introduced to Christianity. By the end of the Civil War it was mixed together.

 

[bean]

I'm sure they wasted no time reading them the parts condoning slavery.

 

[Not a meme]

Many slave songs involve Christian references, so I would say it was an immediate part of slave culture. As well, the biblical theory of Hamitic races was central to the slave trade and so the Africans were probably educated in this so that they would know their cosmic place as slaves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_Ham

 

[James O]

There were slave preachers and meetings long before abolition
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, for example, was organized by the early 19th century

 

[XaurreauX]

There is evidence that slaves began to adopt their masters' religion almost from the time they were first kidnapped from Africa.