Origins Of American Culture: Modern Day Slave Religion

Words: 1904
Pages: 8

Kaylan Vasquez
Professor Susan Schwartz
Origins of America Civilization-U02
30 March 2015
Modern Day Slave Religion In modern day culture, several varieties of religions have been accepted. Every religion originates from different parts of the world and has different beliefs and customs. This paper will expand on the religion that originated from African Slaves during the slavery period. It will explain how African religion is still around today and how it influences our modern culture. In the beginning of American times Africans were brought to America and made slaves, they were considered the property of white people. White people looked down on the slaves because they believed that black skin color was an unnatural thing making them another species. Slave owners claimed that slavery was acceptable under the will of god. The biblical justification for slavery that was used was the “Curse of Ham”, where all the children of Ham were meant to be slaves. Since the black people were segregated, this gave them an opportunity to keep their cultural background and customs (Mitchem).
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The way Africans viewed religion can be considered holistic because to them life never ends it always continues. When Africans died it was considered to them a release to the next level of existence. In Western European religions the human body and soul are considered two spate things, when you die your body is left behind but your spirit is alive. To the westerners the “holy” was the men, the soul, the white, and the divine. They believed that the “evil” would be considered the black people, the body, and the women. Classifying the black people as evil would make it impossible for black to be considered