African American Religious History: A Documentary Witness

by Milton C. Sernett (Editor)

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.

Genres: History, Religion, Nonfiction, Academic, Church, Cultural, Spirituality

608 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1985

Reviews

[Dan Gorman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary in its thematic variety and detail. I would have preferred the inclusions of writings by Malcolm X, Wallace Fard, Elijah Muhammad, members of the LDS Church, and survivors of the Jonestown debacle. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson do not appear. I would not be surprised if a future edition included Barack Obama's "A More Perfect Union." Still, this book makes African Americans the protagonists of their religious history, instead of making them supporting characters in a white-centric narrative. Younger students deserve to receive this message of black agency.

[Blair Hodges · Rating 4 out of 5]

When it all comes down to it, nothing really beats primary sources. Selection itself is an act of interpretation, of course, and the editors of this volume have attempted to include an array of voices from traditional African religions to Christianity, and peripherally Islam, Judaism, and more recent "cult" groups in the non-pejorative sense of the term. So this volume serves only as a useful introduction to a large collection of primary sources stretching from pre-Revolutionary to post-Civil Rights Era black perspectives. Importantly, its contents are relevant not merely to black religious history, however, but to American religious history in general. Each document usefully includes a short introduction and a list of further recommended reading. Well-edited.

[Jess Carr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many of the documents in this collection are excellent primary sources. However, there are still more white voices than I’d like to see - with little explanation as to whether and why the source is the only/best option. And worst of all, the short introductions are extremely flawed, with allusions to enslaved people’s “experiences and adventures” while enslaved, for example, and a tendency to treat certain practices of Christianity as more legitimate than others as well as disparaging some Black religions, such as Ibo and Obeah.

[Elissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a useful collection of primary sources for understanding African American religious history. However, I would have liked a bit more in the introductions to each text, to better contextualize the reading and guide the student. I agree also with the review that notes the lack of significant voices in this text. It would also be nice to see more interfaith/religious diversity in the texts. But as a resource that brings together primary sources from throughout history this is a useful text.

[Adrienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The black church has always been the backbone of the African American community from slavery times. It has been an institution in which African-Americans can find safety, fellowship, and education. Our greatest leaders and intellectuals have found their inspiration in the black church. This book consists of numerous first-person spiritual testaments from the requisite Olaudah Equiano to Nat Turner and Jarena Lee.