Since under the
peculiar circumstances of the black man's environment they
were the one expression of his higher life, they are of deep
interest to the student of his development, both socially and
psychologically. Numerous are the attractive lines of inquiry
that here group themselves. What did slavery mean to the
African savage? What was his attitude toward the World and
Life? What seemed to him good and evil,--God and Devil?
Whither went his longings and strivings, and wherefore were
his heart-burnings and disappointments? Answers to such
questions can come only from a study of Negro religion as a
development, through its gradual changes from the heathen-
ism of the Gold Coast to the institutional Negro church of
Chicago.
Moreover, the religious growth of millions of men, even
though they be slaves, cannot be without potent influence
upon their contemporaries. The Methodists and Baptists of
America owe much of their condition to the silent but potent
influence of their millions of Negro converts. Especially is
this noticeable in the South, where theology and religious
philosophy are on this account a long way behind the North,
and where the religion of the poor whites is a plain copy of
Negro thought and methods.
Pages:
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257