In 1815, when slavery was still widely accepted in American society and often ignored by the church, George Bourne spoke out against it. He was the first American pastor to be removed from his position for opposing slavery and...
During slavery in America, one of the most dangerous acts for a Black person, especially an enslaved one, was to preach the gospel without white supervision. While Christianity was widely promoted among enslaved Africans by white slaveholders, it was...
Basil Manly Sr. was more than a Southern preacher, he was one of the most vocal and influential theological defenders of American slavery. A prominent Baptist minister, university president, and the author of the infamous Alabama Resolutions, Manly’s beliefs...
Rev. James Henley Thornwell was a prominent 19th-century Presbyterian pastor who believed that slavery was morally right and fully justified by the teachings of Christianity. A staunch supporter of the Confederacy, Thornwell argued that those who opposed slavery, particularly...
In the spiritual beliefs of the Fon people of Dahomey (present-day Benin), the universe was created not by a male god or a female goddess, but by Mawu-Lisa, a powerful deity embodying both feminine and masculine energies. Mawu and...
The Society for the Conversion of Negro Slaves was a British missionary organization established in the late 18th century, under the leadership of Anglican Bishop Beilby Porteus. Its primary aim was to replace African spiritual beliefs with Christian doctrines...
On September 13, 1860, a mob in Fort Worth, Texas, lynched a Methodist pastor named Anthony Bewley. His crime? He dared to oppose slavery in a state where even the faintest whisper of abolitionism could cost a person their...
In the brutal world of slavery, where whips tore skin and families were auctioned, and bred like cattle, the most powerful weapon wasn’t always the lash, it was the Bible. Through sermons, laws, and redacted scripture, Christianity which was...
In the year 1883, as European empires tightened their grip on Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium issued a letter to colonial missionaries that would later come to symbolize the most chilling fusion of religious evangelism and imperial conquest....
The Akan people of Ghana have a rich spiritual tradition that centers around a powerful triad of deities: Nyame, Nyankopon, and Odomankoma. Among these, Odomankoma stands out as the omnipotent creator of all things, the divine craftsman who shaped...
