We Have Raised All of You: Motherhood in the South, 1750-1835

15. Black Spiritual Guides

205 15 . Y . Black Spiritual Guides f or decades, scholars have debated the relationship between slavery and religion, approaching this conversation from a number of angles.1 why, on the one hand, did enslaved africans and african americans in the nineteenth century convert in such large numbers to the faith of their owners, a religion that was used to justify their very enslavement?2 why did so many white masters, on the other hand, permit or even encourage their slaves to learn about a spiritual tradition that offered inspiration for the meek and contained parables pitting noble slaves against tyrannical Pharaohs?3 To what extent did slaves continue to incorporate elements of traditional african religions?4 few, however, have investigated the roles of black mothers in supporting or circumventing Christian conversions. Given mothers’ role in both african societies and american communities as conduits to the spiritual world, it makes sense that they would have significant control over how they raised the next generation of african americans as spiritual beings, choosing what religious traditions their families would adopt and how they would relate to the invisible, supernatural, or spiritual worlds around them. To address these issues, it is important to understand the deep connections between women and spirituality in many traditional african societies. Most west african religions relied on a network of spirits, ancestors, minor gods, and high gods to oversee life’s daily exigencies.5 The diversity of african religions should not be underestimated, but some common elements nonetheless occurred. Most children understood that their mothers were a primary source of spiritual wisdom, whether through communication with ancestral spirits or knowledge about Jesus Christ or Muhammad.6 in west africa, for instance, women in dahomey jointly controlled spiritual matters with men, and “queen mothers” were often responsible for importing new vodun, or minor gods, to 206 she was with me in the night supplement their town’s needs. when Christianity was adopted by a dahomean king in the late eighteenth century, it was introduced and regulated by royal women.7 among the yoruba, women helped translate the essence of the gods into concise epithets, chants, and poems.8 in Kongo, many women were mediators between the spirit world and the human world; when Christianity was introduced in the late fifteenth century, some women rejected it, objecting to the limited roles it provided for them, while others simply created expanded roles for themselves within the new system.9 women also occasionally controlled healing rituals in which medicine and religion were inextricable.10 women did not abandon this role upon reaching america, and most continued to shape their families’ religious character under slavery. Moreover, many mothers viewed both religion and morality as realms of engagement that they could influence. a mother could not promise a child that he would not be sold to traders, but she could direct his rationalization of these injustices: she could tell him the story of Moses. This sense of control, however fleeting or painstakingly justified, was crucial to surviving in a world where even faith itself was suspect. Black women daily felt the paradoxes of Christian slavery, and teaching their children to be “good” served two purposes: to protect their children’s bodies and souls under a specific system of brutality and to ensure that their own maternal values and senses of morality were being upheld within a system of punishment and reward that transcended plantation slavery. ƒ Z % one of the most challenging facets of childrearing for enslaved mothers was the issue of a moral or religious education. how does one teach a child to tell the truth, to be meek and patient, or to believe in God on the grounds of a southern plantation? Many enslaved mothers valued obedience in their children, for instance, but found it difficult to explain the difference between obedience to parents and obedience to masters. docility could help a child avoid the master’s wrath, but mothers were also careful to distinguish their own right to their children ’s respect. in spite of the hypocrisy around them, enslaved mothers consistently sought to instill in their children their own senses of right and wrong, trying to teach them the difference between being a good slave and a good person .11 while slavery affected how women approached their children’s moral 207 black spiritual guides educations, they could base their methods on those they learned from their mothers and grandmothers, who...