Through the Storm, Through the Night: A History of African American Christianity

229 Pages·2011·0.55 MB·English

by  Paul Harvey

Through the Storm,
Through the Night
BBooookk 11..iinnddbb ii 66//1155//1111 44::5555 AAMM
The African American History Series
Series Editors:
Jacqueline M. Moore, Austin College
Nina Mjagkij, Ball State University
Traditionally, history books tend to fall into two categories: books academics write
for each other, and books written for popular audiences. Historians often claim that
many of the popular authors do not have the proper training to interpret and evalu-
ate the historical evidence. Yet, popular audiences complain that most historical
monographs are inaccessible because they are too narrow in scope or lack an engag-
ing style. This series, which will take both chronological and thematic approaches
to topics and individuals crucial to an understanding of the African American ex-
perience, is an attempt to address that problem. The books in this series, written in
lively prose by established scholars, are aimed primarily at nonspecialists. They focus
on topics in African American history that have broad significance and place them
in their historical context. While presenting sophisticated interpretations based on
primary sources and the latest scholarship, the authors tell their stories in a succinct
manner, avoiding jargon and obscure language. They include selected documents
that allow readers to judge the evidence for themselves and to evaluate the authors’
conclusions. Bridging the gap between popular and academic history, these books
bring the African American story to life.
Volumes Published
Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, and the Struggle for Racial Uplift
Jacqueline M. Moore
Slavery in Colonial America, 1619–1776
Betty Wood
African Americans in the Jazz Age: A Decade of Struggle and Promise
Mark Robert Schneider
A. Philip Randolph: A Life in the Vanguard
Andrew E. Kersten
The African American Experience in Vietnam: Brothers in Arms
James Westheider
Bayard Rustin: American Dreamer
Jerald Podair
African Americans Confront Lynching: Strategies of Resistance
Christopher Waldrep
Lift Every Voice: The History of African-American Music
Burton W. Peretti
To Ask for an Equal Chance: African Americans in the Great Depression
Cheryl Lynn Greenberg
The African American Experience during World War II
Neil A. Wynn
Through the Storm, Through the Night: A History of African American Christianity
Paul Harvey
BBooookk 11..iinnddbb iiii 66//1155//1111 44::5555 AAMM
Through the Storm,
Through the Night
A History of African American Christianity
Paul Harvey
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, inc.
Lanham (cid:129) Boulder (cid:129) New York (cid:129) Toronto (cid:129) Plymouth, UK
BBooookk 11..iinnddbb iiiiii 66//1155//1111 44::5555 AAMM
Published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
http://www.rowmanlittlefield.com
Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2011 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Harvey, Paul, 1961-
Through the storm, through the night : a history of African American Christianity /
by Paul Harvey.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 195–201).
ISBN 978-0-7425-6473-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. African Americans—Religion. 2. United States—Church history. I. Title.
BR563.N4H3783 2011
277.3’0808996073—dc22
2011006486
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
BBooookk 11..iinnddbb iivv 66//1155//1111 44::5555 AAMM
For Suzi
BBooookk 11..iinnddbb vv 66//1155//1111 44::5555 AAMM
BBooookk 11..iinnddbb vvii 66//1155//1111 44::5555 AAMM
(cid:2)
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction Themes in African American Religious History 1
Chapter 1 Middle Passage for the Gods: African and African
American Religions from the Middle Passage to the
Great Awakening 9
Chapter 2 The Birth of Afro-Christianity in the Slave Quarters
and the Urban North, 1740–1831 29
Chapter 3 Through the Night: African American Religion in
the Antebellum Era 49
Chapter 4 Day of Jubilee: Black Churches from Emancipation
to the Era of Jim Crow 69
Chapter 5 Jesus on the Main Line: Black Christianity from
the Great Migration through World War II 87
Chapter 6 Freedom’s Main Line: African American
Christianity, Civil Rights, and Religious Pluralism 109
Epilogue Righteous Anger and Visionary Dreams:
Contemporary Black Religion, Politics, and Culture 133
Primary Source Documents 139
vii
BBooookk 11..iinnddbb vviiii 66//1155//1111 44::5555 AAMM
viii (cid:2) Contents
Notes 185
Glossary of Key Terms 191
Bibliographic Essay 195
Chronology 203
Index 207
About the Author 217
BBooookk 11..iinnddbb vviiiiii 66//1155//1111 44::5555 AAMM
Acknowledgments
Thanks first must go to Nina Mjagkij and Jacqueline Moore, who solicited
me to write this volume, encouraged me throughout, and then worked over
every detail of this book (“sort of like a Waring blender,” as Warren Zevon
once wrote) with unflagging energy.
Leon Litwack first sparked my interest in African American history, and
participation in a 1998 National Endowment for the Humanities seminar
at the Du Bois Institute of Harvard on Teaching the History of the Civil
Rights Movement, led by Waldo Martin and Pat Sullivan, furthered some of
the ideas presented in this book. So did conversations with too many histo-
rians and religious studies scholars to mention here, but a special shout out
to Anthea Butler, Jonathan Walton, Sylvester Johnson, Tracy Fessenden,
Curtis Evans, Albert Raboteau, Patrick Rael, Joanna Brooks, Kelly J. Baker,
Randal Jelks, and Yvonne Chireau, whose work has been particularly influ-
ential for me.
From 2007 to 2009 I was fortunate to lead (together with Amanda Por-
terfield) a class of Young Scholars in American Religion through a series of
seminars that were personally and professionally transformative. For that, I
thank my scholarly co-conspirator Philip Goff of Indiana University-Purdue
University Indianapolis, who so skillfully directs the Center for the Study of
Religion and American Culture, and the peerless group in that “class” who
enriched my life in every way: Edward J. Blum, Randall Stephens, Becky
Goetz, Kate Carte Engel, Kathryn Lofton, J. Spencer Fluhman, Charles
Irons, Tisa Wenger, Darren Dochuk, and (last but not least) Matthew Avery
ix
BBooookk 11..iinnddbb iixx 66//1155//1111 44::5555 AAMM