Wrestlin’ Jacob: A Portrait of Religion in Antebellum Georgia and the Carolina Low Country (Religion & American Culture)

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Description

 

This classic work is the most important introduction to the efforts of whites to evangelize African Americans within the antebellum South.

 

First published in 1979, Wrestlin’ Jacob offers vital insights into the intersection of black and white religious history within the South. Erskine Clarke provides two arenas—one urban and one rural—that show what happened when white ministers tried to bring black slaves into the fold of Christianity. Clarke illustrates how the good intentions—and vain illusions—of the white preachers, coupled with the degradation and cultural strength of the slaves, played a significant role within the development of black churches within the South.

 

From 1833 to 1847, Reverend Charles Colcock Jones served as an itinerant minister to slaves at the rice and cotton plantations in Liberty County, Georgia. The aim of Jones, and of the in large part Puritan-descended slave owners, was once to harvest not only good Christians but also obedient and hard-working slaves. On the same time, an identical efforts were under way in cosmopolitan Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston permitted blacks to worship only under the supervision of whites, and partially consequently, whites and blacks worshiped together in ways that would be unheard of later within the segregated South.

 

Clarke examines not only the white ministers’ motivation in their missionary work but also the slaves’ reasons for becoming part of the church. He addresses the vital issue of the continuity of African traditions with the religious life of slaves and provides a significant introduction to the larger issues of slavery and religion within the South.

 

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