Whitney Swaim - African Americans (Outside Reading 3)

Steve Vaughn's article, Making Jesus Black: The Historiographical Debate on the Roots of African-American Christianity, discusses the transition of Africans to America during the slave trade. Additionally, Vaughn explores various reasons why Africans adopted slavery and made it their own. A well-put quote from the article states that these people, “far from being childlike people drawn from the lowest ranks of an underdeveloped society, African slaves left behind a sophisticated social structure and carried with them their languages, world views, and values” (p. 26). As a result of their oral traditions, the Africans did not need to carry anything with them to retain their culture. Although they had been stolen from their homelands, which held much of their religiosity, these oral people still had much more depth to them than Westerners imagined. There are both pros and cons of this situation, however. On the positive side, African Americans have been able to form a culture over time that unified them under their struggles. They have brought a spiritual side to Christianity that is quite inspiring. Contrastingly, it is horrible that white Americans tried to stamp out African religions. I imagine that this nation would be much different, had we been more charitable to the unique cultures of primal people, particularly the early Africans.