Gregory Nelson Hite

This course explores the diaspora of Africans to the Americas and the development of African American religious traditions in the "New World." While we will briefly discuss religious development in South America and the Caribbean, our main focus will be upon the development of the African American population in the United States. The question of how a "unified African world view" was fashioned out of the midst of diverse African and European cultures and traditions will be considered. The course will follow a historical narrative beginning in 15th century West Africa and culminate with the American Civil Rights Movement. The development of African American Christianity will play a central role in the course; however other traditions will be addressed such as The Nation of Islam and Father Divine's Peace Mission.

Goals:

1. To help students critically appreciate the religious foundations and worldviews of other cultures as well as their own. 2. To help students understand the historical method and the importance of reading, writing and thinking critically about religious traditions. 3. To guide students towards a lifelong pursuit of knowledge and engagement with the world.

Objectives 1. To be able to identify major persons, texts, trends, terms and events in American religious history. 2. To comprehend the internal logic and coherence linking various traditions' practices, history and social institutions and their development over time. 3. To understand the historiography of American religion. 4. To be willing to discuss openly and analyze critically the presuppositions of one’s world view, religious and cultural tradition or conventionally held ideas in society and to offer arguments for one's own belief and stances rather than accepting them without question. 5. To be proficient in writing analytic papers, expository essays and research papers that reflects standards of good writing and research, using appropriate literary skills.

Course Requirements:

Class participation. This is an essential component of the class. Students are encouraged to engage with the material in concert with their peers and the instructor. In order to encourage participation, each week a small number of students will be asked to take the lead in the weeks’s discussion. Failure to participate on a consistent basis in discussion is grounds for an UNSAT. Webboard postings. Each week students will respond to the week’s readings with their thoughts, questions and concerns on the webboard. These are to serve as a vehicle for discussion in class. All posts should be made by Thursday’s class.
Webboard Postings. students are required to post their thoughts on the weeks readings on the class webboard.
Discussion Leaders. Students will be chosen on a week to week basis to lead the class discussion on Thursdays
A twenty-page term paper. All papers will be due in class on the of the week specified - without exception. All papers will be Peer Reviewed. Papers not submitted on time will be given an UNSAT unless an exception has been granted by the instructor prior to the due date.

Texts:

Albert Raboteau and Timothy Fullop. African America Religion: Interpretive Essays in History and Culture. Routledge Press, 1997.

Wallace Best. Passionately Human, No Less Divine.

Michal Sobel. Trabelin' On: The Slave Journey to an Afro-Baptist Faith.

William Montgomery. Under their Own Vine and Fig Tree: The African American Church in the South, 1865-1900. LSU Press, 1993.

Schedule:

Week 1: January 31, February 2
Introduction

David Wills. “The Central Theme of American Religious History: Pluralism, Puritanism, and the Encounter of Black and White.” (in Fullop et al)
Charles Long, “Perspectives for the Study of African American Religion. In the United States.” (in Fullop et al)

Week 2: February 7, 9
Africa. The Slave Trade and America

Sidney Mintz and Richard Price, “The Birth of African American Culture.” (in Fullop et al)
Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano (E-reserve)

Week 3: February 14 [No class February16]
Slave Religion I

Albert Rabateau, “The Rule of Gospel Order,” Religious Life in the Slave Community. (E-reserve)
Bruce Jackson, “The Other Kind of Magic: Conjure and Magic in American Folk Medicine.” (in Fullop et al)
Henry Bibb. Conjure and Magic. (E-reserve)
Slave Religion in Jamaica. (E-reserve)

Week 4: February 21, 23
Slave Religion II

Albert Rabateau, “The Black Experience in American Evangelicalism: The Meaning of Slavery. (in Fullop et al)
Lawrence Levine, “Slave Songs and Slave Consciousness: An Exploration of Neglected Sources.” (in Fullop et al)
Slave Conversion in Conversion in North Carolina. (E-reserve)
Frederick Douglas. Autobiography. (E-reserve)

Week 7: February 28, March 2
The Great Awakening

Mechal Sobel, Trablelin’ On: The Slave Journey to an Afro-Baptist Faith.

Week 5: March 7, 9
Resistance and Rebellion

Vincent Harding, “Religion and Resistance among Antebellum Slaves 1800-1860.” (in Fullop et al)
Carol George, “Widening the Circle: The Black Church and the Abolitionist Crusade, 1830-1860.” (in Fullop et al)
David Walker, Appeal in Four Articles (E-reserve)
Nat Turner. Confessions. (E-reserve)

Week 6: March 14, 16
The Institutionalization of Black Religion

Will Gravely, “The Rise of African American Churches in America.” (in Fullop et al)
Timothy Fullop, The Future Golden Day of the Race: Millennialism and Black Americans in the Nadir, 1877-1901.” (in Fullop et al)
Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, “The Black Church: A Gender Perspective.” (in Fullop et al)
Richard Allen. Autobigraphy. (E-reserve)

Jarena Lee. Autobiography. (E-reserve)

Spring Break: March 21, 23

NO CLASS

Week 8: March 28, 30

Montgomery, Under the Own Vine and Fig Tree: The African American Churches in the

Week 9: April 4, 6

Iain MacRobert, “The Roots of Black Pentecostalism.” (in Fullop et al)
W.E.B. DuBois. The Souls of Black Folk. (E-reserve)

Week 10: April 11, 13
Living for the City

Michael Harris, “Conflict and Resolution in the Life of Thomas Andrew Dorsey.” (in Fullop et al)
Randall Burkett, “The Baptist Church in years of Crisis: J.C. Austin and Pilgrim Baptist Church, 1926-1950.” (in Fullop et al)

Week 11: April 18, 20
The Great Migration

Wallace Best, Passionately Human, No Less Divine:

Week 12: April 25, 27
Black Gods of the Metropolis

Hans Baer and Merrill Singer, “Toward a Typology of Black Sectarianism as A Response to Racial Stratification.” (in Fullop et al)
C. Eric Lincoln, “The Muslim Mission in the Context of Social American Social History.” (in Fullop et al)

Week 13: May 2, 4
Civil Rights

Clayborne Carson, “Martin Luther King Jr. and the African American Social Gospel.” (in Fullop)

Week 14: May 9, 11
Peer Review

Rough Draft of Term Papers Due May 9 in class
Final Paper Due May 12 by noon.