Religion of Black Americans

Common card · No. 418440

Since the first African slaves arrived in North America, religion has likely been a powerful force in the development of African American culture and identity. However, there is little evidence of organized religion among African slaves and their descendants in the Thirteen Colonies before 1775. The Methodist and Baptist churches became more active in the 1780s. Their growth was quite rapid for the next 150 years, until their membership included the majority of Black Americans. After Emancipation in 1863, Freedmen organized their own churches, chiefly Baptist, followed by Methodists. Other Protestant denominations, and the Catholic Church, played smaller roles. In the 19th century, the Wesleyan-Holiness movement, which emerged in Methodism, as well as Holiness Pentecostalism in the 20th century were important, and later the Jehovah's Witnesses. Centuries after early Black Muslims, The Nation of Islam and el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz (also known as Malcolm X) reinvigorated Islam in the 20th...

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