Prayers and Singing: Black Christian Feminism and Antislavery Activism in Antebellum Massachusetts
Jaimie Crumley, University of Utah
During the nineteenth-century antislavery movement, activists regularly evoked the figure of the penitent woman of African descent who longed to be freed from her chains. However, the movement’s leaders consistently sidelined the voices of enslaved and free women of African descent. Although white antislavery activists opposed slavery, few of them rejected racism. Many antislavery men also rejected the idea that women could be leaders within the movement. “Prayers and Singing” argues that through their involvement in the antislavery movement in Massachusetts, Black Christian feminists helped create a new political theology. This theology insisted that Black women and their children be able to live safely and as free people.
Respondent: Catherine Adams, SUNY Geneseo
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The Religion and Culture in the Americas Seminar explores topics in religion and culture including social history, biography, cultural studies, visual and material culture, urban studies, and the history of ideas. We are interested in how religious belief has affected society, rather than creedal or theological focused studies.
The Seminar’s organizers for 2023-2024 are Christopher Allison (Dominican University), Christopher Cantwell (Loyola University Chicago), Darren Dochuk (University of Notre Dame), Karen Johnson (Wheaton College), David Lantigua (University of Notre Dame) Malachy McCarthy (Claretian Missionaries Archives), and Kevin Schultz (University of Illinois Chicago). The Religion and Culture in the Americas Seminar is co-sponsored by the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame, the McGreal Center at Dominican University, the History Department at Loyola University, the University of Chicago Divinity School, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Wheaton College.