Underground Railroad Church
The Underground Railroad Church is a historic name expressing and preserving the ‘invisible church’ gatherings of our enslaved Ancestors. The invisible church was invisible to the eyes of the slave masters; they were illegal ‘secret places’ where our Ancestors gathered to practice their unique ‘New Afrikan’ religion. These hidden locations allowed slaves to freely integrate their traditional African religious traditions (Akan, Bakongo, Mandinkas, Vodun, Yoruba, etc.) with Christianity.
Christianity was imposed on our captured African Ancestors after being forcibly transported to the Americas. After being exposed to Christian ideas our enslaved Ancestors began to relate to them more. Our enslaved Ancestors could relate to the Biblical stories of Pharaoh’s persecution of the Israelites and Jesus Christ suffering on the cross by Roman authority because of the similar oppressive treatment they all received. Moreover, the Bible offered our enslaved Ancestors some promising stories of hope and triumph.
The invisible church was also known as ‘Hush-Harbors’ where slaves met beneath the shelters of brush arbors; they met in the woods and in the thickets of their cabins, These meetings were held after dark once field and house chores were completed, and carried on late into the night.
In the Hush-Harbor meetings our Ancestors gathered in a circle known as ‘Ring-Shouts’ where slaves could temporarily let go of all their hardships and express their emotions. Participating in the Ring-Shout ritual played a central role in our enslaved Ancestors transmitting traditional African values and beliefs from generation to generation thus preserving history, culture, and spiritual identity throughout the extreme disruption and dehumanization of slavery.
During the ‘Ring-Shout’ ritual our Ancestors engaged in conjuring, praying, and ecstatic dancing for the purpose of remembrance, reinforcement, and emotional distress releasing - ‘lay their burdens down’ so they could humanize ‘recreate’ themselves as New Afrikans in this foreign land of racial oppression they found themselves captured and super-exploited in.
Through conjure, prayer, dance, and trance they were able to communicate with the African-Ancestral spirit(s) and became inspired. Often times the ‘Ring-Shout’ gatherings were used for freedom readiness by preparing slaves psychologically as passengers on the ‘Underground Railroad’; the arduous and dangerous task of escaping to the North.
The Underground Railroad Church is a historic name expressing and preserving the ‘invisible church’ gatherings of our enslaved Ancestors. The invisible church was invisible to the eyes of the slave masters; they were illegal ‘secret places’ where our Ancestors gathered to practice their unique ‘New Afrikan’ religion. These hidden locations allowed slaves to freely integrate their traditional African religious traditions (Akan, Bakongo, Mandinkas, Vodun, Yoruba, etc.) with Christianity.
Christianity was imposed on our captured African Ancestors after being forcibly transported to the Americas. After being exposed to Christian ideas our enslaved Ancestors began to relate to them more. Our enslaved Ancestors could relate to the Biblical stories of Pharaoh’s persecution of the Israelites and Jesus Christ suffering on the cross by Roman authority because of the similar oppressive treatment they all received. Moreover, the Bible offered our enslaved Ancestors some promising stories of hope and triumph.
The invisible church was also known as ‘Hush-Harbors’ where slaves met beneath the shelters of brush arbors; they met in the woods and in the thickets of their cabins, These meetings were held after dark once field and house chores were completed, and carried on late into the night.
In the Hush-Harbor meetings our Ancestors gathered in a circle known as ‘Ring-Shouts’ where slaves could temporarily let go of all their hardships and express their emotions. Participating in the Ring-Shout ritual played a central role in our enslaved Ancestors transmitting traditional African values and beliefs from generation to generation thus preserving history, culture, and spiritual identity throughout the extreme disruption and dehumanization of slavery.
During the ‘Ring-Shout’ ritual our Ancestors engaged in conjuring, praying, and ecstatic dancing for the purpose of remembrance, reinforcement, and emotional distress releasing - ‘lay their burdens down’ so they could humanize ‘recreate’ themselves as New Afrikans in this foreign land of racial oppression they found themselves captured and super-exploited in.
Through conjure, prayer, dance, and trance they were able to communicate with the African-Ancestral spirit(s) and became inspired. Often times the ‘Ring-Shout’ gatherings were used for freedom readiness by preparing slaves psychologically as passengers on the ‘Underground Railroad’; the arduous and dangerous task of escaping to the North.