• I - I lilA ( 10 17i
"Pulling Ourselves Up By Our Own Bootstraps" ... A Series
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TH in God-or hat orne call
reli ion=-amon BI c American has
h d to be a major ingredient in their ur-
, al durin th ir long period of pro­
fan type of en la ement. For, reason
nd phy ical fortitud, alon, ould
ha e en bled them to endure the
ro ant and appallin ttempts at the
d ruction of th 'r human-
Thi 'religion and a hope-filled Ii fe
focused on equity and ju tice for all in a
nation of major antith uch
America ere in parable,
Thi focus on humanism or true
bro h rhood for all is ccording to
many, th ce of ' Blac n tt
One prominent Blac churchman e -
pr it thu Iy:
instrument that developed and
nourished this religious faith of Blac
means as ... and still i ... the Blac
church and especially the Black Baptist
church. il zealously preserving their
local autonomy, these church have
oIuntarily chosen to be governed by the
consensus of the majority. To e ert a
coUecti e influence on the body politic of
the nation and to trengthen their
piritual identity, more than 3O,<XXl Bap­
ti church have come together in the
ational Baptist Convention of the
United States of America, nc., the
arg t organized body of Blac s in the
orld.
o organization of Blac Americans
h remained truer to themselv and to
other by continuing to be true to the
I ns learned from th ir legacy of
Blac n . The hi ory of thi truly
remarkable organization is Blac history
in the deepes and tru t sense, "but
also- this article with its portrait of
the ne champion of our cause will
reveal-may be the mo important in-
rument for the equitable and humane
reordering of prioriti for all element
of America.
ri
Is
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urch
the very beginnin , there
as a serious effort on the part of most
of the White churches to convert the
laves to an accommodating and/or ex­
ploitative kind of Christianity. In fact,
the salvation of Africa as one of the
earlies and mo often quoted justifica­
tions for the slave trade. Because of th
. controversial nature of the ubject and
African resistanc to European (or
hite) deception in the guise of Chris­
tianity, conversion efforts ere sporadic
and ineffective. While orne slave
masters believed that conversion to their
kind of Christianity would help to make
slaves more docile and therefore more
manag ble, other feared that religiou
or any other meetings of Africans ould
become vehicles of in urrection.
Turni P'
During the latter half of the eighteenth
century, around the time of the
American Revolution, a series of events
occurred which led to successful efforts
to spread the faith among the slaves.
First, the invention of the cot on gin and
pinning and eaving machin greatly
increased the demand for cotton and th
importation of more and more slaves.
ond, and more importantly, the
religious revival that too place allover
the country began to reach th
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