1. Place, culture, and power; 2. Land of the living; 3. African spirits of the land and water; 4. African landscapes of the Lowcountry; 5. Spiritual guardians in the wilderness; 6. Mermaid histories and power.
Examines perceptions of the natural world in ideas and practices of African-descended communities in South Carolina from the colonial period to the twentieth century.
Ras Michael Brown is Assistant Professor of History and Africana Studies at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.
'Brown brings a distinct expertise to scholarship on the religious
heritages of African-descended peoples in North America and other
regions of the Americas. His contributions to what we now know
about the African religious cultures of enslaved Africans and
African Americans on the US mainland are unparalleled. Brown breaks
with stubborn research practices and assumptive standpoints in
African-American religious history to expand our knowledge about
African-American religion before the mid-eighteenth century and to
rethink some of the established frameworks for interpreting
African-American religion since the mid-eighteenth century.' Dianne
M. Stewart Diakité, Emory University
'Prepare to be astounded! … Brown has produced a meticulous
reconstruction of the relationship between the people, land, and
religious life of the Low Country. This stellar volume transcends
the old bromides of Christianization versus retention to render a
history of nature [and] religion among African-descended peoples in
North America. The implications for the larger realm of Black
Atlantic religious history are bold and cataclysmic. Brown
traverses archaeology, history, theory, linguistics, and religious
studies to produce this highly original and theoretically
sophisticated study that will without question shape scholarship on
African-Atlantic religions for many years to come.' Sylvester A.
Johnson, Northwestern University and co-editor of the Journal of
Africana Religions
'A penetrating analysis of African and African-American agency in
the creation of African-American culture in the Carolina Low
Country! In this excellent study, Ras Michael Brown combines the
narrative skill of the historian with the conceptual rigor of the
social scientist to provide one of the most insightful and
persuasive arguments concerning the place of Central African
spiritual cultural beliefs in the creation of African-American
culture in the United States. The book should be read not only by
scholars of African-American and American history but by anyone
interested in culture and spirituality in the Atlantic world.'
Linda M. Heywood, Boston University
'This important book will be immediately useful to anyone
interested in African American cultural and religious history.'
Jason R. Young, Journal of American History
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