LISTEN: Colonial Enterprise in the Caribbean, Part 2; An Arena of Political Life; Lack of a Proper Male Image (The History of Black Americans and the Black Church #45 with Daniel Whyte III)

Our Scripture verse for today is Job 19:25 which reads: “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.”

In this podcast, we are using as our texts: From Slavery to Freedom, by John Hope Franklin, The Negro Church in America by E. Franklin Frazier, and The Black Church In The U.S. by William A. Banks. If you enjoy this podcast, please feel free to purchase any one of these books from our website.

Our first topic for today is titled “Colonial Enterprise in the Caribbean, Part 2” from the book, “From Slavery to Freedom” by John Hope Franklin.

The rivalry among European countries for control of the islands in the 17th century presaged the more intense rivalry for hegemony on the mainland that was to develop during the following century. Spain, of course, had prior claim to the islands, thanks to the explorations of its sailors in the 15th century and the papal arrangement of 1493. The Spaniards took advantage of this position by channeling their energies and capital into development of their insular possessions, the most important of which were Cuba, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, and Jamaica. Although they were to lose some of these and other islands in various conflicts, they nevertheless made the most of their holdings by producing staple crops, especially tobacco and sugar, with slave labor. Early in the 16th century, large consignments of slaves went to the Spanish islands. In 1518, for example, the king of Spain granted a trader the right to ship 4,000 Africans to the Spanish islands. By 1540, the annual importation had reached approximately 10,000. Moreover, an illicit trade of indeterminate size was already developing.

The breaking of the Spanish monopoly in the Caribbean was closely connected with the slave trade. What the English first sought was an opportunity to share in the Caribbean trade, which, during the early years of Elizabeth’s reign, already gave promise of being decidedly profitable. When Spain rejected this bid, the English, led in both thought and action by John Hawkins, decided that the monopoly could be broken only by force. Hawkins planned to take slaves to the New World with the hope that the colonists’ desire for them would be sufficient to overcome their respect for the royal ban on unlicensed trade. The pattern that he set in selling slaves and other African goods at Hispaniola in 1563 was eagerly followed by other and less discreet English imitators, who were summarily arrested and punished by Spanish officials on the island. Although, for the moment, Spain had checked the encroachment of Hawkins and others, it was only a matter of time before Spain would have to yield valuable ground in regard both to the commercial and the territorial monopoly it had enjoyed.

If the Lord tarries His coming and we live, we will continue looking at this topic in our next episode.

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Our second topic for today is “The Negro Church: A Nation Within a Nation, Part 14” from The Negro Church in America by E. Franklin Frazier.

— An Arena of Political Life, Continued

It should be noted that of the twenty Negroes elected to the House of Representatives of the United States from the South during the Reconstruction period only two were preachers, but one of the two Negroes who were elected to the Senate was a preacher. Senator Hiram R. Revels, one of the two Negroes elected from Mississippi, was born a free Negro in North Carolina in 1822. He moved to the North and was ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. When the Civil War broke out he assisted in organizing two Negro regiments in Maryland. He worked with the Freedmen’s Bureau and, like other preachers, engaged in the establishment of churches and schools before entering politics in Mississippi. Revel’s career in politics, like that of other Negro preachers was of short duration because of the re-establishment of white supremacy in the South. After elimination from politics in the South, the Negro preachers generally devoted themselves to their church though in some cases they became heads of Negro schools.

If the Lord tarries His coming and we live, we will continue looking at this topic in our next episode.

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Our third and final topic for today is from “The Black Church in the U.S.: Its Origin, Growth, Contributions, and Outlook” by Dr. William A. Banks.

Today we are looking at part 14 of Chapter 4: “Reconstruction and Retaliation — 1866 to 1914”

We continue looking at the LACK OF A PROPER MALE IMAGE

As the economic situation improved, relatively speaking, some Negro men began assuming their rightful, God-given position of authority in the home. Here the growth of the Negro church helped. Frazier credits the new economic position of the male as a major factor in establishing family life, admitting this gain was consolidated by the moral support of the Negro church. Slowly but surely the leadership of the male emerged; since preachers were men in authority, this helped to create within the community a better black- male image. A close relationship still existed between family-life organization and church organization. Loose, immoral sex and broken-family behavior are not changed overnight, but the Negro church played a major role in improving the sex behavior of its members.

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If the Lord tarries His coming and we live, we will continue looking at this topic in our next episode.

Let’s have a word of prayer.

In closing, allow me to say that like many of you, I grew up in a very religious and church-going family, and during that time, I often heard the phrase “Being Saved.” Now, much of what the church people whom I grew up around said “being saved” was I now know is wrong according to the Bible. For example, joining the church, being baptized, doing good things, or being a good person does not mean you are saved. I wrote an article about this matter titled “On ‘Being Saved’ in Black America” which is available for you to read free of charge on our website, gospellightsociety.com. Right now, I want to share with you very briefly what the Bible says “being saved” really is.

First, understand that you need to be saved because you are a sinner. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”

Second, understand that a horrible punishment eternal Hell awaits those who are not saved. In Matthew 25:41, Jesus Christ said that God will say to those who are not saved, “depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

Third, realize that God loves you very much and wants to save you from Hell. John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

If you want to be saved from Hell and be guaranteed a home in Heaven, simply believe in Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose from the dead for your sins, and then call upon the Lord in prayer and ask Him to save your soul. And believe me, He will.

Romans 10:9-13 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

If you do that today, then you can truly sing in the words of the Old Negro spiritual: Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty I’m free at last.

Until next time, may God richly bless you.

Daniel Whyte III has spoken in meetings across the United States and in over twenty-five foreign countries. He is the author of over forty books including the Essence Magazine, Dallas Morning News, and Amazon.com national bestseller, Letters to Young Black Men. He is also the president of Gospel Light Society International, a worldwide evangelistic ministry that reaches thousands with the Gospel each week, as well as president of Torch Ministries International, a Christian literature ministry.

He is heard by thousands each week on his radio broadcasts/podcasts, which include: The Prayer Motivator Devotional, The Prayer Motivator Minute, as well as Gospel Light Minute X, the Gospel Light Minute, the Sunday Evening Evangelistic Message, the Prophet Daniel’s Report, the Second Coming Watch Update and the Soul-Winning Motivator, among others.

He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology from Bethany Divinity College, a Bachelor’s degree in Religion from Texas Wesleyan University, a Master’s degree in Religion, a Master of Divinity degree, and a Master of Theology degree from Liberty University’s Rawlings School of Divinity (formerly Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary). He is currently a candidate for the Doctor of Ministry degree.

He has been married to the former Meriqua Althea Dixon, of Christiana, Jamaica since 1987. God has blessed their union with seven children.

LISTEN: One Way Passage, Part 3; The Church & Education; Reconstruction and Retaliation, Part 11 (The History of Black Americans and the Black Church #42 with Daniel Whyte III)

Our Scripture verse for today is Isaiah 53:5-6 which reads: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Our History of Black Americans and the Black Church quote for today is from Lee June, a professor at Michigan State University and the author of the book, “Yet With A Steady Beat: The Black Church through a Psychological and Biblical Lens.” He continues discussing statements which are frequently heard in the black church which he calls “innocent but dangerous.” The third such statement is: “When praises go up, blessings come down.” Lee June says, “This phrase has become increasingly popular. The possible innocent aspect of the statement is that praises can in certain contexts lead to blessings. Usually the phrase is uttered near the conclusion of a sermon or during a devotional service. The intent of the statement is to elicit more outward expressions of praises from the individuals in attendance. It is often uttered in situations that also elicit the earlier statement ‘anything dead ought to be buried.’ The detrimental aspect of the statement is that it can lead a person to believe that the only way to receive blessings is through praise. Biblically speaking, praises properly uttered can and do lead to blessings. The other potential detrimental aspect of this phrase is that it ignores the fact that blessings can come from various sources. For example, blessings can result from walking upright and from tithing, just to name two instances. The statement further ignores the reality that the nonbeliever also reaps some form of blessings. For in Matthew 5:45 it is stated that ‘he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.’”

Our first topic for today is titled “One Way Passage, Part 3” from the book, “From Slavery to Freedom” by John Hope Franklin.

It is not possible to give an accurate figure of the number of slaves imported into the New World from Africa. In eleven years, from 1783 through 1793, Liverpool traders alone were responsible for the importation of over 303 thousand, while in the following eleven years they were certainly responsible for as many more. While the closing years of the 18th century represented the peak in the slave trade, the preceding two centuries showed a steady increase leading to the apogee reached in the 1790s.

In 1861, Edward E. Dunbar made estimates of the number of slaves imported into the New World, and these figures were widely accepted during the following century. He estimated that 887,500 were imported in the 16th century, 2.75 million in the 17th century, 7 million in the 18th century, and 3.25 million in the 19th century. In 1936, R.R. Kuc-zyn-ski estimated that 14.6 million Africans had been imported into the New World. In 1969, Philip D. Curtin challenged these estimated. Basing his findings on exhaustive studies of records of slavers, records of slave importations, slave populations in the New World at various times, regional and ethnic origins of slaves imported into the New World, and other pertinent data, Curtin estimated that 241,400 slaves were imported in the 16th century, 1.3 million in the 17th century, 6 million between 1701 and 1810, and 1.8 million between 1810 and 1870. His estimate of the total number imported between 1451 and 1870 is 9.5 million. Curtin’s figures were in turn challenged by J.E. Inikori, who insisted that the evidence “very strongly suggests a substantial upward revision of the estimates that Curtin made.” Declining to give a total figure for the entire slave-trading period, Inikori pointed out that while Curtin’s estimate for British exports between 1750 and 1807 was 1.6 million, his own research led him to conclude that the figure was at least 2.3 million. It is obvious that Inikori would place the total estimates much higher than the 9.5 million estimated by Curtin.

In view of the great numbers of Africans who must have been killed while resisting capture, the additional numbers who died during the middle passage, and the millions who were successfully brought to the Americas, the aggregate approaches staggering proportions. The figures, whether Dunbar’s, Kuc-zyn-ski’s Curtin’s, or Inikori’s, are a testimonial to the fabulous profits realized in such a sordid business, to the ruthlessness with which the traders must have pursued it, and to the tremendous demands made by New World settlers for laborers. Perhaps poet Leopold Sedar Senghor, first president of the republic of Senegal, best summed it up when he declared that the slave trade “ravaged black Afrca like a brush fire, wiping out images and values in one vast carnage.

If the Lord tarries His coming and we live, we will continue looking at this topic in our next episode.

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Our second topic for today is “The Negro Church: A Nation Within a Nation, Part 11” from The Negro Church in America by E. Franklin Frazier.

— We continue looking at The Church and Education

Colleges maintained by the Negro church denominations have never attained a high level as educational institutions. They have generally nurtured a narrow religious outlook and have restricted the intellectual development of Negroes even more than the schools established for Negroes by the white missionaries. This has been due only partly to lack of financial resources. It hardly needs to be emphasized that there was no intellectual tradition among Negroes to sustain colleges and universities. The attendance of Negro students at private colleges has reflected the social stratification of the Negro community. The children of the upper class in the Negro community have generally attended the school established by the Congregational Church and the better type of schools supported by the white Methodists and Baptists for Negroes. Nevertheless, the Negro church has affected the entire intellectual development and outlook of Negroes. This has been due both to the influence of the Negro church which has permeated every phase of social life and to the influence of the Negro preacher whose authoritarian personality and anti-intellectualism has cast a shadow over the intellectual outlook of Negroes.

If the Lord tarries His coming and we live, we will continue looking at this topic in our next episode.

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Our third and final topic for today is from “The Black Church in the U.S.: Its Origin, Growth, Contributions, and Outlook” by Dr. William A. Banks.

Today we are looking at part 11 of Chapter 4: “Reconstruction and Retaliation — 1866 to 1914”

— FAMILY LIFE

As already mentioned, prior to enslavement, the Negroes’ African forebears practiced polygamy, but it was still a type of marriage — legal and useful in stabilizing society. But as slaves in America, there was neither legal nor religious sanction of marriage. Promiscuity is perhaps the best word to describe the moral situation. Another development which took place in slavery was the creation of the matriarchy. Circumstances of the times helped to create a society which centered around the mother or some other woman on the plantation. As it was, male and female just mixed together and any children born of these unions usually remained with the mother.

The father was just a visitor; he was without legal or recognized status. In general, the white slave masters had little regard for mother-child relationships and practically no regard for father-child relationships. It meant nothing to snatch away a man and sell him elsewhere. Even where the father attempted to remain loyal to his mate and children, there was the threat that he would be separated and sold elsewhere.

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If the Lord tarries His coming and we live, we will continue looking at this topic in our next episode.

Let’s have a word of prayer.

First, understand that you need to be saved because you are a sinner. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”

If you do that today, then you can truly sing in the words of the Old Negro spiritual: Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty I’m free at last.

Until next time, may God richly bless you.

He has been married to the former Meriqua Althea Dixon, of Christiana, Jamaica since 1987. God has blessed their union with seven children.

LISTEN: One Way Passage, Part 2; The Church & Education; Reconstruction and Retaliation, Part 10 (The History of Black Americans and the Black Church #41 with Daniel Whyte III)

Our Scripture verse for today is 1 John 1:9 which reads: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Our History of Black Americans and the Black Church quote for today is from Lee June, a professor at Michigan State University and the author of the book, “Yet With A Steady Beat: The Black Church through a Psychological and Biblical Lens.” He continues discussing statements which are frequently heard in the black church which he calls “innocent but dangerous.” The third such statement is: “I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold.” Lee June says, “While these words are from a song, they are often uttered in other contexts and can have both a positive and negative meaning. The negative side of the statement exemplifies itself when one desires to show how special their relationship with Jesus Christ is and/or their dependence on Him. This desire is admirable. However, many times when the person utters these words, he or she is simultaneously flashing a gold watch or ring or is wearing a gold or silver necklace or arm bracelet. The person may also be driving a luxury automobile and have an expensive house. This statement can be detrimental when one does not see the contradiction in what one is saying and modeling. It can thus convey bad theology and suggest to the believer who is not well-grounded or mature to believe or feel that material possessions are in and of themselves bad, or it can imply that the Bible is totally against riches. While Jesus warned against riches, He did not reject riches (silver and gold) outright.”

Our first topic for today is titled “One Way Passage, Part 2” from the book, “From Slavery to Freedom” by John Hope Franklin.

To further illustrate the living hell that slaves endured, some captured females were in their first or second trimester of pregnancy and these mothers were forced to deliver their children in this deplorable environment. A lot of Africans screamed and moaned to the point that these sounds were considered normal to the European captain of the ship; thus a woman could die after a natural and normal birthing of a child because no one would or could assist her with the removal of the placenta. Often, the crying babies’ screams could not be heard over the screams of the adult sufferers. Ship workers did not want the responsibility of taking care of a baby, and African babies were often thrown overboard despite the pain and agony the mother would feel.

European ship workers complained about the smell of the African while on the slave ship, despite the African’s inability to wash, bathe, dispose of bodily waste, and appropriately bury dead bodies. There were brief interludes on deck, for exercise, which was necessary for the prevention of bed-sores and stiffening of the joints. Smallpox and flux, the diseases associated with filth, were among the most common and often were lethal.

Despite difficulties with language, ship captains learned to export slaves from different tribes with different languages so as to avoid mutinous collaboration among the slaves. Despite the many precautions to avoid a rebellion, some Africans managed to successfully hijack ships. But very few could navigate the Ocean, and these ships were lost at sea. Other Africans committed suicide by either jumping off the ship or by rebelling to the point where the slave trader shot him dead. Many Africans died from disease and heartache, and many of the dead were left lying next to a living African for days. The death toll associated only with the middle passages is estimated in the millions. No one knows for sure because ship captains did not want their reputations tarnished by reports of them not having control over their ship, their crew, or their cargo. Therefore, the alteration of records was a widespread practice.

If the Lord tarries His coming and we live, we will continue looking at this topic in our next episode.

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Our second topic for today is “The Negro Church: A Nation Within a Nation, Part 10” from The Negro Church in America by E. Franklin Frazier.

— We continue looking at The Church and Education

The impetus among Negroes to build institutions of higher education was due primarily to their need for an educated ministry. But the desire on the part of the masses for an educated ministry was far from universal. The masses of Negroes were still impressed by the ignorant and illiterate minister who often boasted that he had not been corrupted by wicked secular learning. Soon after the “invisible institution” of the slaves was integrated into the institutional church, it was feared that a schism would occur in the African Methodist Episcopal Church as the result of the conflict between the ignorant and intelligent elements in the church. Nevertheless, the African Methodist Episcopal Church succeeded in establishing a number of so-called colleges and universities. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church also established schools. The Baptists had to depend upon local efforts. In South Carolina the Negro Baptists who became dissatisfied with the white control of the college for Negroes finally established their own school.

If the Lord tarries His coming and we live, we will continue looking at this topic in our next episode.

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Our third and final topic for today is from “The Black Church in the U.S.: Its Origin, Growth, Contributions, and Outlook” by Dr. William A. Banks.

Today we are looking at part 10 of Chapter 4: “Reconstruction and Retaliation — 1866 to 1914”

— FRUSTRATING SECULAR CONDITIONS, Continued

Writing in 1903, W.E.B. DuBois summarized: “The Negro church of today is the social center of Negro life in the U.S., and the most characteristic expression of African character. Take a typical church in a small Virginia town: It is the ‘First Baptist’, a roomy brick edifice seating five hundred or more persons. Tastefully finished in Georgia pine, with a carpet, small organ, and stained-glass windows. Underneath is a large assembly room with benches, This building is the central clubhouse of a community of a thousand or more Negroes.

“Various organizations meet there — the church proper, the Sunday School, two or three insurance societies, secret societies, and mass meetings of various kinds. Entertainment, suppers, and lectures are held besides the five or six regular weekly religious services. Considerable sums of money are collected and expended here, employment is found for the idle, strangers are introduced, news is disseminated and charity distributed. At the same time, this social, intellectual, and economic center is a religious center of great power.

“Depravity, Sin, Redemption, Heaven, Hell, and Damnation are preached twice a Sunday with much fervor; and revivals take place every year after the crops are laid; and few indeed of the community have the hardihood to withstand conversion. Back of this more formal religion, the Church often stands as a real conserver of morals, a strengthener of family life, and the final authority on what is Good and Right. Thus one can see in the Negro Church today, reproduced in microcosm, all that great world from which the Negro is cutoff by color prejudice and social condition.”

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If the Lord tarries His coming and we live, we will continue looking at this topic in our next episode.

Let’s have a word of prayer.

First, understand that you need to be saved because you are a sinner. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”

If you do that today, then you can truly sing in the words of the Old Negro spiritual: Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty I’m free at last.

Until next time, may God richly bless you.

He has been married to the former Meriqua Althea Dixon, of Christiana, Jamaica since 1987. God has blessed their union with seven children.

LISTEN: One Way Passage, Part 1; The Church & Education; Reconstruction and Retaliation, Part 9 (The History of Black Americans and the Black Church #40 with Daniel Whyte III)

One Way Passage, Part 1; The Church & Education; Reconstruction and Retaliation, Part 9 (The History of Black Americans and the Black Church #40)

Our Scripture verse for today is 1 Peter 3:15 which reads: “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.”

Our first topic for today is titled “One Way Passage, Part 1” from the book, “From Slavery to Freedom” by John Hope Franklin.

The voyage to the Americas, popularly referred to as the “middle passage,” was a veritable nightmare. Overcrowding was most common. There are records of ships as small as 90 tons carrying a complement of 390 slaves in addition to crew and provisions. The practice of overcrowding became so common that the British Parliament felt compelled to specify that not more than five slaves could be carried for every 3 tons of the burden of a ship of 200 tons. This regulation, like so many others, was not enforced. More slaves meant greater profits, and few traders could resist the temptation to wedge in a few more. There was hardly standing, lying, or sitting room. Chained together by twos, hands and feet, slaves had no room to move about and no freedom to exercise their bodies even in the slightest.

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Our second topic for today is “The Negro Church: A Nation Within a Nation, Part 9” from The Negro Church in America by E. Franklin Frazier.

— We continue looking at The Church and Education

The schools—elementary, secondary, and those which provided the beginnings of college education—were permeated with a religious and moral outlook. The graduates of these schools went forth as missionaries to raise the moral and religious level of the members of their race. Many of the men were preachers or became preachers. A preacher who was a graduate of a Baptist college founded by white missionaries and who had helped to make the bricks for the buildings of the college, said that when he was graduated, the white president addressed him as follows: “I want you to go into the worst spot in this State and build a school and a church.”

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Our third and final topic for today is from “The Black Church in the U.S.: Its Origin, Growth, Contributions, and Outlook” by Dr. William A. Banks.

Today we are looking at part 9 of Chapter 4: “Reconstruction and Retaliation — 1866 to 1914”

— FRUSTRATING SECULAR CONDITIONS, Continued

It was during this period that the invisible merged with the visible: the hidden plantation church integrated with the church of the free Negro. Negro life was organized and structured as never before. The influence of this period cannot be overestimated. Whatever organized social life there had been for the slaves in Africa was destroyed by their slavery in America.

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He has been married to the former Meriqua Althea Dixon, of Christiana, Jamaica since 1987. God has blessed their union with seven children.

LISTEN: Slavery & the New World, Pt. 7; the Negro Church, Pt. 8; the Reconstruction Period, Pt. 8 (The History of Black Americans and the Black Church #39 with Daniel Whyte III)

Our Scripture verse for today is Psalm 119:93 which reads: “I will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast quickened me.”

Our History of Black Americans and the Black Church quote for today is from Lee June, a professor at Michigan State University and the author of the book, “Yet With A Steady Beat: The Black Church through a Psychological and Biblical Lens.” He now begins to discuss statement which are frequently heard in the black church which he calls “innocent but dangerous.” The first such statement is: “Anything dead needs to be buried.” Lee June says, “Devotion leaders or speakers often make this statement when they seek to ‘liven up’ the church service. Such a statement is intended to get the people more involved and outwardly expressive by ‘saying amen,’ singing, clapping, standing, shouting, and so on. This statement is innocent in the sense that the person who utters it is typically sincere and truly desires to get people involved in the worship experience and to express themselves physically. The statement, however, can be detrimental because it equates emotions with spirituality and worshiping. It is further potentially detrimental because it does not allow for the individuality or diversity of worship expressions. Some people are more reserved when it comes to emotions and still others feel deeply but do not express it outwardly. Some express themselves by meditating; others do so by crying and some by silently reflecting on and worshiping God. Such a statement also can rob, or at least interfere with, an individual who might want to quietly worship and meditate.”

Our first topic for today is titled “The Slave Trade and the New World (Part 7)” from the book, “From Slavery to Freedom” by John Hope Franklin.

The Big Business of Slave Trading, continued

The Africans offered stiff resistance to their capture, sale, and transportation to the unknown New World. Hence wars broke out between tribes when the members of one sought to capture members of another to sell them to the traders.

Queen Nzinga of Matamba (Angola today) attempted to coordinate a war of resistance against the Portuguese, as did Tomba of the Baga people in what is the Republic of Guinea today. Although their resistance was effective, they were not able to forestall the slave trade.

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Our second topic for today is “The Negro Church: A Nation Within a Nation, Part 8” from The Negro Church in America by E. Franklin Frazier.

— The Church and Education

Negroes in the cities contributed to the support of schools for Negro children. Generally, the support which the free Negroes provided was greater in southern cities like Baltimore, Washington, and Charleston, South Carolina, than in New York and Philadelphia. As early as 1790, the Brown Fellowship Society in Charleston maintained schools for the free Negro children. An important fact about the schools which the free Negroes maintained was that many of them were Sunday schools.

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Our third and final topic for today is from “The Black Church in the U.S.: Its Origin, Growth, Contributions, and Outlook” by Dr. William A. Banks.

Today we are looking at part 8 of Chapter 4: “Reconstruction and Retaliation — 1866 to 1914”

— FRUSTRATING SECULAR CONDITIONS, Continued

Kenneth Clark described this period as the “nadir” of the Negro in American life. It came, he said, “as a seemingly abrupt and certainly cruel repudiation of the promises of Reconstruction for inclusion of the Negro into the political and economic life of the nation. This was a period when the white crusaders for racial justice and democracy became weary as the newly freed Negroes could no longer be considered a purely Southern problem; when the aspirations for and movement of the Negroes toward justice and equality were curtailed and reversed by organized violence and barbarity perpetrated against them; when as a result of abandonment and powerlessness, the frustrations; bitterness, and despair of Negroes increased and displaced optimism and hope.”

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He has been married to the former Meriqua Althea Dixon, of Christiana, Jamaica since 1987. God has blessed their union with seven children.

LISTEN: Slavery & the New World, Pt. 6; the Negro Church, Pt. 7; the Reconstruction Period, Pt. 7 (The History of Black Americans and the Black Church #38 with Daniel Whyte III)

Our Scripture verse for today is Psalm 138:2 which reads: “Jesus saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Our History of Black Americans and the Black Church quote for today is from Lee June, a professor at Michigan State University and the author of the book, “Yet With A Steady Beat: The Black Church through a Psychological and Biblical Lens.” He said, “Rituals, offerings, songs, and prayers are all vital in the life of a church community. The rituals of baptism and communion, as well as prayer, have clear biblical sanctions. Songs, likewise, are critical to worship. The challenge is to continue these practices in a manner that is consistent with Scripture.”

Our first topic for today is titled “The Slave Trade and the New World (Part 6)” from the book, “From Slavery to Freedom” by John Hope Franklin.

The Big Business of Slave Trading, continued

It must not be assumed that trading in slaves involved the simple procedure of sailing into a port, loading up with slaves, and sailing away. In addition to the various courtesy visits and negotiations that protocol required and that the traders were inclined to follow in order to keep the local leaders in good humor, it was often difficult to find enough “likely” slaves to fill a ship of considerable size. Frequently, traders had to remain at one place for two or three weeks before enough slaves were rounded up to make the negotiations worthwhile. It was not unusual for a ship to be compelled to call at four or five ports in order to purchase as many as 500 slaves. Local inhabitants frequently had to scour the interior and use much coercion to secure enough slaves to meet the demands of the traders.

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Our second topic for today is “The Negro Church: A Nation Within a Nation, Part 7” from The Negro Church in America by E. Franklin Frazier.

— The Church and Economic Cooperation

As DuBois pointed out more than fifty years ago, “a study of economic co-operation among Negroes must begin with the Church group.” It was in order to establish their own churches that Negroes began to pool their meager economic resources and buy buildings and the land on which they stood. As an indication of the small beginnings of these churches, we may note that the value of the property of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1787 was only $2,500. During the next century the value of the property of this organization increased to nine million dollars. The Negroes in the other Methodist denominations, and especially in the numerous Baptist Churches, were contributing on a similar scale a part of their small earnings for the construction of churches.

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Our third and final topic for today is from “The Black Church in the U.S.: Its Origin, Growth, Contributions, and Outlook” by Dr. William A. Banks.

Today we are looking at part 7 of Chapter 4: “Reconstruction and Retaliation — 1866 to 1914”

— FRUSTRATING SECULAR CONDITIONS

The years 1865-1914 are often considered the worst period in the American Negro’s history. One writer referred to this period as: “the silent era, a time in which even those churches which had vociferously championed the abolition of slavery largely ignored the racial problems gathering during these years and turned their backs on the liberated slaves. (It is not coincidental that this was also the era of a vigorously expanded Protestant foreign mission program — a possible compensation abroad for a glaring default at home) In this era, the North, preoccupied with its rapid industrial development, not only neglected the Negro it had freed, and left him to flounder, but also in a nationwide political maneuver returned the Negro to the control of his former master and to a condition little better than his previous slavery.”

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He has been married to the former Meriqua Althea Dixon, of Christiana, Jamaica since 1987. God has blessed their union with seven children.

LISTEN: Slavery & the New World, Pt. 5; the Negro Church, Pt. 5; the Reconstruction Period, Pt. 5 (The History of Black Americans and the Black Church #36 with Daniel Whyte III)

Our Scripture verse for today is Psalm 138:2 which reads: “I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.”

Our History of Black Americans and the Black Church quote for today is from Lee June, a professor at Michigan State University and the author of the book, “Yet With A Steady Beat: The Black Church through a Psychological and Biblical Lens.” He said, “One of the earliest known treatments of the importance and role of songs in the development and survival of Black people was done by W.E.B. DuBois. His essay that appeared in the book The Souls of Black Folk was titled ‘Of the Sorrow Songs.’ On this contribution and unique art form, DuBois stated: ‘Little of beauty has America given the world save the rude grandeur God himself stamped on her bosom; the human spirit in this new world has expressed itself in vigor and ingenuity rather than in beauty. And so by fateful chance the Negro folksong — the rhythmic cry of the slave — stands today, not simply as the sole American music, but as the most beautiful expression of human experience born this side of the seas. It has been neglected, it has been, and is, half despised, and above all it has been persistently mistaken and misunderstood; but notwithstanding, it still remains as the singular spiritual heritage of the nation and the greatest gift of the Negro people.'”

Our first topic for today is titled “The Slave Trade and the New World (Part 5)” from the book, “From Slavery to Freedom” by John Hope Franklin.

The Big Business of Slave Trading, continued

Holland’s wars with France and England in the late seventeenth century left it considerably weakened and never again did it achieve the dominance in the slave trade that it formerly held. Many independent Dutch traders sought wealth in Africa, a goal that the Dutch West India Company tried to obviate by offering licenses to such people. Because of its aggressiveness in the eighteenth century, Holland encountered new difficulties with other countries. Dutch traders pushed into sections of Africa that were under French influence, while on the Guinea coast Holland’s seizure of certain possessions from Portugal caused much concern in England. In the West Indies and in South America, Holland used its holdings as centers for the distribution of slaves throughout the New World. Although the end of the century brought a noticeable decline in Dutch influence both in Africa and the New World, this decline did not take place until after Dutch traders had reaped a bountiful harvest from the slave trade.

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Our second topic for today is “The Negro Church: A Nation Within a Nation, Part 5” from The Negro Church in America by E. Franklin Frazier. He writes:

— The Church as an Agency of Social Control, Part 2

The problem of monogamous and stable family life was one of the most vexing problems that confronted northern white missionaries who undertook to improve the morals of the newly liberated blacks. These missionaries undertook to persuade the freedmen to legalize and formalize their marriages. There was resistance on the part of many of the slaves since legal marriage was not in their mores. Sometimes missionaries even attempted to use force in order that the freedmen legalize their sexual unions.

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Our third and final topic for today is from “The Black Church in the U.S.: Its Origin, Growth, Contributions, and Outlook” by Dr. William A. Banks.

Today we are looking at part 5 of Chapter 4: “Reconstruction and Retaliation — 1866 to 1914”

— THE BAPTISTS

Prior to the Civil War, the Baptists were composed almost entirely of local congregations, but they had attracted more Negroes in the South than had other denominations, After the Civil War they enjoyed phenomenal growth and quickly became the most numerous. A total membership in 1850 of 150,000 became nearly 500,000 by 1870. Independent local churches sprang up overnight. Since there was no educational requirement, all who felt the “call” to preach let it be known.

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He has been married to the former Meriqua Althea Dixon, of Christiana, Jamaica since 1987. God has blessed their union with seven children.

LISTEN: The History of Black Americans and the Black Church #1 with Daniel Whyte III

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Welcome to episode #1 of the The History of Black Americans and the Black Church podcast. My name is Daniel Whyte III, president of Gospel Light Society International. Since it is hard to separate Black American history and Black Church history I am combining the two. Though it will sometimes seem as if we are on two different tracks, I am combining the two because they are so intertwined. As many of you know, the church and religion has played and continues to play a big role in the African-American community. Yet, many of us who grew up in the traditional black church do not have an understanding of how our faith evolved under the duress of slavery and discrimination to be and to represent what it does today. The purpose of this broadcast is to provide that background knowledge while also pointing out the dividing line between what is just tradition and true faith in Jesus Christ.

Our Scripture verse for today is Luke 23:26 which reads: “And as they led [Jesus] away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus.”

Our BA and BC quote for today is from the educator and civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune. She said, “Faith is the first factor in a life devoted to service. Without it, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.”

In this podcast, we will be using as our texts From Slavery to Freedom, by John Hope Franklin, The Negro Church in America/The Black Church Since Frazier by E. Franklin Frazier and C. Eric Lincoln and The Black Church In The U.S. by William A. Banks.

Let’s begin with John Hope Franklin’s book, From Slavery to Freedom as he deals with early Christianity in Africa:

Christianity became entrenched in North Africa early. It was there when Islam made its appearance in the seventh century, and these two great faiths engaged in a life-and-death struggle for the control of that area. In West Africa, where the population was especially dense and from which the great bulk of slaves was secured, Christianity was practically unknown until the Portuguese began to establish missions in the area in the sixteenth century. It was a strange religion, this Christianity, which taught equality and brotherhood and at the same time introduced on a large scale the practice of tearing people from their homes and transporting them to a distant land to become slaves. If the Africans south of the Sahara were slow to accept Christianity, it was not only because they were attached to their particular forms of communal worship but also because they did not have the superhuman capacity to reconcile the contradictory character of the new religion.

Now, our main topic for today is titled, “The Religion of the Slaves: the Break With the African Background”. Frazier writes:

In studying any phase of the character and the development of the social and cultural life of the Negro in the United States, one must recognize from the beginning that because of the manner in which the Negroes were captured in Africa and enslaved, they were practically stripped of their social heritage. Although the area in West Africa from which the majority of the slaves were drawn exhibits a high degree of cultural homogeneity, the capture of many of the slaves in intertribal wars and their selection for the slave markets tended to reduce to a minimum the possibility of the retention and the transmission of African culture. The slaves captured in the intertribal wars were generally males and those selected for the slave markets on the African coasts were the young and the most vigorous. This was all in accordance with the demands of the slave markets in the New World. One can get some notion of this selective process from the fact that it was not until 1840 that the number of females equalled the number of males in the slave population of the United States! Young males, it will be readily agreed, are poor bearers of the cultural heritage of a people.

But the manner in which the slaves were held for the slave ships that transported them to the New World also had an important influence upon the transmission of the African social heritage to the new environment. They were held in baracoons, a euphemistic term for concentration camps at the time, where the slaves without any regard for sex or family and tribal affiliations were kept until some slaver came along to buy a cargo for the markets of the New World. This period of dehumanization was followed by the “middle passage,” the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to the slave markets of the West Indies and finally the indigo, tobacco, and cotton plantations of what was to become later the United States. During the “middle passage,” the Negroes were packed spoon-fashion in the slave ships, where no regard was shown for sex or age differences, not to mention such matters as clan and tribal differences. In fact, no regard was shown for such elementary social, or shall I say human, considerations as family ties.

In the New World the process by which the Negro was stripped of his social heritage and thereby, in a sense, dehumanized was completed. There was first the size of the plantation, which had a significant influence upon the extent and nature of the contacts between the slaves and the whites. On the large sugar and cotton plantations in the Southern States there was, as in Brazil and the West Indies, little contact between whites and the Negro slaves. Under such conditions there was some opportunity for the slaves to undertake to re-establish their old ways. As a matter of fact, however, the majority of slaves in the United States were on small farms and small plantations. In some of the upland cotton regions of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and
Arkansas the median number of slaves per holding did not reach twenty; while in regions of general agriculture based mainly upon slave labor in Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee the median number of slave holdings was even smaller.

Then slaves freshly imported from Africa were usually “broken in” to the plantation regime. According to the descriptions given by a traveler in Louisiana, the new slaves were only “gradually accustomed to work. They are made to bathe often, to take long walks from time to time, and especially to dance; they are distributed in small numbers among old slaves in order to dispose them better to acquire their habits.” Apparently from all reports, these new slaves with their African ways were subjected to the disdain, if not hostility, of Negroes who had become accommodated to the plantation regime and had acquired the ways of their new environment.

Of what did accommodation to their new environment consist? It was necessary to acquire some knowledge of the language of whites for communication. Any attempt on the part of the slaves to preserve or use their native language was discouraged or prohibited. They were set to tasks in order to acquire the necessary skills for the production of cotton or sugar cane. On the small farms very often the slaves worked in the fields with their white owners. On the larger plantations they were under the strict discipline of the overseer, who not only supervised their work but who also in the interest of security maintained a strict surveillance over all their activities. It was a general rule that there could be no assembly of five or more slaves without the presence of a white man. This applied especially to their gathering for religious purposes. Later we shall see how the slaves were soon introduced into the religious life of their white masters. All of this tended to bring about as completely as possible a loss of the Negro’s African cultural heritage.

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On our next episode, we will look at the loss of social cohesion among the slaves.

In closing, allow me to say that like many of you, I grew up in a very religious and church-going family, and during that time, I often heard the phrase “Being Saved.” Now, much of what church people said “being saved” was I now know is wrong according to the Bible. I wrote an article about it titled “On ‘Being Saved’ in Black America” which is available for you to read free of charge on our website, gospellightsociety.com. Right now, I want to share with you very briefly what the Bible says “being saved” really is.

First, understand that you need to be saved because you are a sinner. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Second, understand that a horrible punishment — eternal Hell — awaits those who are not saved. In Matthew 25:41, Jesus Christ said that God will say to those who are not saved, “depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Third, realize that God loves you very much and wants to save you from Hell. John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you want to be saved from Hell and be guaranteed a home in Heaven, simply believe in Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose from the dead for your sins, and then call upon the Lord in prayer and ask Him to save your soul. And believe me, He will. Romans 10:9-13 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Until next time, may God richly bless you.

Daniel Whyte III has spoken in meetings across the United States and in twenty-three foreign countries. He is the author of thirty-four books. He is also the president of Gospel Light Society International, a worldwide evangelistic ministry that reaches thousands with the Gospel each week, as well as president of Torch Ministries International, a Christian literature ministry which publishes a monthly magazine called The Torch Leader. He is heard by thousands each week on his radio broadcasts, The Prayer Motivator Devotional and the Prayer Motivator Minute, as well as Gospel Light Minute X, the Gospel Light Minute, the Sunday Evening Evangelistic Message, the Prophet Daniel’s Report and the Second Coming Watch Update. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology from Bethany Divinity College, a Bachelor’s degree in Religion from Texas Wesleyan University, and a Master’s degree in Religion from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. He has been married to the former Meriqua Althea Dixon, of Christiana, Jamaica for twenty-five years. God has blessed their union with seven children. Find out more at www.danielwhyte3.com. Follow Daniel Whyte III on Twitter @prophetdaniel3 or on Facebook.