The Souls of Womenfolk: The Religious Cultures of Enslaved Women in the Lower South

by Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh

Overview

Beginning on the shores of West Africa in the sixteenth century and ending in the U.S. Lower South on the eve of the Civil War, Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh traces a bold history of the interior lives of bondwomen as they carved out an existence for themselves and their families amid the horrors of American slavery. With particular attention to maternity, sex, and other gendered aspects of women’s lives, she documents how bondwomen crafted female-centered cultures that shaped the religious consciousness and practices of entire enslaved communities. Indeed, gender as well as race co-constituted the Black religious subject, she argues—requiring a shift away from understandings of “slave religion” as a gender-amorphous category.

Women responded on many levels—ethically, ritually, and communally—to southern slavery. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Wells-Oghoghomeh shows how they remembered, reconfigured, and innovated beliefs and practices circulating between Africa and the Americas. In this way, she redresses the exclusion of enslaved women from the American religious narrative. Challenging conventional institutional histories, this book opens a rare window onto the spiritual strivings of one of the most remarkable and elusive groups in the American experience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469663593
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	09/14/2021
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.88(d)

About the Author

Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh is assistant professor of religious studies at Stanford University.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

A novel interpretation of African American religiosity that centers the experiences of Black women who drew on a range of cultural sources to build a robust cosmology and worldview that has been too long overlooked. Perhaps most striking, Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh argues that ideas about gender in Africa and the Americas provided much of the ideological framework upon which slavery was built. A signal contribution to Black religious history as well as to the history of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade."—Jason R. Young, University of Michigan

With boldness, care, and exacting skill, Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh maps cultural institutions of gender in West Africa in connection to those of the U.S. Lowcountry. Immersed in multiple archives, this book provides a generative challenge to all who seek to understand the transnational and diasporic historical and social linkages that have constituted Africana religions. It answers the call for more creative methods of interpretation and bold efforts to thoughtfully and deliberately render the agency, epistemology, and larger lifeworlds of those who were forced into the most violent forms of domination."—Sylvester A. Johnson, Virginia Tech

Editorial Reviews

★ 07/05/2021

Historian Wells-Oghoghomeh debuts with an astute unpacking of the experiences of enslaved African American women, proposing a framework of dismemberment (the psychic and physical traumas of slavery) and “re/membrance” (activities that drew on and built communal history to cope). “Dismembering” experiences include gender imbalances and the shuffling of roles both in West Africa and the United States, geographic dislocation, and the complicated feelings around pregnancy when the children of enslaved women would only serve to benefit white slave owners. Women took back a measure of reproductive control through abortion and infanticide, which Wells-Oghoghomeh explains as shocking but understandable reactions to their painful lives. Discussions of rituals—such as chants at childbirth, use of magical objects to ease pain, or a baptism repurposed as a way to wash away the pain of sexual assault—and mournful hymns show how women have harnessed a variety of “re/membrances.” Wells-Oghoghomeh’s exploration of prayer meetings and religious practices shows how African Americans focused on aspects of the Christian faith’s power—especially the promise of an avenging God. Throughout, the insightful excavation of historical records and bold theorizing create a convincing image of enslaved women’s lives and concerns. This important work will expand academics’ understanding of race and religion in the South. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

An astute unpacking of the experiences of enslaved African American women. . . . Throughout, the insightful excavation of historical records and bold theorizing create a convincing image of enslaved women’s lives and concerns. This important work will expand academics' understanding of race and religion in the South.”—Publishers Weekly

“Groundbreaking academic study. . . . Wells-Oghoghomeh shows how the religious imaginations of enslaved women were deeply rooted in understandings of gender—and how those religious experiences gave shape not only to 'the souls of womenfolk' but also to the communities around them.”—Christian Century

“An excellent debut work.”—CHOICE

“One of the most important books in African American religious history of the past decade. . . . The book is a triumph.”—Civil War Book Review

“This book will be difficult for many, but it is very important for the understanding of the enslaved community and its descendants.”—Reading Religion

“A powerful addition to a robust body of literature devoted to the experiences of African and African American women living under slavery. Wells-Oghoghomeh offers crucial insights, close analysis, and some surprising findings along the way. This book will likely become required reading for scholars in diverse fields, including African and African American studies, the transatlantic slave trade, and black women’s history."—The Middle Ground

“Wells-Oghoghomeh offers paradigms expansive enough to hold histories of violence, trauma, and strength. . . . An important contribution to scholarship and perhaps the book itself offers a material and sacred act of remembrance.”—Fides Historia

“Offers a deeper look at Christianity among enslaved persons in Georgia. The focus on womenfolk is the book’s greatest strength and makes it particularly appealing to gender historians of African American studies.”—Journal of Southern History

“An essential text for slavery historians, historians of religion, Womanist and Black Feminist ethicists, and other audiences [that] centers enslaved African women’s cultural memories, social organizations of enslaved life, embodied experiences, maternal and spiritual authority, cultural creativity, and responses to sexual violence and trauma by exploring their religious roles and rituals.”—American Religion

“I wish I had had this book when I was studying Black religion and spirituality as a graduate student. . . . [A]n important text that should be included as a resource for any theological educator who is focused on religious experience, spirituality, and anthropology.”—The Journal of the College Theology Society

From the Publisher