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Invisible Body: Slave Religion and African American Funerary Display |
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Abstract:
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Albert Raboteau called slave religion the invisible institution, as it manifested itself in both clandestine and public demonstrations. The most overlooked example of slave religions secret and open manifestations is the slave funeral. This oversight in the historical literature also paradoxically represents the literal invisibility of African American bodies at slave funerals. The actual funeral services for a dead slave did not have to immediately follow their death and burial. In fact, enslaved people often buried their dead and then held their funerals much later. Enslaved people commonly held funerals without the presence of the deceased.
Although, forced labor structured the living conditions of the enslaved, few slaveholders made the mistake of denying their human property the options of paying proper attention to their dead. Travelers accounts, plantation memoirs and WPA interviews with freedpeople all confirm that the enslaved had night funerals, weekend funerals, as well as funerals for people who had died and were buried months even years earlier. As a result, the dead bodies of enslaved Southerners were reclaimed at least twice: once for the burial that nature necessitated and then again in a more sacred space, the slave funeral. The history of African American funerary display gives evidence that African Americans chose to express their ethnic identities by reclaiming their physical bodies. Therefore, African American funerary display is a text of self definition that overrode the brands of chattel slavery, a reclamation of the African American body as well as their faith. |
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Association:
Name: Association for the Study of African American Life and History
URL: http://www.asalh.org
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Citation:
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MLA Citation:
| Adkins, LaTrese. "Invisible Body: Slave Religion and African American Funerary Display" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Hyatt Regency, Buffalo, New York USA, <Not Available>. 2012-06-25 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p32457_index.html> |
APA Citation:
| Adkins, L. "Invisible Body: Slave Religion and African American Funerary Display" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Hyatt Regency, Buffalo, New York USA <Not Available>. 2012-06-25 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p32457_index.html |
Publication Type: Individual Paper
Abstract: Albert Raboteau called slave religion the invisible institution, as it manifested itself in both clandestine and public demonstrations. The most overlooked example of slave religions secret and open manifestations is the slave funeral. This oversight in the historical literature also paradoxically represents the literal invisibility of African American bodies at slave funerals. The actual funeral services for a dead slave did not have to immediately follow their death and burial. In fact, enslaved people often buried their dead and then held their funerals much later. Enslaved people commonly held funerals without the presence of the deceased.
Although, forced labor structured the living conditions of the enslaved, few slaveholders made the mistake of denying their human property the options of paying proper attention to their dead. Travelers accounts, plantation memoirs and WPA interviews with freedpeople all confirm that the enslaved had night funerals, weekend funerals, as well as funerals for people who had died and were buried months even years earlier. As a result, the dead bodies of enslaved Southerners were reclaimed at least twice: once for the burial that nature necessitated and then again in a more sacred space, the slave funeral. The history of African American funerary display gives evidence that African Americans chose to express their ethnic identities by reclaiming their physical bodies. Therefore, African American funerary display is a text of self definition that overrode the brands of chattel slavery, a reclamation of the African American body as well as their faith. |
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