Colonial and antebellum periods, the exigencies of North American slavery obscured the egalitarian potential of religion.

When the Declaration of Independence was promulgated in 1776, a London newspaper described a South Carolina clergyman reading the document aloud while being fanned by a slave. In the Antebellum South, both Protestant and Catholic clergy owned slaves and had developed elaborate biblical defenses to justify the institution. Speaking on the floor of the House of Representatives in February 1836, James Henry Hammond of South Carolina declared, “The doom of Ham has been branded on the form and feature of his African Descendants. The hand of fate has united his color and destiny.”The “status” of a slave converted to Christianity had been settled in the early years of Colonial America. Christian baptism did not negate the servile role of peoples whose status was based on racial considerations. By the 19th century, as Northern groups like the Quakers began to loudly question the morality of slavery, religion in the South attempted to appeal to primarily Old Testament passages regarding the institution.

The first and perhaps most important passage are in Genesis 9.20-27. It is the story of Noah's nakedness after having drunk wine. Ham, his youngest son, did not cover his father's nakedness, as did the older brothers Shem and Japheth. Since these were the first men of an entirely new human race following the biblical flood, Noah's “curse” of Ham appeared significant. (Wright pp.56-70)

Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants he shall be to his brothers.” Stephen R. Haynes of Rhodes College, in his book Noah's Curse, states that this passage has been interpreted throughout the centuries to refer to those of African descent as well as, perhaps, the beginning of slavery. He even cites early Christian church fathers that held this view. Haynes does not agree with this view, he merely demonstrates how it affected societies that interpreted the Genesis passage to justify African slavery.

In colonial Louisiana, the Roman Catholic religion fashioned the lives of natives

and settlers, free and enslaved alike. From Indian and African slaves, to Jesuit priests, to

free women of color in New Orleans, individuals often explained who they were or

expanded their roles within their families and societies in religious terms.

French missionaries baptized indiscriminate of race and sanctioned interracial Catholic unions, hoping to build a Catholic colony of settlers and natives. While some French leaders argued against French-Indian marriages, and even against the extension of sacramental rights to black slaves, many authorized interracial marriages as biologically solidifying French claims to the area and universal access to the sacraments as ensuring the peaceful acculturation of Native Americans and black slaves.1 For the colonists in Louisiana, religion also provided a layer of identity that shaped their personal lives and their involvement in a wider, culturally and racially heterogeneous society.2 Particularly, in the rural parishes of southeast Louisiana, Roman Catholicism provided a venue for religious, as well as social and economic, opportunities for enslaved and free African Americans. Religious education played a vital role in ...