Description
Book SynopsisExamines the spiritual and earthly results of conversion to Christianity for African-American antebellum writers. Using autobiographical narratives, the book shows how black writers transformed the earthly hell of slavery into a ‘New Jerusalem’, a place they could call home.
Trade ReviewAn innovative and brilliant analysis of five antebellum slave narratives." -
Choice"Pierce analyzes each of the conversion narratives in fresh, revealing ways, and scholars should be motivated to reread the original accounts--and others like them--afresh." -
Biography"Pierce's analysis of these narratives help[s] to explain slaves' conversion to the religion of their oppressors, what forms of advocacy those converts called to preach could claim, and the ways that early African American converts merged African religions and Protestant Christianity." -
African American Review"Packs a wealth of information. . . . Readers will be amply repaid for time spent reading it." -
Journal of Southern History"Helps establish black spiritual, or conversion, narratives as an important genre in its own right. It is constantly informed by much of the best recent scholarship on slavery, religion, and gender relations." -
Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
