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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 9 page book review/analysis that contrasts and compares Stanley Elkins' Slavery, A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life (1976), and Albert J. Raboteau's Slave Religion: The Invisible Institution in the Antebellum South (originally published 1978; revised 2004). These are texts that address aspects of slavery as practiced in American history. This review of these books contrasts and compares the way in which these two exemplary historians address their topic. After offering an overview of both books, the writer specifically compares scholarship, use of sources, and substantiation for the writer's perspective. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
9 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khsear.rtf
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published 1978; revised 2004) are texts that address aspects of slavery as practiced in American history. The following review of these books contrasts and compares the way in which these
two exemplary historians address their topic. However, before directly comparing these texts, an overview of each book is enlightening as this sets comparisons in theme, scholarship and content against an
understanding each authors principal points, perspective and thesis. Albert Raboteau -- Slave Religion: The Invisible Institution in the Antebellum South This text offers a detailed and scholarly researched
description of one specific aspect of slavery as it focuses on religion, offering the reader an intriguing overview of this topic that spans the centuries of slave experience. Raboteau begins
by explaining African religious traditions. This section of the book not only describes African religions, but relates them to the cultural practices of the people. For example, Raboteau explains how
Africans believed that "Improper or incomplete funeral rites" could "interfere with or delay the entrance of the deceased into the spiritual world" (Raboteau 13). The author also indicates that funeral
rites were "long" and "complex" (Raboteau 13). The reader can easily imagine that this cultural factor added to the suffering of slaves who prevented by the circumstances of passage from
performing these rites for the multitude of abducted Africans who died in transit to the Americas. In the second chapter, Raboteau describes the conversion process to Christianity, while also
relating how African belief evolved, adapted and, in some cases survived. This chapter also offers an interesting summation of debate among historians concerning the substance of African American history and
how this has played a role in the perpetuation of racism. In the second section of his text, Raboteau specifically addresses the evolution of African American Christian belief and
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