Antebellum American slavery used forced Christian conversion to define civilization and belonging
Evidence
Indeed, American slave owners prohibited their Muslim slaves from practicing their religion while forcing them to convert to Christianity. American Orientalism was also manifested in literature and art. As early as 1776, Thomas Paine’s best-seller, Common Sense, situated Islam as a foil for his vision of an American Republic based on reason and liberty, not superstition and monarchy. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 516 (
#exemplifies, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Full assimilation in antebellum America demanded converting away from Islam; Christianity was the non-negotiable core of civilized status in the antebellum Americas; Racist theological ideas sanctioned and made American slavery acceptable to Christian churches — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 20 (+10 more)
Broader Connections
- Christianity was the non-negotiable core of civilized status in the antebellum Americas
#corroborates(0.95) - Slave owners suppressed Muslim slaves’ religion while forcing Christian conversion
#exemplifies(0.85) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 516 - Missionary conversion was a racial-regulatory technology cultivating obedient subjectivity
#expands(0.85) - Full assimilation in antebellum America demanded converting away from Islam
#corroborates(0.82) - Racist theological ideas sanctioned and made American slavery acceptable to Christian churches
#expands(0.80) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 20 - American racialization of slaves ran on labor and land, not on religion
#complicates(0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 207 - Islam served as a civilizational waystation toward Christian conversion in slave categorization.
#qualifies(0.77) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 137 - Christian free-country ideology forced settlers to deny enslaved people’s humanity
#expands(0.76) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 68 - Seventeenth-century Virginia law decoupled Christian conversion from slave emancipation
#qualifies(0.75) - Denying religion to slaves served to prevent resistance and revolt
#expands(0.75) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 172 - Religious justifications for slavery used curses to keep converts enslaved
#expands(0.74) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 118 - Slave manumission threatened the Christian indoctrination project
#complicates(0.73) — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1151 - Religious conversion made slaveholders more cruel, not less
#complicates(0.72) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 246