Black preaching historically adopted the biblical jeremiad to denounce slavery

Evidence

Cone’s theology grew out of an even older prophetic tradition. Over the centuries, Black preachers in America have used their pulpits just like Wright did, to challenge the hypocrisy of white America’s racism, sometimes with harsh language. Black preaching by historical necessity used the jeremiad, a rhetorical mode of denunciation or chastisement about the corruption of people, events, or nations that stretches back to the prophets of the Hebrew Bible. More than two thousand years later, in the antebellum United States, Black preachers castigated the nation for the evils of slavery. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1014

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the jeremiad as a rhetorical mode of denunciation rooted in Hebrew Bible prophets and traces its adoption by Black preachers.
• XREF: The jeremiad’s dual deployment (Puritan self-lament vs. Black societal denunciation) parallels the book’s central reframing: same form, opposite object—the nation’s design vs. its deviations.