Obeah practitioners supplied ideological leadership to slave rebellions.

Evidence

In Palmares, in keeping with the cosmologies of Congolese and Angolan societies, magicians had been banned as inimical to the king’s authority. Among those peoples it was most often the case that legitimacy of authority and the very existence of social order were concomitants to the eradication of sorcery and witchcraft. In the British West Indies, the elimination of obeah had become an official preoccupation. And for good reason. Obeah men and women were frequently the source of ideology for the slave rebellions: — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 680

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Religion as political-ideological infrastructure for rebellion is a core element of the Black radical tradition’s making.

Related

• Religious and spiritual practices served as preparation for slave rebellion (similarity 0.87)
• Obeah men organized slave rebellions via secrecy oaths and fetishes (similarity 0.86)
• Slave religious practice helped lay the foundation for the revolt. (similarity 0.86)
• Spiritual traditions prepared enslaved people for future revolutionary action (similarity 0.85)
• Obeah was a genuine African-derived religion to unassimilated slaves. (similarity 0.85)
• Black radicalism integrated overt revolt with spiritual preparation via obeah, voodoo, Islam (similarity 0.84)
• Religious practice organized and inspired the 1791 slave insurrection (similarity 0.81)
• Christian doctrine as taught to the enslaved seeded rather than suppressed Black rebellion (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Obeah men organized rebellions by administering oaths and protective charms. #exemplifies (0.90) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 681
• Religious practice organized and inspired the 1791 slave insurrection #exemplifies (0.85) — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 346
• Black radicalism integrated overt revolt with spiritual preparation via obeah, voodoo, Islam #expands (0.80)
• Obeah was a genuine African-derived religion to unassimilated slaves. #expands (0.70) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 679