The antebellum Black church preached prophetic witness against racism itself

Evidence

By contrast, the style of the Black church that developed following the Great Awakening and in the antebellum period was one of prophetic witness to the moral outrage of racism in America. It was the rhetoric of dissent, according to Bercovitch. David Walker, a nineteenth-century anti-slavery advocate and a member of the A.M.E. Church, embraced this approach in his Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, excoriating white Christians for their role in the slave trade: “They cram us into their vessel holds in chains and hand-cuffs—men, women and children all together!! O! save us, we pray thee, thou God of Heaven and of earth, from the devouring hands of the white Christians!!!” — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1016

Categorization

• XREF: Walker’s Appeal is a concrete primary source usable in the reader’s case study of how historical controversy actually operates. — connects to: A city ordinance criminalized any black attempt to worship at a white church — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 126; The black church functioned as an oppositional counter-public sphere to white society — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 78; The black church was a counterpublic that both opposed and internalized white norms — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 84