Constructing Religion, Defining Crime: Slavery, Power, and Belief in Colonial America

FAIN: FEL-267745-20

Katharine Gerbner
University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN 55455-2009)

Research and writing leading to a book on the development of ideas about religion and religious freedom in colonial America as they were shaped by slavery and the criminalization of black religious practices.

Religious freedom is one of the founding principles of American democracy. But what do we mean when we talk about “religion”? And how do we distinguish “religion” from “superstition” or “witchcraft”? Most importantly, who gets to decide what counts as a religion and what is a superstition – or a crime? My research, “Constructing Religion, Defining Crime: Slavery, Power and Belief,” examines how modern ideas about religion and freedom emerged within a colonial slave society. It shows how the institution of slavery made some religious practices criminal, while others were deemed legitimate. African diasporic religions were especially targeted for persecution and defined as rebellious. Examining this complex dynamic between race, belief, and danger shows that we must examine the history of slavery in order to understand the meaning of religion and the concept of religious freedom.