Book
The souls of womenfolk : the religious cultures of enslaved women in the Lower South / Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh.
"In The souls of womenfolk, Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh argues that woman-gendered cosmologies and experiences from the Upper Guinea Coast played a distinct role in shaping the religious consciousness and practices of enslaved communities in the Lower South, and that this process took place concurrently as enslaved peoples in the U.S. South interpreted their new contexts through the cosmological frameworks of their foreparents, while acquiring, innovating, and revising contemporaneous practices"-- Provided by publisher.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781469663593
- ISBN: 1469663597
- ISBN: 9781469663609
- ISBN: 1469663600
- Physical Description: xi, 307 pages ; 24 cm
- Publisher: Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2021]
Content descriptions
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-290) and index. |
| Formatted Contents Note: | Introduction: Of the faith of the mothers -- Georgia genesis: the birth of the enslaved female soul -- Womb re/membrances: the moral dimensions of enslaved motherhood -- Sex, body, and soul: sexual ethics and social values among the enslaved -- The birth and death of souls: enslaved women and ritual -- Spirit bodies and feminine souls: women, power, and the sacred imagination -- When souls gather: women and gendered performance in religious spaces -- Conclusion: Gendering the "religion of the slave." |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Women slaves > Religious life > Southern States. Women slaves > Southern States > Social conditions. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Kenton County.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Covington Branch | 306.362 W456s 2021 (Text) | 33126024696431 | Adult Nonfiction | Available | - |
- The University of North Carolina Press
Beginning on the shores of West Africa in the sixteenth century and ending in the U.S. Lower South on the eve of the Civil War, Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh traces a bold history of the interior lives of bondwomen as they carved out an existence for themselves and their families amid the horrors of American slavery. With particular attention to maternity, sex, and other gendered aspects of women's lives, she documents how bondwomen crafted female-centered cultures that shaped the religious consciousness and practices of entire enslaved communities. Indeed, gender as well as race co-constituted the Black religious subject, she arguesârequiring a shift away from understandings of "slave religion" as a gender-amorphous category.
Women responded on many levelsâethically, ritually, and communallyâto southern slavery. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Wells-Oghoghomeh shows how they remembered, reconfigured, and innovated beliefs and practices circulating between Africa and the Americas. In this way, she redresses the exclusion of enslaved women from the American religious narrative. Challenging conventional institutional histories, this book opens a rare window onto the spiritual strivings of one of the most remarkable and elusive groups in the American experience.