Hell Without Fire: Conversion in Slave Religion

Conversion is one of the most significant motifs in American Church History. From the First and Second Great Awakenings to early twentieth-century Pentecostal revivals and contemporary Evangelical movements, conversion in all its extravagant forms is important to the story of religion in America. Love Henry Whelchel, Jr. takes up this motif of conversion as it relates particularly to enslaved Africans and black Americans. He explains the role of conversion in the complex interaction between blacks and whites in America. Using the motif of Christian conversion as a unifying theme, Whelchel provides a basic introduction to the history and diversity of Christian religion among enslaved Africans and black Americans. Conversion serves to illuminate the complex relationships that developed between black and white religion in America from its founding until the period of Reconstruction. Whelchel concludes with the story of the founding of the C.M.E., illustrating the emergence of black Methodism from white control in the South following the Civil War.