“Restless Spirits: Syncretic Religion in Edwidge Danticat’s Breath, Eyes, Memory.”
(Journal of Pan African Studies, Spring 2008)
….Over two hundred years removed from the physical operation of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and her enslaved ancestors who composed these spirituals, Martine still finds comfort in the songs, hymns, and religious expressions of a people that first created a syncretic African religious tradition in the New World.  In these songs and in the storefront churches of Brooklyn and Harlem, Martine’s memories go beyond her personal trauma and connect her to her ancestors.  She finds a space in which the Christian religion and traditional African religions, as well as the various offspring faiths of these two religions, can survive and thrive.  It stirs memories in her that she is not even conscious of; memories which tie her to a collective syncretic religious community.

“That Old Time Religion: Christian Faith in Dunbar’s ‘The Strength of Gideon.’”
(African American Review, 2007)
…In the post-Reconstruction Era, rural church institutions and black religious life in general, were undergoing a profound shift as more African Americans migrated to the city, bringing with them religious beliefs they had to adapt to the urban setting. This continual institutionalization of the black church, particularly with its emphasis on better educated clergy, larger church buildings, and liturgical forms of worship represents a move away from the rural and plantation religious experience—forms of worship that some critics argue were more genuine, not simply in its pathos, but in the social and political implications for black life.  Many black churchgoers sought to abandon the rural religious roots that they associated with the legacy of slavery (such as worship in outdoor spaces and ecstatic experiences). But the abandonment of these traditions represent a loss to the folk culture that Dunbar (and such others as Charles Chesnutt) felt important to recognize and preserve, even when others considered that folk culture the ultimate perpetuation of stereotypical black life.

“Redeeming Bondage: Captivity Narratives and Spiritual Autobiographies in the Slave
Narrative Tradition.”
(The Cambridge Companion to the Slave Narrative, 2007)
…If the central message of Christianity is the redemptive work of Christ on the Cross, in which the sacrifice of one redeems the sins of all, it is no wonder that enslaved men and women take this message to heart both for their spiritual and earthly needs.  The rhetorical message of the Christian faith promises freedom, liberation and deliverance from bondage, particularly for those wrongly punished.  The signs, symbols and stories of this belief system reinforce the notion that the very least, the most humble, and the most abject are the ones who eventually inherit the kingdom.  What other message could provide such hope and offer so many scriptural parallels to the situation of the enslaved African population?