Seizing Freedom Episode 13: Equal Children of God
The Civil War marked one of the most dramatic state changes in how Black people practiced their faith. Those born or living free in the North had long had the option to choose which church to join. But, prior to emancipation, going to formal church service in the South usually meant attending the Baptist church of your enslaver.
After the war, freed people claimed the right to free worship in churches they could establish for themselves, with thousands of local congregations of different ideologies springing up all over the South. Soul liberty would act as a springboard for religious community among African Americans, and would embolden them to push for concrete social and political change during Reconstruction.
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