Slavery, Religion, and Race in Antebellum Missouri: Freedom from Slavery and Freedom from Sin by Kevin D. Butler (review)

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• Slavery, Religion, and Race in Antebellum Missouri: Freedom from Slavery and Freedom from Sin by Kevin D. Butler
• Kimberly Kellison

Slavery, Religion, and Race in Antebellum Missouri: Freedom from Slavery and Freedom from Sin. By Kevin D. Butler. Religion in American History. (Lanham, Md., and other cities: Lexington Books, 2023. Pp. xiv, 175. $95.00, ISBN 978-1-66691-699-7.)

Slavery, Religion, and Race in Antebellum Missouri: Freedom from Slavery and Freedom from Sin offers an account of religion, race, and slavery in pre–Civil War Missouri, focusing primarily on the religious experiences of African Americans. Kevin D. Butler argues that three main forces influenced African American religion in Missouri: African folk religion, which relied heavily on conjure; the white southern church; and the white northern church. By the eve of the Civil War, African Americans had developed a version of Christianity that differed from both southern and northern white evangelicals’ faith and that served as the foundation for postwar African American denominationalism in the state.

Butler’s study begins with a description of the impact of northern evangelicals in Missouri. Although some radical abolitionists preached in the state, the majority of northern missionaries were “antislavery moderates” who generally supported gradual emancipation and colonization efforts (p. 1). Because of their outspoken criticism of abolitionism, these antislavery ministers were able to preach to African Americans and to assist in the formation of African American congregations without significant interference from the proslavery majority.

Like enslaved men and women in other southern states, African Americans in Missouri drew from traditional African as well as European Christian religious beliefs and practices, forming their own version of Christianity in the years before the Civil War. Using the testimonies and stories of enslaved Missourians, Butler shows the prevalence of conjure and other African spiritual practices among enslaved communities and contends that African American men and women with conjure powers often exerted authority and influence.

While African Americans drew on traditional African beliefs to frame religious and cultural beliefs, many were also deeply influenced by Christian concepts. Referencing the argument made by some historians that Christianity had only a marginal impact on the enslaved, Butler sides firmly with scholars who contend that Christianity played a prevalent role in the lives of most enslaved men and women. By the eve of the Civil War, Butler asserts, “any African American in the state . . . would have had some awareness of the basic aspects of Christianity” (p. 86). The spread of Christianity to the Black community came largely from the growth and establishment of biracial, white-controlled churches. Through these churches, white proslavery Missourians preached that slavery was divinely ordained and engaged in practices that enshrined the political power of the enslaver over the enslaved. While white-controlled proslavery churches “succeeded in promoting the spread of Christian concepts in the slave community,” white Missourians “failed to create a biracial community where bond men and women equated the interests of the slaveholding class with their own interest” (p. 79). Instead, African Americans embraced only certain aspects of Christianity, dismissing the pro-slavery message taught to them by white Missourians.

The book’s final chapters focus on independent African American urban congregations. Butler examines the leadership of African American ministers [End Page 424] and shows the important religious as well as educational impact of independent Black congregations in the prewar years. During and after the Civil War, African Americans laid claim to a more complete form of religious freedom. By leaving white-controlled congregations and by forming additional independent churches, African Americans created a stronger denominational network in the state. In the postwar years, Butler argues, “the African American Christianity that had helped to sustain” enslaved men and women during slavery “began to emerge as the most significant and widespread institution in African American life” (pp. 151–52).

Slavery, Religion, and Race in Antebellum Missouri is well crafted and well researched. Butler engages in historiographical debates throughout his study, although he might have elaborated in more detail about the state’s religious distinctiveness (or perhaps lack of distinctiveness) compared with other slaveholding states. Overall, however, the work is a welcome addition to the field and will serve as an important...