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Slave Religion in Central and South America In Central American and South American colonies, which were generally Catholic, Christianity synthesized with older African faiths. This synthesis would take different forms in different places, but it almost always developed into a religious culture that was much more than the sum of its parts. The major Christian denomination in Central and South America was Roman Catholicism, which had a very different character from the Protestant faiths that were practiced in North America. Catholicism was a very structured faith, with a hierarchical system of authority. The clergy were much more organized than the clergy of North American churches were. In addition, the Catholic Church focused more on the bestowal of grace through sacraments than most Protestant churches. This meant that baptism was one of the fundamental elements of salvation. Enslaved Africans were often baptized, and thus made into Christians, before they even set foot on the boat to take them to the New World. Thus many enslaved Africans were considered Christian from the start of their experience of slavery. This meant several different things. First, in many ways, they were considered spiritual equals with their owners and were treated less cruelly than "pagan" slaves were. On the other hand, since they were already considered Christian, less attention was paid to the spiritual lives of the slaves than was paid to those in the Protestant nations. Enslaved Africans received little spiritual education from their Catholic owners. In the Caribbean colonies of Cuba and St. Domingue, religion was taught to enslaved Africans as a means of social control more than as a means to edify their souls. Especially in the colonies' early days, while the plantations were small and the slave population was not huge, owners used religion to teach obedience. As the slave population grew, however, it became more common to rely on physical threats. Owners did not have the time to teach the slaves, and there were not enough clergy on the islands to preach to the growing slave population. It was much easier to use the whip than the Bible to ensure order. In addition, slave religious meetings became places where rebellions could be planned. In 1767, St. Domingue's Governor Fénélon said: I came with all the prejudices of Europe in favor of the education which we should give in accordance with the principles of our religion. But a sane political policy as well as the strongest humanitarian considerations are against religious education. The safety of the whites demands that the blacks be kept in the most profound ignorance. I have come to believe firmly that the blacks must be managed like beasts.
One of these religions was called voodoo, or vodun. Originating on the island of St. Domingue (modern day Haiti and Dominican Republic), voodoo blended Catholicism with various West African traditions. In African traditions, there were generally three tiers in the spiritual hierarchy. There was one supreme deity, several ancestral gods, and many minor spirits. In voodoo, the supreme deity became the Christian God, but the other deities and spirits remained. Some came to be associated with saints and others remained more anonymous. There was also a strong emphasis on magic, which came directly from West Africa. Voodoo, which often had female practitioners, used animal sacrifices, and involved altered states of consciousness and possessions, was extremely threatening to whites. In 1782, the state of Louisiana banned the import of slaves from Martinique because they often practiced voodoo. In 1784 they extended the ban to slaves from Haiti. Voodoo was extremely powerful because it was so different from anything owners had seen before. Voodoo helped to shape black identity in the Americas and is still practiced in some places today. In Cuba and Brazil, Catholic saints were often equated with gods from Africa. The sweet and gentle Yoruba goddess of the river, Oshun, was linked to the equally sweet and gentle Catholic image of the Virgin Mary. Shàngó, the Yoruba thunder god, was often linked in Cuba to Saint Barbara because when she was martyred, God struck her killers dead with lightning. There were cults dedicated to many saints, including St. George. St. George, the dragon slayer, was identified with Ogún, a Yoruba god associated with iron and the sword. In Rio de Janeiro, the St. George cult was particularly strong and actually incited rebellions and riots in the city. Not all religions were as open to Christian ideas as these were. Some, in fact, were explicitly anti-Christian. Obeah was one of these. Also known as "shadow-catching," Obeah was a faith based on secrets and magic. Practitioners, usually older men, would use artifacts to summon and control spirits, or duppies. In Obeah, religion was essentially a business in which the people would pay the practitioners for their services. It was specifically targeted at helping or hurting individuals but had little to do with the community. For this reason, combined with its staunchly anti-Christian stance, it did not spread throughout the New World. On the contrary, it offended and scared most white people. In 1806, Barbados declared the practice of Obeah to be an offense punishable by death.
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