Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-290) and index.
Contents:
Introduction: Of the faith of the mothers -- Georgia genesis: the birth of the enslaved female soul -- Womb re/membrances: the moral dimensions of enslaved motherhood -- Sex, body, and soul: sexual ethics and social values among the enslaved -- The birth and death of souls: enslaved women and ritual -- Spirit bodies and feminine souls: women, power, and the sacred imagination -- When souls gather: women and gendered performance in religious spaces -- Conclusion: Gendering the "religion of the slave."
Summary:
"In The souls of womenfolk, Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh argues that woman-gendered cosmologies and experiences from the Upper Guinea Coast played a distinct role in shaping the religious consciousness and practices of enslaved communities in the Lower South, and that this process took place concurrently as enslaved peoples in the U.S. South interpreted their new contexts through the cosmological frameworks of their foreparents, while acquiring, innovating, and revising contemporaneous practices"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.