Christianization.

One of the most important developments in African American culture in this era was the spread of Christianity within both the slave and free black communities. In the Southern colonies, where most American slaves lived, Anglican missionaries led the way. Their efforts were directed at both white and black populations, as preachers tried to bring all Americans to Christ. Slavery was an important feature of this religious task. Part of the groundwork for this development was in the preaching of George Whitefield, the English revivalist who visited America seven times between 1738 and 1770. Whitefield called for the conversion of the slaves. He considered it the duty of slave owners to bring their slaves to Christ. Whitefield and his colleagues stressed the duties of masters to care for their slaves in a humane way and developed an ethic of Christian paternalism that...