Invisible churches
Scholars call the practice of Hoodoo in Black churches as the invisible institution, because enslaved people concealed their culture and beliefs within the Christian religion.
"This phrase [invisible institution] was first used by E Franklin Frazier in [his book] The Negro Church in America to describe the spirituality on slave plantations that was primarily out of view of the mainstream American religious consciousness.
White American slaveholders passed slave codes that prohibited large gatherings of enslaved and free Black people.
[7] The Code Noir in French colonial Louisiana, prohibited and made it illegal for enslaved Africans to practice their traditional religions.
"[8] The Code Noir and other slave laws resulted in enslaved and free African Americans to conduct their spiritual practices in invisible churches.
The 'invisible institution' existed often as a forbidden aspect; slaves might be members of both the independent black church groups or congregations that were racially mixed (Raboteau mentions that some such congregations might have far more slaves than masters in attendance), but also participate in worship gatherings at night in secret locations, risking severe punishment to do so.
Slaveholders were confident that they would compare treatment, working conditions, and punishments, leaving them worried about revolts and riots.
These shout songs are sung today by Gullah Geechee people and other African-Americans in churches and praise houses.
[15][16] Harriet Tubman sung coded messages to her mother and other enslaved people in the field to let them know she was escaping on the Underground Railroad.
Enslaved and free African-Americans practiced the ring shout, spirit possession, ecstatic forms of worship, and Hoodoo.
To conjure healing, spirits, and protection scriptures from the Bible and prayer was used alongside roots, herbs, and animal parts.
Du Bois asserts that the early years of the Black church during slavery on plantations was influenced by Voodooism.
[21] Historians assert that "invisible churches" were where Nat Turner planned his slave revolt in Virginia in 1831.
Enslaved African Americans discussed escape from slavery on the Underground Railroad and planned slave revolts inside the invisible church.
[29][30] Slave narratives are a collection of recorded oral accounts about formerly enslaved people and their experiences of slavery in the United States.
Taylor later said the slaves would have secret church meetings at night, because what the white preacher preached was not what enslaved people believed.
