Rituals of Resistance African Atlantic Religion in Kongo and the
Lowcountry South in the Era of Slavery In Rituals of Resistance
Jason R. Young explores the religious and ritual practices that
linked West-Central Africa with the Lowcountry region of Georgia
and South Carolina during the era of slavery. The choice of
these two sites mirrors the historical trajectory of the
transatlantic slave trade which, for centuries, transplanted
Kongolese captives to the Lowcountry through the ports of
Charleston and Savannah. Analyzing the historical exigencies of
slavery and the slave trade that sent not only men and women but
also cultural meanings, signs, symbols, and patterns across the
Atlantic, Young argues that religion operated as a central form
of resistance against slavery and the ideological underpinnings
that supported it. Through a series of comparative chapters on
Christianity, ritual medicine, burial practices, and
transmigration, Young details the manner in which Kongolese
people, along with their contempo