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Exodus!: Religion, Race, and Nation in Early Nineteenth-Century Black America
No other story in the Bible has fired the imaginations of African Americans quite like that of Exodus. Its tale of suffering and the journey to redemption offered hope and a sense of possibility to people facing seemingly insurmountable evil.
Exodus! shows how this biblical story inspired a pragmatic tradition of racial advocacy among African Americans in the early nineteenth century—a tradition based not on race but on a moral politics of respectability. Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., begins by comparing the historical uses of Exodus by black and white Americans and the concepts of "nation" it generated. He then traces the roles that Exodus played in the National Negro Convention movement, from its first meeting in 1830 to 1843, when the convention decided—by one vote—against supporting Henry Highland Garnet's call for slave insurrection.
Exodus! reveals the deep historical roots of debates over African-American national identity that continue to rage today. It will engage anyone interested in the story of black nationalism and the promise of African-American religious culture.
Exodus! shows how this biblical story inspired a pragmatic tradition of racial advocacy among African Americans in the early nineteenth century—a tradition based not on race but on a moral politics of respectability. Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., begins by comparing the historical uses of Exodus by black and white Americans and the concepts of "nation" it generated. He then traces the roles that Exodus played in the National Negro Convention movement, from its first meeting in 1830 to 1843, when the convention decided—by one vote—against supporting Henry Highland Garnet's call for slave insurrection.
Exodus! reveals the deep historical roots of debates over African-American national identity that continue to rage today. It will engage anyone interested in the story of black nationalism and the promise of African-American religious culture.
226 pages, Paperback
First published March 13, 2000
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About the author
Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
17 books585 followersEddie S. Glaude Jr. is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Princeton University and author of Democracy in Black.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 21, 2021
African Americans in the non-slave states quickly learned that they needed an African American community. They were almost never invited into an integrated community, rioters in New York burned down a church that allowed integrated seating, only organized pressure forced Philadelphia to provide a space where African Americans could bury their dead, and countless other events great and small forced the people to create this community. The author traces the forming of the community in the north before the Civil War through the parades in celebration of various dates that were hoped to herald the elimination of slavery, through the formation of African American newspapers, and through the African American convention movement.
From the first parades, where people spoke their own African languages, but their friends, with their own African languages and couldn't understand them, the new community needed its own origin story, and the author shows how the book of Exodus from the Jewish Bible was adopted, interpreted, and debated within the community.
From the first parades, where people spoke their own African languages, but their friends, with their own African languages and couldn't understand them, the new community needed its own origin story, and the author shows how the book of Exodus from the Jewish Bible was adopted, interpreted, and debated within the community.
July 10, 2023
Really enjoyed the content; struggled with the style. I wonder why the author thought it necessary to use what, in my opinion, is overly complicated language. The last few chapters are my favorite.
I also don’t find the title to be very appropriate. I think a discourse on Exodus is a smaller component of this book than the title suggests.
But like said, great content and thesis. Great food-for-thought.
I also don’t find the title to be very appropriate. I think a discourse on Exodus is a smaller component of this book than the title suggests.
But like said, great content and thesis. Great food-for-thought.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews