UCLA

This dissertation examines how Central African populations exported to North America contributed to and shaped enslaved spiritual and religious life on antebellum plantations, specifically South Carolina conjure traditions. Beginning with a close analysis of ascension narratives of Christian Kongo kings, the succession of Dom Diogo in 1561 illustrates how the onset of Christianity created tension within the Kongo ruling elite early and often and how Kongolese traditional politics remained at the core of political and religious transformations within the region. From the sixteenth century to the nineteenth century, Central Africans certainly brought with them a strong wherewithal of Central African religious and spiritual mores, even if deduced to its core forms. Central Africans disembarked in North America under the extreme conditions of slavery contribute deep and highly complex structure and spiritual traditions in a new and constantly changing antebellum slave plantation society. In South Carolina, this dissertation examines the role of conjure in enslaved healing and religious life to illustrate conjure’s direct links to its Central African predecessor. Previous scholars have argued that Bakongo identities were Catholic or have offered overly complex definitions of conjure and its practices. Here, it is argued that conjure is a reproduction of Central Africa spiritual life in South Carolina. In conclusion, the preference for Angolan and Central African borne identities in such events like the Stono Rebellion of 1739 and the Denmark Vesey Conspiracy of 1822 further reinforce the value of Central African derived customs and spiritual efficacy operating within conjuring networks in South Carolina.