Not an academic study but certainly an example of yet more evidence of what you found in Munford:
Robert Ryland, the white minister (and an enslaver) who was appointed by First Baptist Church in Richmond to oversee First African Baptist Church, also in Richmond, claimed that tutelage such as he brought to his congregation removed the sort of beliefs Munford later documented: " They have less superstition, less reliance on dreams and visions, they talk less of the palpable guidings of the Spirit as independent of or opposed to the word of God.” Notably, Ryland made this claim in the first of a series of articles he published as " "Reminiscences of the First African Baptist Church, Richmond, V.A. by the Pastor” in American Baptist Memorial in Sept, Oct, Nov. Dec, 1855. He wrote the articles to salvage his own reputation after it was discovered that current and former First African congregants were using the church to communicate strategies about how enslaved people could seize their own freedom. In other words, Black Virginians maintained their own priorities and ways of doing even when they were members of the “officially sanctioned” Black Baptist congregation, and did so without the knowledge of white religious authorities. Reading Ryland’s declaration about Blacks within his church foregoing dreams and visions — clearly indicating how many Blacks held beliefs Ryland and other whites would relegate to the realm of “superstition” or “ghosts and hants” — methinks he does attest too much. And of course those who joined First African were but a subset of all African Americans in Richmond, whose beliefs Ryland and his ilk only wished they could force to conform to the dictates of white religion.
Lois Leveen, PhD
Portland OR 97214
[log in to unmask]
she/her/hers
Latest article: Imperfect Justice in the Imperfect Archive: Uncovering Extrajudicial Black Resistance in Richmond’s Civil War Court Records <https://www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2023/02/imperfect-justice-in-the-imperfect-archive-uncovering-extrajudicial-black-resistance-in-richmonds-civil-war-court-records/>
> On May 14, 2023, at 7:25 AM, Meyers, Terry L <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> In working on the Williamsburg Bray school and the religious education of local Blacks, I’ve had in mind not only the Anglican mission of the school (and of William and Mary, which helped to oversee the school) but also the concurrent development of the First Baptist Church. Both, of course, embodied mainstream Christian belief.
>
> But I’ve stumbled across a forgotten account of Williamsburg life that seems to suggest a different system of belief. In _Random Recollections_ (privately printed; 1905), Beverley Munford recounts over several pages his exposure (seemingly in the 1860’s) to Black beliefs different from Christianity:
>
> Before the glowing wood - fires on their hearthstones I would sit and listen to the conversations of the old " Uncles " and " Aunts , " as I was taught to call them , while they recounted their religious experiences , their stores of superstition and folk - lore , or told weird stories of what they had seen and heard in the shadowy land of ghosts and “ hants . ” I thus learned how they regarded what they called " white folks ' religion " -a system , they averred , de- rived from books , while theirs came by direct revelation from on High to every soul which had successively ex- perienced the trials and triumphs of " conviction , " seeking " and " coming through . “
> (p. 32)
>
> From: https://books.google.com/books?id=5SwTAAAAYAAJ&source=gbs_book_other_versions
>
> My guess is that these beliefs were likely current too in earlier times.
>
> Is there a good academic study/history of any such tradition in Virginia of what Munford describes?
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Terry L. Meyers, Chancellor Professor of English, Emeritus, The College of William and Mary, in Virginia, Williamsburg 23187
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