Christianity amid American slavery took on many faces and characteristics. As a religion, it was used as a manipulative tool by slave masters to further justify the institution, including asserting their authority over their slaves. In the slave community, Christianity was adapted as a way to shape an identity and create a sense of dignity for an oppressed people. Christianity, in the context of the slave community, was a means of uplifting and encouraging slaves, a means of promoting the interests of slave owners, and in some cases a means used to justify freedom. Black slaves in general held to a different form of Christianity that was unknown to traditional Orthodox Christianity. As discussed at a February 4, 2014 conference, black slaves held to an interpretation of Christianity that emphasized the Old Testament and all of its heroes and accomplishments. The slaves also reinterpreted Jesus Christ, representing him in the Old Testament context of an Old Testament king like King David, who won many victories on this earth (Lesson 02/04/14) . Because of slave masters' perversion of Christian teachings and their erroneous catechisms, slaves reacted strongly against the New Testament and its teachings. In turn, slaves would cling to the Old Testament, not least because of the role the Jews played amid their captivity at the hands of the Egyptians in ancient times. (Covered in the Bible under the Old Testament books of Genesis and Exodus) The reality of God coming to the aid of His chosen people, the Jews, was a theme that encouraged and comforted the slaves, and they willingly adopted this similar idea of ​​being God's. chosen people." Furthermore, slaves clung to the old ...... middle of paper ...... when on plantations, in fields and other common areas, expounding the Christian vision of the world in action. Rose William is a curious case, she was a woman born into slavery and recounted her time in slavery She loved her family and was almost sold out until her father took the initiative and asked to. her master, Mr. Hawkins, to buy his daughter He was a slave breeder and bought her for the enjoyment of her and her family. Mr. Hawkins would eventually force Rose Williams to have children with her. a man she hated, named Rufus She would continue after the end of the Civil War to leave Rufus and return with her parents until they died She worked as a cook for the whites until she became. blind. Works Cited Blassingame, John W. Life on Communal Slave Plantations in the Antebellum South. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979. Print