What religion were most of the Slaves brought from Africa?

Question

I remember reading a translation of this slave narrative in college.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Ibn_Said

My college prof. said that as much as 60% of slaves brought from Africa were muslim. But I can not find any source that validates this. I am sure there some muslims, but how many?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdulrahman_Ibrahim_Ibn_Sori

The second link is the story of a prince who was captured and sold into slavery.

rossonero - voudoun (voo doo) is actually closer to christianity than it is to witchcraft. Get your mind right.

BTW, its not so far fetched there was a huge moslem empire (songhay) in west Africa before slavery. Mali was another empire whos king converted to islam. so its not unlikely.

Answer 1

Interesting if it's true. I was under the impression that most were tribal and followed tribal religions, with the village shaman, etc. Once they arrived in the colonies, no matter what they were previously, they were Christianized. As their culture evolved in the States, they became very spiritual as a group with a strong faith in God and an identity with the stories of Moses.

Answer 2

Ask the professor for the source of information. Profs usually want you to cite your sources make him cite his.

It seems to me they would have been more likely a variety of different mostly pagan religions from Africa. There were probably some Muslims in with them but I find it hard to beleive the majority were Muslims. What ever they were before most followed the religion of their slave masters. Usually that would be Baptist, Methodest, Presbyterian, or Episcopal although I am sure there were people of other religions who held slaves too but the bulk were in the Southern States where those religions were predominant.

Answer 3

Many tribes had a form of ancestral worship and religions and traditions central to a particular group and/or region.

Answer 4

Judging from Brazil and Haiti it seems they practiced various forms of witchcraft.

.02: perhaps to non-christians voodoo seems closer to christianity than witchcraft (macumba too?), but we don't think as highly of demonic activity as purveyors of witchcraft do, i assure you.