The Legacy of African American
Christian Christmas Celebration
Part II:
Part II:
Hardships Do Not Make It Too Hard to Love
For years now, Kwanzaa has been supported as a way to bring African American tradition into the Christmas celebration. However, what is severely lacking in Kwanzaa is the Christian legacy of African American Christmas celebration. This “mini-series” of blogs will explore the legacy of African American Christian Christmas Celebration.
A Brief Break from Horrible Hardships
Booker T. Washington discussed his memories of Christmas in The Booker T. Washington Papers. Washington noted that Christmas was the favorite holiday of the year for most slaves. It allowed them a respite from the horrible hardships and an opportunity to join as families to celebrate together.
During the Christmas season for slaves in Virginia, the slaves ceased to work for up to ten days. Some slaves received a present from their master. Washington recalled that a master who did not give his slave presents was looked down upon by other masters.[i]
Family Love Remembered at Christmas Time
Though everything fought against them, enslaved African Americans battled gallantly to maintain family cohesion—a cohesion that provided a sturdy platform from which to handle life courageously and to celebrate Christmas even during the horrors of enslavement.
Jennie Hill was born and enslaved in 1837 in Missouri. Florence Patton interviewed the ninety-six-year-old Hill in 1933. During her interview while talking about Christmas memories, Hill adamantly resisted the notion that enslaved families lacked closeness. “Some people think that the slaves had no feeling—that there was no heartbreak when the children were torn from their parents or the mother taken from her brood to toil for a master in another state. But that isn’t so. The slaves loved their families even as Blacks love their own today. . .”[ii]
Communicating the message of African American family love was so important to Reverend Thomas Jones that he bore witness to it on the very first page of his narrative. “I can testify, from my own painful experience, to the deep and fond affection which the slave cherishes in his heart for his home and its dear ones. We have no other tie to link us to the human family, but our fervent love for those who are with us and of us in relations of sympathy and devotedness, in wrongs and wretchedness.”[iii]
The slave narratives and interviews tell remarkable stories about family love celebrated at Christmas and year round. One ex-enslaved person, reflecting back on his favorite Christmas memories, recalls his enslaved father’s character. “I loved my father. He was such a good man. He was a good carpenter and could do anything. My mother just rejoiced in him. . . . I sometimes think I learned more in my early childhood about how to live than I have learned since.”[iv] All he ever needed to learn, he learned in his enslaved home.
Will Adam’s father, a foreman on a Texas plantation, always came home exhausted after a long day’s work. However, he never failed to take his son out of bed and play with him for hours.[v]
Satan longs to blind African Americans to their legacy of family love. He wants all of us to believe that hardships make it too hard to love. These Christmas reflections from enslaved African Americans teach hardships do NOT make it too hard to love.
A Brief Break from Horrible Hardships
Booker T. Washington discussed his memories of Christmas in The Booker T. Washington Papers. Washington noted that Christmas was the favorite holiday of the year for most slaves. It allowed them a respite from the horrible hardships and an opportunity to join as families to celebrate together.
During the Christmas season for slaves in Virginia, the slaves ceased to work for up to ten days. Some slaves received a present from their master. Washington recalled that a master who did not give his slave presents was looked down upon by other masters.[i]
Family Love Remembered at Christmas Time
Though everything fought against them, enslaved African Americans battled gallantly to maintain family cohesion—a cohesion that provided a sturdy platform from which to handle life courageously and to celebrate Christmas even during the horrors of enslavement.
Jennie Hill was born and enslaved in 1837 in Missouri. Florence Patton interviewed the ninety-six-year-old Hill in 1933. During her interview while talking about Christmas memories, Hill adamantly resisted the notion that enslaved families lacked closeness. “Some people think that the slaves had no feeling—that there was no heartbreak when the children were torn from their parents or the mother taken from her brood to toil for a master in another state. But that isn’t so. The slaves loved their families even as Blacks love their own today. . .”[ii]
Communicating the message of African American family love was so important to Reverend Thomas Jones that he bore witness to it on the very first page of his narrative. “I can testify, from my own painful experience, to the deep and fond affection which the slave cherishes in his heart for his home and its dear ones. We have no other tie to link us to the human family, but our fervent love for those who are with us and of us in relations of sympathy and devotedness, in wrongs and wretchedness.”[iii]
The slave narratives and interviews tell remarkable stories about family love celebrated at Christmas and year round. One ex-enslaved person, reflecting back on his favorite Christmas memories, recalls his enslaved father’s character. “I loved my father. He was such a good man. He was a good carpenter and could do anything. My mother just rejoiced in him. . . . I sometimes think I learned more in my early childhood about how to live than I have learned since.”[iv] All he ever needed to learn, he learned in his enslaved home.
Will Adam’s father, a foreman on a Texas plantation, always came home exhausted after a long day’s work. However, he never failed to take his son out of bed and play with him for hours.[v]
Satan longs to blind African Americans to their legacy of family love. He wants all of us to believe that hardships make it too hard to love. These Christmas reflections from enslaved African Americans teach hardships do NOT make it too hard to love.
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