Slave Burial Customs

Rituals and practices used by African American slaves during burials of the deceased. Traditional African religious beliefs held that the spirit of a deceased person lived on in a community of souls. Death of a community member was followed by an elaborate burial rite over which leaders presided. Any lingering conflicts in the person's life were addressed—matters of property, obligations, and cause of death were settled to the satisfaction of all those present at the burial. The rituals sometimes took several days and were a crucial preparation for the afterlife. A properly conducted burial freed the dead person's soul from his or her earthly existence.

Africans who came to the New World as slaves kept some traditional customs, even as they adapted to life on Southern plantations. For many, the transition involved conversion to Christianity under the guidance of Catholic and Protestant missionaries. Slaves who converted to Christianity accepted Western religious beliefs. However, Christian concepts of rebirth and afterlife, as described in the New Testament, were also compatible with traditional African views. Many slaves thus continued to see death as liberation, believing that the deceased would return to their homes (often in Africa) to dwell eternally among family and friends.

Burial rituals on slave plantations served to prepare the dead for their journey. Objects including arrows, food, models of boats, decorated cloth, and talismans were sometimes placed in graves, even at Christian burials. It was customary for slaves to decorate the outside of a grave with an occupant's favorite belonjings—among them pipes, glassware, and toiletries—often cracked to allow the objects to follow their owners to the afterlife. Other rituals with African roots included killing a white chicken before burial, the symbolic use of white cloth, and the planting of evergreen trees on the gravesite.

Such practices, in addition to preparing souls to return to their homelands, were believed to prevent unsettled spirits from lingering to haunt the living. White missionaries in Mississippi reported that slaves observed All Hallow's Eve, a traditional Western feast day, by cooking meals for deceased relatives and leaving them out to satisfy wayward souls.

Slave folklore abounded with tales of mischievous relatives in the form of spirits who repeatedly visited homes, churches, and gravesites. Such slave superstitions became oral legends that were passed along through stories and songs, sometimes inspiring great unease in listeners. For many slaves, the cultural significance of burial rituals thus survived conversion to Christianity.

On some plantations, slaves had their own grave yards where they held ceremonies away from the supervision of their owners. Slave funerals often took place at night, when the rituals would not interfere with participants' work. When possible, slaves obtained an ox cart to carry the deceased to the graveyard, and [Page 753]a procession accompanied the cart. Marchers sang mournful songs—spirituals—that blended African musical traditions with Protestant hymns and scriptures. Singers freely improvised the lyrics, offering expressions of crushing grief and solemn tributes to the dead. Slave preachers delivered funeral sermons before burial. Observers remarked on the dramatic, timeless nature of the slave burial rituals.

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