South Carolina Encyclopedia Praise House
I felt this would be a great day to share some history of the “Slave Churches” or what was called “Praise Houses, or “Prayer Houses”
The very existence of praise houses in South Carolina indicates that masters failed in their attempt to make the plantation a completely closed system.
“Praise houses” (sometimes called “prayer houses”) functioned on antebellum South Carolina plantations as both the epitome of slave culture and symbols of resistance to slaveholders’ oppressive version of Christianity.
Generally simple, clapboard structures built by the slaves themselves, praise houses were erected with the knowledge, if not always the complete approval, of the master class. Meetings in the praise house usually occurred on weeknights rather than on Sunday mornings. Pious masters preferred that their slaves be in attendance at white-dominated churches where sermons buttressed the slave system with carefully chosen scriptural texts.
Even under the degrading conditions of slavery, religious life and practice strengthened and sustained the slave community. The building of the praise houses reveals the struggle of the enslaved to maintain their humanity in the midst of an inhuman system.
“Oh, Oh, Oh, how I love this!” Thank the Lord for the strength, courage, and faith that He gave to our ancestors. Even though the story talks about Praise Houses in South Carolina, I believe this was systematic with all the masters and their slaves.
[Antebellum - occurring or existing before a particular war, especially the American Civil War]
This was the hypocrisy when it came to the “quote on quote” Christian masters using the Bible erroneously, more like intentionally to make the slaves think that it was okay with God for them to subject their slaves to cruelty: The masters used (abused) scriptures to justify them mistreating slaves.
This came from the Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, 6: 5-8: “Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.” (Paul repeated himself, almost word for word, in the third chapter of his Epistle to the Colossians 3:22-24.)
What about the next verse that says:
And you, masters, do the same things to them, giving up threatening, knowing that your own Master also is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him (Ephesians 5:9). Mind you that the masters professed to be born again; remember the Bible is written for Christians only, because an unsaved person does not understand the Word of God. (1 Corinthians 2:14)
What it boils down to is that superior mentality exists today, in the workforce, and definitely in some mixed congregation of churches. We are only slaves to Christ who is our Lord and Master!
What can be taken away from this message: Although our ancestors suffered and died through their bravery, God used them to help us have certain liberties today in the world system. However, in Christ, to those who know the truth, we have total freedom (John 8:32, 36, -Galatians 5:1).
His handmaiden, Betty A. Burnett ~ burnettministries.org
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