How Baptisms Became A Form Of Sacred Black Protest

Throughout the bible, water is used as a metaphor to express God’s righteous love and power. Baptismal waters are among the most sacred, inviting spiritual cleansing and union with God. 

Throughout the Caribbean and American South, enslavers denied our people the baptismal rite. Baptism meant that someone was entitled to political rights and social standing. 

Enslavers feared baptisms would encourage uprisings. In 1664 the Colony of Virginia passed a law stating the baptism of an enslaved person did not free them.

 In 1706, six of the 13 colonies made it illegal for baptized enslaved persons to question or threaten enslavers’ rights to own human beings. 

To get around the spiritual policing on plantations, our enslaved ancestors worshipped in secret. These meetings might have included secret river baptisms.

The spiritual, “Take Me To The Water” expresses a yearning to be baptized. Some versions of the hymn can be traced back to antebellum plantations. 

If this is true, the hymn is potentially a coded history of these secret baptisms of the enslaved, making these rituals a form of spiritual resistance.

Hymns like “Take Me To The Water” remind us nothing could keep our ancestors from drawing closer to God. 

Drawing closer to God and each other is still a form of sacred resistance.