Shining a “New Light”

Although the fight for black freedom began with arrival of the first enslaved Africans to American shores, it was not until international debate regarding the “universal rights of man,” and adoption of “America’s Religion” at the end of the Revolutionary War, that black freedom emerged as a matter of political, social, and religious debate. African American religious leadership emerged during America’s First Great Awakening, prepared to energize and empower “New Light” evangelicals to minister to enslaved populations. First Great Awakening Protestant ideals promoted a set of beliefs: that all people were born sinners; that adherence to sin without repentance and