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Please check back for more information about the spiritual heritage of the past residents of Spring Island
Establishment of Praise Houses
Buildings referred to as "pray's" or "meeting" houses—or simply "classroom. once dotted sea-islands of the Low Country."
Praise house leaders were revered laypersons, versus clerics. Their responsibilities included leading religious services and upholding "just laws" when presiding over ad hoc courts. Praise houses also acted as community centers and schools. A praise house stood in the Bonny Shore area of Spring Island; first-person accounts in the early 20th century refer to it as a school for black children.
Praise houses sprang up in sizable numbers on plantations like the Edwards' estate. Their prevalence reflected slave communities being widely scattered across the landscape, comprising individuals hailing from diverse regions of West Africa (holding different spiritual beliefs). Additional praise houses were built when missionary activity brought new Christian denominations to plantation communities.
Religious Practices
Religious expression for the first African slaves on Spring Island would have been in open-air, 'brush arbor' meetings organized somewhat outside the control of planter or overseer. In the early 1800s a string of slave uprisings spurred South Carolina's planters to fund the "Plantation Mission System," an initiative promoting Christianity. At this time some plantation owners and their families attended Sunday church services with their slaves. The Edwards family may have done so—or worshiped privately (no record exists of a freestanding chapel on Spring Island).
From the early 1800s on praise houses became increasingly important to the communities they served. Their most important function was as places of fellowship. Congregants sought God, underwent initiation—gaining spiritual instruction before being baptized and formally welcomed as church members.
Certain religious customs practiced in praise house were drawn directly from West Africa—for example, the "shout" and the practice of rhythmic hand clapping. Such traditions are now woven into the Gullah heritage and the "praise house spirit."
Voodoo and Magic
Art and spirituality are entwined in African folk cultures and this quality became a part of African American traditions within the Low Country. "Haint Blue" painted on window and door-frames is a particular color thought to ward off evil spirits.
'Root' customs share characteristics with African voodoo/hoodoo practices. Specialists known as "doctors" among enslaved peoples had knowledge of natural medicines, but also the ingredients for magical potions. The latter practices were kept secret from white people who feared and tried to eradicate them.