This started out as a reply to a comment here about Black Evangelical churches being rooted in slavery. It got too long, so I'm making it a diary.
Yes, Christianity was imposed on Black (and Native American) slaves as a conscious act of religious and tribal genocide, as yet one more way to keep slaves from organizing by their previous cultural ties. Similar policies were practiced by European colonists all around the world.
The slaves promptly figured out ways to keep their old religions alive through Voodoo, Santeria, Macumba, etc., while simultaneously bringing their traditional worship styles into officially "Christian" churches. The Native Americans, on the other hand, started yammering to the whites about a "Great Spirit," in hopes of being seen as fellow monotheists. Most of them were forced into Christian churches anyway.
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Euro-Americans weren't forced to become Christians here because that religious genocide took place centuries beforehand. And yes, when your choice is to convert, be banished from your tribe, or be executed, that's religious genocide, whether it's being done by Hebrews 2500 years ago, Christians 1500–500 (or ten) years ago, or Muslims 1400-0 years ago.
One of the many hostile replies to the original comment pointed out how devoutly and sincerely Uncle Tom demonstrated his Christian faith in the famous novel named after him. Uncle Tom was a fictional character designed to get white Christians to be sympathetic towards Black slaves. We can't make any historical judgements about early Black Christians based on a character in a novel written by a white person.
Fortunately, from my POV and that of most modern pluralists, both white and Black Americans are discovering that their religions have been revived in modern forms. There are plenty of Black and white "Christians" secretly going to a coven, grove, or tambour on Saturday night before publicly going to church on Sunday morning.
Between South, Central, and North America and the Caribbean, there are at least three quarters of a billion followers of Macumba, Condomble, Umbanda, Obeah, Voudoun, Santeria, and American Voodoo—most of whom "officially" call themselves Christians when the governments ask their denominations. That makes Afro-American Mesopaganism one of the worlds "Great Religions," with far more members than many other faiths who usually gain that title.
All of this said, certainly the Black Evangelicals are 50% less obnoxious than the white ones, when it comes to attempting to shove their theological opinions down other people's throats. Those opinions are closer to the ones most liberal white Christians share anyway, so aren't perceived as such.
But saying that any group of Christians is "more authentically Christian" than another is pointless and unprovable. The Bible was deliberately edited to make it possible for the founders and later rulers to promote any version of Christ they liked, whether the sweet and gentle one or the bloody and warlike one, depending on which would be more useful to those in power. The fact that some Bible verses can now be used to promote peace and freedom instead of war and slavery is happenstance, not authenticity.
These are my religious and historical opinions, based on a lifetime of research and practice as a polytheist living in a Christian-dominated culture. Your Mana May Vary.