University of North Carolina Press Hard, Hard Religion: Interracial Faith in the Poor South (New Directions in Southern Studies)

In his captivating study of faith and class, John Hayes examines the ways folk religion in the early twentieth century allowed the South's poor--both white and black--to listen, borrow, and learn from each other about what it meant to live as Christians in a world of severe struggle. Beneath the well-documented religious forms of the New South, people caught in the region's poverty crafted a distinct folk Christianity that spoke from the margins of capitalist development, giving voice to modern phenomena like alienation and disenchantment. Through haunting songs of death, mystical tales of conversion, grassroots sacramental displays, and an ethic of neighborliness, impoverished folk Christians looked for the sacred in their midst and affirmed the value of this life in this world. From Tom Watson and W. E. B. Du Bois over a century ago to political commentators today, many have ruminated on how, despite material commonalities, the poor of the South have been perennially divided by racism. Through his excavation of a folk Christianity of the poor, which fused strands of African and European tradition into a new synthesis, John Hayes recovers a historically contingent moment of interracial exchange generated in hardship. Review Hard, Hard Religion is thoroughly researched, well written, and convincingly argued. . . . An excellent example of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of vernacular religion.--Journal of Folklore ResearchA significant addition and revision to both the history of and religious accounts of the New South and deserves a wide readership.--Virginia MagazineMakes an important contribution by showing that human and religious contact occurred across the color line in the Jim Crow South, even if neighborliness never challenged segregation.--Journal of American HistoryA beautiful exploration and an excellent and unusual volume.--CHOICEIn this remarkable book, Hayes explores how poor black and white Christians shaped a 'folk Christianity' in the New South out of their common experiences with poverty and Christianity.--The Journal of Southern HistoryOffers a glimpse of the remarkable creativity, passion, and tenacity of the poor Christians--black and white--who were thrown into a world that, in a variety of sometimes exclusive and sometimes overlapping ways, was predicated on their marginalization.--Journal of the American Academy of Religion About the Author John Hayes is associate professor of history at Augusta University.