Living Trees As Altars

I’ve been watching series on TV about the Civil and Revolutionary Wars, and it got me to thinking. Before the Civil War, slaves who wanted to practice the religion of their African roots were forced to worship in secret. Since they had no way to make an altar to their gods,, they ventured out into the garden or down by the fields late at night and offered prayers to their deities at a designated tree. In this, they followed a custom of their ancestors, who proffered prayers to tropical trees, such as the fig. More in my next post.