While listening to the song Buffalo Soldier by Bob Marley recently, I noticed the lyric "buffalo soldier, dreadlock Rasta". This song is based around the American civil war, and to my knowledge the Rastafarian religion has only been around since the 1930s. Is there evidence of people in the civil war era following Rastafarian type religions, or is this lyric just artistic license?
I'm not a historian but I can answer this. I don't want to go off on a tangent about who Haile Selassie was and the fundamanetals of Rasta, but I really recommend reading up, at least on wiki about Haile Selassie and Rastafari and also the term Buffalo Soldier.
To answer your question, Rastafari is essentially a judeo-christian religion, as it follows the old testament. Rasta is based on the idea that Africans (Ethiopians) are one of the lost tribes of Israel: The Conquering Tribe of the Lion of Judah, from the line of King David. Now whether or not Africans thought this 400 years ago is beyond me, but I assume unlikely.
But the idea is that slavery forcibly displaced these people from their home. Rasta is a religion that (among other things) claims that they are the chosen people and promises a return to their home.
Buffalo soldiers were blacks 'forced' to fight in a war they didn't want to be part of, in a country they didn't want to be in. Bob's song is saying that these soldiers were rastas, or the spirit of what rasts stands for.
It's all in the lyrics:
Buffalo Soldier, Dreadlock Rasta
There was a Buffalo Soldier in the heart of America
Stolen from Africa, brought to America
Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival