I downloaded a preview of Black Rednecks and White Liberals, and it is interesting, but I'm planning on reading it for entertainment, rather than critically following up footnotes. Does anyone know if the facts are generally accurate? I'm aware that there will be some controversial opinions, but those are easier to spot than spurious "facts".
To my eye Sowell's thesis is plausible but based on excerpts like ". . . and a style of religious oratory marked by rhetoric, unbridled emotions, and flamboyant imagery. . . " I suspect that Sowell does not know much about English reformed christianity and is himself unchurched.
The thing is that the forms of worship in the slave churches and in backcountry white churches are recognizably those of the calvinist gathered churches with lay (mechanic) preachers common in England and in the Colonies outside of New England after 1640 and associated with the English Independents as opposed to the Presbyterians.
How the African slaves became Christian is certainly a worthwhile topic for study.