Abstract
Even prior to their lormal organization in the nineteenth century, Black religious leaders and communities in “invisible institutions,” served as prophetic voices and advocates for liberation and justice. Motivated by visions of freedom and biblical exemplars, prophetic preachers like Nat Turner and Gabriel Prosser in Virginia, and Denmark Vesey in South Carolina, plotted and executed slave uprisings that threatened the foundations of the slavocracy. Inspired by the liberating Spirit of God, prophetic Black abolitionists like Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and Frederick Douglass lifted their portending voices like trumpets to proclaim deliverance to the captives.