In studying the culture and religion of African American people, we will get to this famous debate on the continuity of African American culture. On one hand, Herskovitz argues that the African slaves managed to preserve their tradition since the slavery era and thus their religions, although now new to them, are still influenced by their original African culture. On the other hand, Frazier argues that the institution of slavery uprooted the African slaves from their cultures and thus whatever culture they have now is unrelated to their original African cultures. Kambiz GhaneaBassiri reminds me again about this in his discussion on the early history of Islam in the United States.