Religion and Slavery

I think it's sort of ironic that the narratives we have read so far both strongly emphasize the importance of religion in the lives of slaves.  Christianity argues that all men are equal under god, and that slavery is wrong.  Yet many slave owners were the ones who pushed religion on the Africans, and saw them as lesser people because they were not Christians too.  I don't understand how these people could claim to believe so strongly in Christianity, yet choose to ignore one of the most fundamental aspects of it.  And why did the slaves, who were not treated equally even as Christians, still choose to follow this religion so strictly?

My First Post

While I was reading about Equiano's experiences as a slave, I kept thinking back to my intro psychology course last semester.  There was a section about social psychology, which discussed racism and how it has a lot do to with not fully understanding something that is different from ourselves.  Obviously the Europeans and slave traders did not understand the Africans, but I don't think the Africans understood the Europeans and slave traders either.  

Equiano, for example, thought that they were magical, and were going to sacrifice him to keep the ship moving.  

But after such a long time together, Equiano became more and more like the Europeans.  He learned how to read and write, and even became baptized.  Many of his closest friends were free white men and women.  Why then, after so many years and so much evidence to disprove their misconceptions about each other, did slavery and racism continue?