Created in Their Image
Evangelical Protestantism in Antigua and Barbados, 1834-1914
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When the restrictions of slavery were lifted in 1834, a new European Christian morality of the Africans evolved. This Christian morality was expected to inform the convert of the new concepts of right and wrong, good and evil. The general sentiment was that through instruction, the formerly enslaved Africans would understand and live by these new principles. The missionaries wanted to produce a “black moral person” which, noted Horace Russell, was an obvious effort to “reinstate the African into the human race.” The hope for the African was Christianity. This sentiment was expressed by Caldecott, who wrote: Certain it is that the godless Negro with mind wholly unmoved by religious motive, unoccupied with religious aspirations, and untrained by any religious discipline, is a lamentable object of pity. For the Evangelical Protestant, not only was the unchristian African an object of pity but an embodiment of evil. The converse was the Evangelical Black. A sketch of the Evangelical Black pictured the upright, prudent, cerebral and respected person. But these attributes were to be etched from a cultural context of not only defiant African traditions, but racial prejudice. Since the characteristics of the Evangelical Black countered the masculine Quashie stereotype, it is questionable whether the Evangelical Black accomplished a balance of masculinity and femininity. What is clear is that through education, the Moravians and Methodists endeavoured to moralize the formerly enslaved Africans.
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About the Book
E very denomination entered the Caribbean with a mission. While the general motivation was to convert the population to Christianity, the accompanying practices were undoubtedly intended to civilise and westernise. The Moravians and Methodists were the first two evangelical Protestant missions that brought the gospel to the enslaved Africans in the Caribbean.When emancipation was granted to the enslaved Africans by the British government in 1834, the newly freed Africans had their own ideas as to how they would live, work, and worship. They were in a struggle for freedom, self-affirmation, self-expression, and personal development. But the Moravians and Methodists had independently framed their thoughts on what the formerly enslaved Africans needed to survive and succeed. What the evangelical Protestants created for themselves was an image of the formerly enslaved African. They had drawn a mental picture of a European Christian of African descent who was residing in the Caribbean and practicing the Christianity of the West. The Caribbean evangelical black was a reflection of the Europeans but never managed to fit into the submissive Christian image. This book traces the eighty years during which formerly enslaved Africans adapted to their state of freedom in Antigua and Barbados and how the Moravians and Methodists sought to shape their way of life.. The book examines the theological dispositions on slavery, gender, education, religion, sexuality, and race.
About the Author
Winelle Kirton-Roberts has been researching the history of missions in the Caribbean for over twenty years. A 1993 graduate of United Theological College of the West Indies, she gained a World Council of Churches scholarship and pursued a ThM in ecumenics and missions at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1995–96. Following this, she completed her PhD in history from the University of the West Indies, Barbados, in 2009. Dr Kirton-Roberts is an ordained minister in the Moravian Church Eastern West Indies Province and has worked in Trinidad(1993-1995), Barbados(1997-2006) and Virgin Islands(2006 to present). She was the Superintendent of the Virgin Islands Conference 2008-2014. Having taught Caribbean church history at Codrington Theological Seminary, Barbados, for six years, Dr Kirton-Roberts discovered the dearth and limitations of Caribbean church histories. Writers, on the one hand, have chronicled the development of the Christian Missions but have often overlooked or justified the socio-economic disparities that confronted the enslaved and formerly enslaved Africans. Denominational histories, on the other hand, have recounted the stories of the heroes and heroines of the missions, but, for lack of critical analysis, these have been largely hagiographic. In her book Created in Their Image, Winelle Kirton-Roberts has sought to add a new perspective on Christian Missions in the Caribbean. Her research has introduced the methodology of missiology which brings together the important fields of history and theology. She has therefore brought to the fore important discussions on the theological assumptions of the sending agencies and how these informed and shaped their missionary thrusts in the Caribbean.