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Author Gordon, Shirley C

Title God Almighty, make me free : Christianity in preemancipation Jamaica / Shirley C. Gordon
Published Bloomington : Indiana University Press, ©1996

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Description 1 online resource (xiii, 159 pages) : map
Series Blacks in the diaspora
Blacks in the diaspora.
Summary This important text describes the impact of evangelical Christianity on slaves in Jamaica (the overwhelming majority of the island's population) in the eighty-four years between the arrival of the first European Protestant missionaries and the emancipation of British slaves in 1838. Shirley C. Gordon argues that the conversion process was achieved through the work of black and colored proselytizers - independent preachers and deacons, leaders, aids, slave and free - and European missionary stations. The acceptance of Christianity was progressively associated with slaves' growing aspirations for freedom, and the desire of freed persons for socio-political recognition in colonial society. Gordon draws on letters and diaries of European missionaries who reported their encounters with a largely illiterate population. These accounts reflect the varied responses to missionaries, and the consistent opposition from the slave-holding sugar interests in Jamaica. This volume also dramatizes the counterpoint between missionary preaching for conversion and the slave beliefs and practices originating in African traditions. God Almighty Make Me Free represents Caribbean-centered history using missionary sources to explore the responses of a slave and free population to the Christian teaching of white European and of black American and native preachers. This work provides a unique analysis of black American religion under slavery
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 147-151) and index
Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
English
Print version record
digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL
Subject Black people -- Jamaica -- Religion
RELIGION -- Christianity -- History.
Black people -- Religion
Christentum
Geschichte
Schwarze
Slaven (arbeid)
Christendom.
Geschichte 1754-1838.
SUBJECT Jamaica -- Church history -- 18th century
Jamaica -- Church history -- 19th century
Subject Jamaica
Jamaika
Schwärze
Jamaica.
Genre/Form Church history
Form Electronic book
ISBN 0585104964
9780585104966