The Religious World of the Early Modern Caribbean
摘要
This chapter examines the eighteenth-century Caribbean as a crucial context for understanding the Moravian Church’s early missionary efforts. Focusing on the Danish West Indies and Antigua, it explores how Moravian women missionaries navigated the geopolitical, economic, and social landscapes of colonial slavery. The Moravian Church, predominantly German and Pietist, leveraged connections to the Danish crown and European networks to establish missions aimed at converting enslaved Africans. Despite initial naivety regarding the realities of Atlantic slavery, missionaries integrated into plantation societies, serving as overseers and plantation owners while advocating for spiritual salvation rather than earthly freedom. The chapter situates the Moravians’ missionary work within the broader dynamics of the Caribbean’s Atlantic slave trade and explores their theological accommodation of slavery. Early missions targeted enslaved populations, redefining Protestant theology to separate Christian salvation from manumission. Moravian records, while sparse on the brutal realities of slavery, reflect the missionaries’ efforts to reconcile their religious mission with their complicity in chattel slavery. Despite operating within a system of racial stratification, the Moravians fostered Black-majority congregations and created spaces for Black Christian worship. This chapter frames the Moravians’ Caribbean missions as a nexus of global exchange, imperial politics, and religious expansion, underscoring the complexities of their role in the Atlantic world.