It took on new meaning for African Americans on New Year’s Eve of 1862. In 1823 a log church was built for the African American community in the Salem area. the enslaved and dispossessed, not in spite of their disinheritedness, but because of it” (105–106). At the time, Bethlehem was considered one the most egalitarian communities in European North America, said Seth Moglen, a professor of English at Lehigh. Gospel Message of Great Awakening Reaches Those Enslaved in North America It’s excellent for getting a feel of the full geographical range of all the mentioned ethnicities, however it should be noted that this regional breakdown (“Senegambia”, “Sierra Leone”, “Windward Coast” etc.) In America the reverse was the case: the pagan slave was brought to a Christian disciple who was frequently reluctant to instruct him in the gospel. We still live in the nostalgia of having brought the gospel to the people of African descent in the Caribbean. Christ loved . In fact, after being sent out by Count Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf, the two traveled from Herrnhut to Copenhagen, Denmark, where their plan initially met with strong opposition. In my research on the Moravians I have yet to find an instance where Moravian missionaries voluntarily sold themselves into slavery, although this is often claimed. As the ship pulled away from the docks, it is said that they called out to their loved ones on shore, "May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering!" Anna Maria Samuel was admitted to membership in the Moravian Church in 1793 at the age of eleven. For their part, Africans newly arrived in America after the traumatic Middle Passage were seldom interested in adopting the white man’s faith. They needed a large labor force to execute their ambitious building projects while attending to basic food-production needs. A group who travelled to North Carolina in 1753 bought a tract of land in the piedmont (in the area of present-day Winston Salem) and started building settlements. Educated in this communal way, Moravians were conditioned to a uniform moral code and a shared worship practice that emphasized simplicity and the fellowship of all believers. The Hidden Town Project is focused on understanding the landscape of slavery in Salem and the individuals who were enslaved there. and had died especially to save . During the first year of the Civil War, a new brick church was built for the black congregation. The name Moravian comes from their denominations original birth place of Moravia. Those admitted to their communion shared a “kiss of peace” signifying their spiritual equality. Hus was a Catholic priest in what is now the Czech Republic. One of the most difficult historical questions for Christians is how so many white Christians could have sanctioned slavery. Yet those who were enslaved often claimed this rough social parity in a way that surprised and angered the Moravians. Membership gradually shrank as congregants were drawn toward churches in the larger African American community with a more vibrant worship style. (Historical Society of Pennsylvania). Enslaved persons who converted to the faith would share the community’s moral views and behavior. The Moravian Slaves, a popular story about Christian Missions concerning Johann Leonhard Dober and David Nitschmann, describes how these two young Moravian Brethren from Herrnhut, Germany, were called in 1732 to minister to the African slaves on the islands of St. Thomas and St. Croix in the Danish West Indies. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, NPG.75.77. In his groundbreaking study, Slave Religion: The “Invisible Institution” in the Antebellum South (Oxford, 1978; updated 2004), Albert J. Raboteau summarized the contradictions inherent in efforts to evangelize slaves: There was something peculiar about the way African slaves were evangelized in America. Adolescent Moravians were educated in gender-segregated communal homes called choirs, where they shared worship-centered social activities and were assigned and apprenticed to the various crafts and professions the community required. . Today a reconstruction of this church, housing an informative exhibit about slave life in Salem, stands on the original site in Historic Old Salem. The detailed Moravian records provide insight and information about the people and the changing nature of enslavement in the town. . The Moravians, a protestant European sect, founded Bethlehem in 1741 as a utopian religious community. By Brandon Griffin — ; Published April 24, 2016, 7:56 pm Lifestyle. . George Whitefield, mezzotint by John Greenwood (1769) after painting by Nathaniel Hone. It will not be allowed. The Moravian Church has been around for over 500 years. The Moravian missionaries were the first large scale Protestant missionary movement. In response, Quaker, Anglican, and Moravian missionaries articulated a vision of "Christian Slavery," arguing that Christianity would make slaves hardworking and loyal. Into All the World . Sensbach argues that instances of runaways during this time were probably motivated by this news. Such labor came at less than half the cost of the hired white labor, and the Moravians at first found the enslave Africans more tractable. But this was considered absurd and almost laughable by their … On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation would go into effect declaring freedom for some slaves. Some of the very first Moravian missionaries went to the Caribbean island of St Thomas. A enslaved man’s joking familiarity with Moravian youth might rebound on him in a beating. Millions survived the Middle Passage and the experience of bondage Click the link to learn more. . Yet even as slave expectations of membership became more modest, the commitment of white Moravians to a biracial spiritual fellowship shrank. In the context of this overall pattern, the story of the enslaved people admitted to the fellowship of the Moravian community in Salem, North Carolina provides a poignant example. Yes that’s right, “some” not all. During the “Great Awakening” which swept the colonies in the 1730s and 1740s (recurring in local revivals during the rest of the 18th century), missionaries who spread the gospel message often found enslaved people receptive. The Moravians adopted the Southern slave culture somewhat reluctantly. Finding hired white labor both expensive and socially problematic (because the Anglo-Americans they hired did not share their religion and moral ideals), they began hiring the slaves of neighboring settlers. The former slave accepted, and his message stirred in the Moravians a deep commitment to go wherever God would send them. This brick structure, still in use, was consecrated in 1800. Dober remained in Europe, but Nitschmann traveled with John Wesley and helped to found the mission at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In … Finally, the core message of Christianity, especially as preached by the Moravians, meant that “masters were as sinful as [slaves] themselves,” Sensbach writes. The “Home” Moravian Church in Salem was organized in 1771. Because of this, some proselytes’ request to be confirmed to membership would be frustrated for months or years, even though the would-be converts were dutifully undergoing Christian instruction. Because evangelists like Whitefield and Wesley presented the gospel in simple, yet emotive language (rather than in the more theologically technical diction of the Anglican liturgy and catechism), enslaved people with limited education could grasp it more easily. (Moravians were not allowed to engage in any trade with outsiders that had not been planned by the elders for the entire community’s benefit). Celebration of “Watch Night” worship services dates back to the 1700’s. It also meant that, while “mankind had been granted a blanket pardon . Traditionally, “preaching the gospel to all nations” meant that the Christian disciple was sent out with the gospel to the pagans. Between 1856 and 1858, the town officials abolished the lease system, subdivided lots in the town, and began selling them off. In 1740 the group went to Pennsylvania and founded Nazareth and Bethlehem. They went there in order to minister to the slaves on the island, even selling themselves as slaves in order to get access. A year later, after much prayer and preparation, two Moravians were chosen and sent as the first missionaries to the West Indies. "With impressive chronological and geographical breadth and a clear-eyed, transdenominational perspective, Christian Slavery reveals how the religious programs of early Quakers, Anglicans, and Moravians all became entangled with colonial slavery. In the South, Moravians kept slaves and even segregated them in church services. While in the St. Thomas, they lived frugally and preached to the slaves, and they had a certain amount of success. The prospect of organizing the many German settlers of Lutheran, Reformed, and sectarian background into a union church was an additional factor … (Photo by Ellen Tucker shows Mr. Bill Cook, a volunteer guide at the St. Philip’s Heritage Center and African American History Museum, whose insights enriched this essay.). The black congregation would be led by a white minister whose role was, in large part, to preach a version of the faith that emphasized obedience to one’s assigned station in life. The use of slave labor in the American South presented—not surprisingly—ethical challenges to those Christians committed to preaching the gospel to all. Moravians were active evangelists among the enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and among Native Americans, particularly in the area around Bethlehem, PA. Before transitioning from this apprenticeship into independent family units, their marriages had to be approved by the ruling council of elders. [3] However, the facts have been greatly embellished, and many sources now claim that they actually followed through, sold themselves, boarded a ship, and were never heard from again. Some enslaved people, after being admitted to full communion with the Moravians, felt the injustice of their slave status more keenly and began challenging it, either in attitudes the Moravians thought “ungrateful” or in clandestine behavior, like stealing community property to engage in secret trading. Raboteau writes that the would-be converts often expected that baptism would result in a change of their status. Expanding the Archive: Enslaved Afro-Moravians and their Memoirs The expansion of the archive remains a top priority for historians of slav-ery. In his study, A Separate Canaan: The Making of an Afro-Moravian World in North Carolina, 1763–1840, Jon J. Sensbach examines the motives of African Americans who sought and were granted membership in the Moravian fellowship. Life within the community, where they were spiritual if not social equals, might insulate them from some of the harshness of slave life outside. They planned for one large “Congregation Town” in the middle of the tract that would be organized in a semi-collective fashion and embody as completely as possible their social ideals. In my research on the Moravians I have yet to find an instance where Moravian missionaries voluntarily sold themselves into slavery, although this is often claimed. Meanwhile, the communalist spirit of Salem was waning, and white Moravians were rebelling against the rule of elders and the bars to individual property acquisition—including personal ownership of slaves. (p. 120). Some assert that Dober and Nitschmann did this but produce no supporting evidence or sources to support the claim. Journal of Moravian History black slaves in the Danish West Indies, would begin. In the beginning, Moravians did not assign to slaves work that they themselves were unwilling to do, and they sometimes gave positions of significant responsibility to enslaved persons who had skills that white brethren lacked. He shows that many of these converts did expect to shed their slave status.
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