Introduction
Chapter 1. Christian Slaves in the Atlantic World
Chapter 2. Protestant Supremacy
Chapter 3. Quaker Slavery and Slave Rebellion
Chapter 4. From Christian to White
Chapter 5. The Imperial Politics of Slave Conversion
Chapter 6. The SPG and Slavery
Chapter 7. Inner Slavery and Spiritual Freedom
Chapter 8. Defining True Conversion
Epilogue. Proslavery Theology and Black Christianity
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
Could slaves become Christian? If so, did their conversion lead to freedom? If not, then how could perpetual enslavement be justified? Christian Slavery shows how debates about slavery transformed the practice of Protestantism and the language of race in the early modern Atlantic world.
Katharine Gerbner teaches history at the University of Minnesota.
"There are a number of things to recommend Gerbner's welcome study.
Throughout the text she reminds readers that the English, Dutch,
and some French colonists in the Caribbean were arguably shaped
more by their Protestantism than any national attachments. That
this was especially the case in their engagement with slavery is an
important revelation. She is also good at exploring and imagining
the response of slaves and free blacks to the evolving theology of
slavery that was gradually strengthening slavery's grasp in every
corner of the Atlantic world. Perhaps most of all, she shines a
light on Christianity's complicity in the development of modern
racism."—Journal of Early Modern History
"In case we thought that North American problems with slavery were
homegrown, Katharine Gerbner shows in great detail how the same
problems existed in the colonized islands of the Atlantic as far
back as the early seventeenth century—and indeed were imported
directly from these islands to Maryland, South Carolina, and other
Southern colonies . . . Her judgment is harsh. But it is a judgment
based on impeccable research. Christian Slavery is the sort of
well-grounded microhistory that, in the end, proves more valuable
than wide-ranging surveys and broad declarations."—Commonweal
"In looking at this relationship between white-exclusivist
'Protestant Supremacy,' the formation of a paternalist Christian
Slavery that encouraged conversion of blacks but discouraged their
literacy, and the role of Africans and African Americans in
compelling (through their words and actions) a rethinking of the
relationship between Christianity and slavery, Gerbner has given us
a new synthesis that incorporates the Atlantic world perspective
beautifully. And she has given us another version of the grim irony
of Southern religious history."—Journal of the American Academy of
Religion
"Gerbner's carefully and clearly argued narrative, flowing from
prodigious research and documentation, contributes important
historiographic correctives on Black Christianity in the early
Atlantic colonial world and on the origins, substance, and impact
of the Christian conversion controversy in early American slave
societies. She convincingly demonstrates that while baptizing
slaves into Christianity advanced a sense of their humanity, it
even more enabled a powerful and persisting religious ideology for
rapidly expanding slavery. Perhaps most of all her work reinforces
an understanding that social hierarchies throughout history have
manipulated for their own self-serving ends seeming reforms of
human conditions."—Journal of African American History
"Gerbner's facility with Old German Script and Dutch documentary
evidence has furnished a much-needed revision of the story of
Christian Slavery, uncovering vital evidence for understanding the
emergence of White Supremacy. Her focus on the Caribbean Islands is
vital, given the fact that slavery there far outweighed slavery on
the mainland. Finally, Gerbner's contribution on the role of
literacy as an empowering tool for the oppresssed is
significant."—Fides et Historia
"How and why did Christianity, seemingly built on spiritual
emancipation and equality, give blessing to African slavery in the
Americas? Christian Slavery is a powerful new interpretation of
this question that will inspire scholars to rethink the connections
between religion, race, and slavery in the early modern Atlantic
world."—Jon Sensbach, University of Florida
"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."—Travis
Glasson, Temple University
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