The Baptist faith also established a very strong foothold in Jamaica over a period of time. Their movement began in 1784 with an ex-slave from the United States, George Liele, who received his freedom from his master because of his fine preaching ability. He established a church in Kingston, from which he built many congregations all over the nation. The wide appeal of the Baptist faith, came from in part, its black ministers who identified with the plight of the slaves. This interest within the Baptist church eventually led to a great split in the church, with half following the traditional, orthodox teachings of Liele, and the other half adapting the message to their own needs. (Patterson, 1967, pg. 212)
Missionaries of these churches faced many adversities in bringing their message to the African peoples. Those clergy who wished to instruct the slaves oftentimes could not gain access to the slaves because planters would not grant the slaves any free time to study religion, or even to till their own plots. (Russell-Wood, 1982, pg.130)
The majority of slaves come from West Africa where polygamy was practiced, i.e. one man having many wives. They all shared the some compound with their husband who was the father of their children. Some African tribes chose their chief because of his virility and physical prowess. A man’s virility was based on the number of his offspring, especially males. In our society today, it is not uncommon to find men who boost about the number of children they have to show off their virility. Not just these cultural differences was the barrier to an effective slave education. The language was another. Newly-arrived slaves were unable to understand the Portuguese, Spanish or English instruction. The clergy was reluctant to use experienced slaves with knowledge of European languages for fear that as translators, they would take advantage of the situation to spread false doctrine.
These religious movements among the slaves took hold within the younger generations of workers. Older people tended to be so browbeaten, that they could not worry themselves with theological and spiritual issues, and focussed more on the immediate problems of day-to-day living. Many couples’ excuse for producing large families is the cultural practice of mothers ‘having out their lot’. This practice contributes to over-population and inability of a people to develop to their highest potential. It can even lead to suffering with children being the chief victims. A large proportion of the Caribbean population is below working age. In Jamaica in 1990, 50% of the total population wasbelow the age of 20. In countries with such a young population, there is heavy burden on the working group. Age structure also has an effect on educational levels, and consequently on lifestyle and standard of living. Maintaining a desirable standard of education places heavy burden on the country. Communities that have a high ratio of school children to working adults experience great economic strain.
Young people are therefore often urged to break loose from cultural practices that could be destructive to them. They are encouraged to develop self-esteem, and attitudes and habits that will improve their environment. This will have a good effect on their own lives and that of their families.
Those who became more involved with Christianity and the various religious sects associated the religion with the social cause for emancipation. This connection however was seen only from the side of the slaves. The church, largely wished to avoid heavy political situations while attempting to spread the Gospel amongst the captive peoples.(Turner, 1982, pg.9)
The slaves interpreted this movement correctly as going against the will of their masters, and therefore good for the slaves and good for their freedom. The slaves therefore developed a psychological connection between the church and their freedom, and used the church to achieve that goal. Once the slaves became free, their connections to the church fell off drastically, having used the church to achieve their desired goal. This represented the fact that the slaves did not attach themselves religiously to the Christian faith, but became more cultural Christians intent upon using the church to further their own ends. After emancipation many of the ex-slaves deserted the estates to improve their living conditions, and to acquire a sense of independence from their former bosses. With the help of missionaries, large numbers of them purchased small plots of land, up to five acres, while a few squatted on crown lands or on lands belonging to absentee owners. The missionaries encouraged marriage among these freed people who were by that time establishing families. Many of the holdings were inaccessible to markets so those farmers with donkeys would buy from other farmers. The food would then be transported by the peasants themselves or by higglers. Today, still this pattern exists, but trucks and buses are used instead of donkeys. This practice provides financial support for the family, but it is not without its consequences. Here are two:
? Children are kept from school to care for younger sibling (s) or to help with preparation of the produce for market.
? Children are often left to care for themselves while their parents are away selling food or gathering food for market. Lack of supervision often produces negative results.
Ironically, the planters achieved the overall goal they wished to achieve, albeit not in the final form they had planned. By supporting the lax and unenthusiastic effort by the Anglican clergy to Christianize the slaves, the slaveowners ensured what they thought would be a peaceful work force, unburdened with the bothers of religion. However, this same policy allowed for other missionary groups to enter the Caribbean, to fill the void created by the existing churches in serving the Christian needs of the African peoples. This in turn sparked underground religious movements within the slave population, which eventually led to large scale organization and emancipation. Therefore, the issue of the withholding of Christianity from the slaves by the owners became a crucial question in terms of its wisdom. While it solved the short term difficulties of providing the education and overall better living and working conditions for the slaves, it created a long term, insurmountable problem for the planters, allowing the slaves to become organized against their oppressors.
Instead of using Christianity as a means to inform and educate, the planters saw it as an enemy which would prevent the collection of profits. Clearly, the planters did not serve as a good representative of the true religious beliefs of Christianity in the enslaved Caribbean. When given a choice between God and money, they made a clear choice, which in hindsight from the point of view of the planters was incorrect. Any arguments for slavery used by the slaveowners came from as justification for economic gain which violates the very nature of the Bible, a collection of books for spiritual gain. In fact, true Christian missionaries operating in the Caribbean, spurred organization and mobilization of the slaves through the teaching, although that was not their intent. The planters, seeking absolution from sin, pretending that their slaves were in some way not created equal, or were unworthy of Christian education, actually lay in bondage to their sin as Christians in failing to spread the word of Jesus Christ. Some interpretations of the outcome might say that God brought down the ruling class and liberated the poor through emancipation because of the sin and cruelty of the planters. Jesus recognized the plight of the poor and oppressed, and comforted them specifically in his Sermon on the Mount. Others might point to the growing secular outrage at the infringement of personal liberty and freedom which triggered the end of slavery. In any regard, the institution of Christianity found itself on both sides of the slavery issue. It was employed by the slaveowners to justify the bondage of the slaves, as well as by the slaves themselves as a path to freedom. Issues of slavery within the Christian faith deserve a close examination, as they neither call for the total freedom, nor total physical slavery of the nineteenth century Caribbean. Christianity refers to slavery for the most part as a spiritual issue, not the physical issue created by the exploitationist elites of the nineteenth century against the innocent Africans.
Bibliography
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