Short Essay Two

Any treatment of Christianity as it existed in Europe during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries must, in order to be accurate, be divorced from modern (American) notions of religion as an exercise in personal preference. During this period, the European identity and the differing strains of emerging nationalism were so tightly intertwined with the concept of Christianity that to be European (or English, French, Spanish, ect.), also meant that one was, by default, Christian, regardless of the level of one’s personal devotion to religious beliefs or practices.

 For Africans living in Europe during this time, this idea of the European identity as a Christian identity meant that engagement with Christianity was a prerequisite to assimilation and to successful navigation within the European social and commercial spheres. This is not to suggest that by simply converting to Christianity or learning to address the world using a Christian perspective that Africans in Europe would automatically be seen as European, simply that without doing these things, an African would have no real prospect of assimilation or of attaining social and commercial standing within his or her respective European society of residence. Thus, for the African living in Europe during this time, the adoption of Christianity or, at the very least, the ability to express oneself using a Christian worldview can be viewed only as a gateway to European society, rather than a wholesale method of gaining social acceptance.

The idea of Christianity as a gateway to European society for Africans is closely related to the idea of the African as “other”. Visibly different and culturally alien, Africans in Europe during this period found themselves firmly on the outside of social, commercial, and political spheres of influence. Apart from the visible differences, it was African “paganism” that was one of the most salient characteristics of African otherness[1]. Indeed, Boulle asserts that in early modern France, the main basis for prejudice against Africans was not racial inferiority but the fact that they “were not Christians and therefore remained uncivilized”[2]. Brown goes even further by characterizing Christianity as “a distinctive marker of (European) identity”[3]. As the Nineteenth Century progressed, the emerging field of Eugenics would provide alternate explanations for the supposed inherent inferiority of Africans, but for the time period in question, African assimilation was still a possibility, with an engagement with the Christian worldview being a central condition of European acceptance of Africans living in Europe. In short, the path to erasing “otherness” began with Christianity.

It is interesting to note that the Christian worldview was so integral to what it meant to be a European during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries that even when scholars are not explicitly addressing issues relating to religion, they still must contend with the implications of the Christian worldview. For example, in Peabody’s work , Race, Slavery, and the Law in early Modern France, although she is approaching legal issues regarding slavery from the framework of racial prejudice, we find the adoption of Christianity by the slaves in question very much residing at the heart of the legal arguments put forth in the French court system. Along with legal French citizenship and civility, adherence to the Christian religion is put forth as evidence that one “Beaucoux”, a slave from the New World, should be considered to be “French, because he was born the subject of our Monarch; our equal, as much by humanity as by the religion which he professes; and citizen because he lives with us and among us.” [4] Additionally, Walvin, whose  brief overview of the Black Atlantic largely focuses on the demographics and the economic aspect of the slave trade still grapples with the idea that when African slaves encountered Europeans in a European setting (both the Old and New Worlds), they tended to adopt European cultural norms as a way of dealing with their social circumstances[5]. Christianity would have undoubtedly been one of the major European cultural norms that Africans had to reconcile themselves to. An interesting side note to this idea is that in the New World there did emerge distinctly “African” or, more precisely, Creole, forms of Christianity that were distinct from traditional European Christianity, and one wonders to what extent these hybrid forms of Christianity may or may not have facilitated assimilation into white society.

Among those authors who deal directly with issues of religion, the idea of Christianity as a gateway to a European identity is much more explicit. Perhaps the most forceful example of this idea can be found in the writings of Equiano, who is quite candid about the link between Christianity and what it means to be European. After having spent several years among the English, Equiano considered himself “almost an Englishman” but saw Christian baptism as a necessary next step in his assimilation[6]. This should be viewed as a continuation of Equiano’s fascination with, and adoption of, Christianity, and is simply a concrete point in Equaino’s professed spiritual transformation that would have served him very well as evidence of his “Englishness”.

Transformation, however, proved to be bi-directional and the experience of the Africans in Europe, for whom Christianity was a crucial gateway into society, soon began to inform the purpose of the Christian establishment. Gerzina recognizes the paradox that , as Africans gained social capital through their engagement with Christianity, among other things, they began attempts to “reconcile their enslaved status with the freedom conferred by a Christianity” and also began to “feel the need to address the difficulties of reconciling their beliefs and actions as slaves with those of Christianity as it was professed and practiced by whites”[7]. The acceptance of Africans into the institutions of Christianity may have been an initial step in the “civilization” of the heathen, but it was also destined to alter the Christian establishment. When European slaveholders railed against the dangers of assimilation through Christianity,  including the danger of “admitting slaves to the Christian fellowship [which] would blur the social boundaries essential to the preservation of slavery”[8], they may not have been that far off the mark.

Both Brown and Hudson seem to recognize that the Atlantic slave trade galvanized Christianity on both sides of the Atlantic, and this stemmed in no small part to the idea that many African slaves were fellow Christians to whom a certain loyalty was owed. In this too, we see the idea of Christianity as a gateway, or as a necessary, but incomplete, means of achieving cultural standing. Brown does note that although some Christians advocated abolition, there were also many who simply sought a kinder, “more gentle form of slavery”[9]. Hudson, for his part, seems mainly concerned with the debates that occurred in High Church settings among Anglican elites, and, perhaps, it is the distance between this setting and the sticky social and economic reality of the slave trade that allowed for early calls for what can only be considered a drastic move- abolition of the slave trade entirely[10]. It is necessary to keep in mind that these early abolitionists were not necessarily believers in racial equality, nor were they overly concerned with the fate of millions of Africans still in Africa (missionary endeavors notwithstanding), but they did have a belief in “the community of believers”[11]. In this way, early abolitionists can be seen as products of their (European) societies, given the fact that they believed Christianity certainly conferred something to its African converts, even if that something fell short of equality.

            Perhaps Equaino’s experience best illustrates the role that Christianity played in the social status of Africans in Europe. Although Equiano initially sought to become a Christian and an Englishman through his own actions such as becoming literate, learning a trade, being baptized, and seeking English patronage, these things only propelled him so far. Ultimately, in order to become a true Christian, he had to receive a transformative experience from God and only then was he “able to believe to the salvation of [his] soul [12]. Similarly, Equiano’s status as an Englishman was dependent upon acceptance by English society[13] and without such English approval there would have been very little Equiano could do that would have erased his status as a foreigner. Therefore, for Equaino and millions of other Africans living in Europe in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, navigating Christianity was a crucial first step toward achieving social status, but was not the only thing that must be achieved for successful assimilation.

Bibliography

Boulle, Pierre H.. "Racial Purity or Legal Clarity? The Status of Black Residents in Eighteenth-Century France." The Journal of The Historical Society 6, no. 1 (2006): 19-46. EBSCO. [Database Online].

Brown, Christopher L.. "Christianity and the campaign against slavery and the slave trade." Cambridge Histories Online no. 4 (2008): 517-535. Cambridge University Press.

Equano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. 1789. Ebrary, 2004.

      http://site.ebrary.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/lib /asulib/docDetail.action?docID=10063722 (accessed June 16, 2011).

Gerzina, Gretchen H.. "Mobility in Chains: Freedom of Movement in the Early Black Atlantic." The South Atlantic Quarterly 100 no. 1 (2001): 41-59. . EBSCO. [Database Online].

Hudson, Nicholas. "National Myth, Conservatism, and the Beginnings of British Antislavery." Eighteenth-Century Studies 34 no. 4 (2001): 559-576. . EBSCO. [Database Online].

Peabody, Sue. "Race, Slavery, and the Law in Early Modern France." Historian 56, no. 3 (2004): 501-510. ProQuest. [Database Online.]

Walvin, James. Questioning Slavery. 1996. Ebrary. http://site.ebrary.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/lib /asulib/docDetail.action?docID=10058108

      (accessed June 13, 2011).

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[1] Walvin, James. Questioning Slavery. 1996. p.15. Walvin contrasts  slaves who are in close proximity to whites and those who are not. He postulates that those who did not work in close proximity to whites were more likely to develop a “Black” or “African” identity and cultural norms.

[2]  Boulle, Pierre H.. "Racial Purity or Legal Clarity? The Status of Black Residents in Eighteenth-Century France." The Journal of The Historical Society 6, no. 1 (2006). p. 21.  It may be likely that Catholic France was influenced by the Iberian Model in which the Church provided a well worn social pathway for Africans and other foreigners to participate in Spanish and Portuguese society.

[3] Brown, Christopher L.. "Christianity and the campaign against slavery and the slave trade." Cambridge Histories Online no. 4 (2008). p.518. Obviously, this raises the question of cause and effect. Did the Europeans consider themselves superior because they were Christian or did they think that their acceptance (as opposed to Islamic and Jewish rejection) of Christianity was simply evidence of their inherent superiority?

[4] Peabody, Sue. "Race, Slavery, and the Law in Early Modern France." Historian 56, no. 3 (2004). p. 503

[5] Walvin, James. Questioning Slavery. 1996. p. 15

[6] Equano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. 1789. p. 62

[7] Gerzina, Gretchen H.. "Mobility in Chains: Freedom of Movement in the Early Black Atlantic." The South Atlantic Quarterly 100 no. 1 (2001). p 43

[8] Brown, p.523

[9] Ibid., p. 525

[10] Hudson, Nicholas. "National Myth, Conservatism, and the Beginnings of British Antislavery." Eighteenth-Century Studies 34 no. 4 (2001). p. 562

[11] Brown, p.524

[12] Equiano, p. 200

[13] As I have previously stated in other writings, this scenario raises the question of how valid is a social equality that exists at the whim of another.