the 1730s suggest that revivalism was not the only cause of black people’s participation in northern churches. In the broader English Atlantic, 1729–30 was also an important turning point in Anglican proselytization to slaves because the York-Talbot legal opinion asserted that baptism did not free enslaved people, and the Virginia House of Burgesses voted to support the conversion of blacks and Indians in that colony.14
Understanding Black and Indian Beliefs and Motivations
Often, both material and spiritual motives were present for the blacks and Indians who participated in these churches. Church services were opportunities to see other enslaved friends and family members dispersed across a town. Some churches provided educational opportunities that blacks and Indians alike sought after. In these contexts, being a church member carried a degree of social status, and Christianity could provide a positive identity for enslaved and dispossessed peoples. The help that sympathetic ministers could provide to Indians as they dealt with legal disputes with colonists incentivized some Indians who participated in these churches.
Blacks and Indians participated in a significant number of Protestant churches in northern mainland colonies, but participation in the sacraments of baptism and communion should not simply be understood as definitive evidence of conversion or belief. Rituals can signify a range of meanings to the people who participate in them. Given the context of colonial society and the unequal power dynamics involved, blacks and Indians in these churches were not free actors. Slave owners often limited slaves’ choices, and church attendance was compulsory for some slaves and servants. Black and Indian participation in these churches justified the existing social hierarchy and their low status in it. But, to the extent that enslaved people made choices within the institution of slavery or negotiated with their oppressors, some enslaved black people chose baptism and church membership for themselves or their children. Church affiliation could both support the social hierarchy and hold meaning and significance to the people who participated.15
Sometimes white masters applied great pressure and violence to compel slaves to adopt certain behaviors, and some masters required their slaves to attend church. Reverend James MacSparran of St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Narragansett, Rhode Island, noted in his diary that he gave his slave “Maroca one or two Lashes for receiving Presents from Mingo,” a male slave. MacSparran called Maroca a Christian, but he complained that she “seems not concerned about her soul nor minds her promise of chastity.” In this case, MacSparran used means ranging from violence to verbal coaxing to try to get Maroca to comply with the standard of behavior that he expected of this female Christian slave. Whites compelled enslaved men and women to labor without pay, and some people compelled slaves to attend church, listen to religious instruction, or adhere to Christian morality. Some masters used a variety of inducements to encourage slaves to seek baptism, whereas others prohibited their slaves from participating in churches.16
Throughout the colonial era, Protestant ministers routinely owned enslaved people, participated in their commodification, and asserted their possession of people in church records with phrases such as “my servant” or “my slave.” Reverend Jonathan Edwards personally traveled to Newport, Rhode Island, in 1731 to purchase his first enslaved person, who was a young woman about fourteen years of age. In the mid-1730s, the parish of the Congregational Church in York, Maine, raised 120 pounds to purchase a slave for the parish and Reverend Samuel Moody’s use. A few years after this purchase, the enslaved man was not meeting Moody’s expectations. The parish voted to “sell the Negro Man named Andrew belonging to the sd Parish at the best Advantage.” Not only did ministers and churches use the labor of enslaved people, but they also sometimes sought a financial advantage in selling them.17
Although slaveholders could compel enslaved people to attend church services, Protestant churches did not mandate baptism or church membership for any adult, whether white, black, or Indian. Anglican ministers were instructed to baptize their slaves who were “willing to receive baptism.”18 The theology and practices of these churches inclined them to restrict adult baptisms to people who publicly made a profession of their beliefs. Most Protestants stressed that baptism held no value apart from genuine belief (whether it was the faith of an individual or the faith of parents standing for a child). At least in theory, baptism as a physical act meant nothing without correct beliefs and the work of God in providing grace. Moreover, there are examples of masters who owned both baptized and unbaptized slaves. In December 1741, at the First Church of Abington, Massachusetts, a slave named Tony, who was owned by the minister, “Made a Confession of his former evil & sinful life & declared how God had met him & wrought upon him & was Baptized.” Tony was one of at least five slaves owned by Reverend Samuel Brown, but not all of Brown’s slaves were baptized, and only two became church members. As a slave-owning minister, Brown presumably tried to convince his slaves to profess faith and be baptized; however, church members listened to each person’s confession of sin, considered what God had “wrought upon” him or her, and then decided whether or not to baptize or admit each candidate.19
In some cases, slaves possessed wide latitude over their religious affiliation. In 1736, the Anglican minister Timothy Cutler of Christ Church in Boston described “a negro servant to a Dissenter, and in the prime of life, who, from great irregularities, is become a serious & somber man.” The owner of this slave was a Congregationalist (Dissenter), but this slave affiliated with the Church of England. This unnamed slave was likely active in the decision to practice Christianity in this Anglican church instead of a Congregational one. Likewise, an enslaved black man named Nero Benson, who was owned by the minister of the First Congregational Church in Framingham, Massachusetts, joined the Hopkinton Congregational Church in 1737. Nero Benson apparently chose this church over his master’s church because of a theological dispute. These two men, despite their status as slaves, influenced where and how they would participate in churches.20
A black slave named Andreas, or Ofodobendo Wooma, expressed a desire to join a Moravian church through baptism, and since Moravian communities were unique among Christians in recording the spiritual biographies of all church members, we can see in greater detail the negotiations and power dynamics involved in this enslaved man’s baptism. Andreas was both a church member and the property of the Moravian church at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, from 1746 to about 1771 (the church owned most of the community’s property). Andreas was born about 1729 in the Igbo nation in what is now southeastern Nigeria. After the death of his father, he was used by an older brother to secure a loan and was unfortunately ushered into white hands and the brutal international slave trade. Andreas crossed the Atlantic in bondage, and a Jewish merchant in New York purchased him in 1741.21
After about two years in New York, there was a prospect that he would again be sold, and the fear of being sold to a bad master compelled Andreas to pray. Andreas learned the Lord’s Prayer from neighbors, and he prayed: “O Lord, our neighbors said you were so good and you gave each man what he asks from you. If you will help me to a good master in this city, then I will love you for it.” A Moravian merchant named Thomas Noble purchased him. In the Noble household, Andreas learned to read and was told about Christian doctrines, some of which sounded untrue to him. In a remarkable passage from his autobiographical testimony, Andreas stated that the Moravian Brethren “often told me that our Savior had shed his blood for me and all black men and that He had as much love for me, and everyone, as for white people, which I did not believe. On the contrary, I thought that God only loved people who were important in the world, who possessed riches, and so forth.” Despite his skepticism, Andreas continued to learn about Christianity and went to school part-time. He had a New Testament and “read from it whenever [he] had the time and opportunity.” Andreas was often present during morning and evening family prayers.22
After a moment of crisis and distress in which he contemplated suicide, Andreas experienced a spiritual transformation. He stated that “the Savior’s love and mercy and his selfless passion and death made such an impression on my heart that I wished nothing so much as to become a genuine black offering to Jesus and a member of the congregation.” He requested baptism, but Noble hesitated at first.
