Atlantic Faiths: Secrecy and Adaptation

The Atlantic World was teaming with religious fervor. Christianity swelled the ports, soap boxes, and laws that governed the New World, choking out any and all other forms of religious belief. Like with most situations that have a formidable presence overshadowing everything else, the surface looks overbearing, an impenetrable force, but beneath the surface suppression made way for secrecy and a stronghold formation within other religions. Religious freedom did not spread within the Atlantic World, but the under tow of the Christian ocean was a teeming religious rebellion. Africans, Jews, and Muslims, for example, all felt the oppression of the Christian faith and each dealt with it as best they could through adaptation and secrecy.

The Jewish faith within the Atlantic World reveals the depth of secrecy people went through in order to preserve their faith and the wide spread nature of such secrecy. Under the guise of Christianity, the Jewish community set up trade ports which spread and grew exponentially[1]. These ports not only transmitted goods but the Jewish religion as well. Once the trade routes were established, “New Christian merchants came to control commercial ties with Brazil, they also became heavily involved in the African Slave Trade”[2]  and “the well-traveled commercial highway between Brazil and the Dutch Republic enabled Brazilian New Christians to return to Judaism”[3]. However, even as Judaism became more at the forefront within the economic community, it was not embraced. They may have gained certain privileges in some areas of the Atlantic World, but they never gained full rights[4].

Unlike the Jewish faith that rode under the wave of Christianity, Muslim and African religions resided within the wave, adapting within it. Christianity was a formidable religion and in order to salvage whatever they could, members of the Muslim and African religions adapted to their situation. The Muslim religion used Christianity as a mask to hide its true nature; it used the similarity between the religions to hide in plain sight[5]. Although individuals were forcibly baptized, “the forced separation of the slaves from the European Christian culture and the isolation of the estates thus created room for preaching religious teachings”[6]. Under the guise of Christian gatherings, Muslim slaves reached their own religious beliefs.

Similar to the Muslim practice, African religions also used the Christian faith. However, unlike the Muslim population, the African religions not only used Christianity to convey their own beliefs, they took pieces from both faiths, creating a hybrid religion[7]. Throughout Africa and the Atlantic World “Christianity was highly mixed with African religions, even in areas…where institutional churches existed and an on-going educational establishment was operating”[8]. Even as areas were saturated with the Christian religion, African beliefs did not get left behind.

Religion adapted or was done in secrecy, but was not given full freedom. Freedom is the ability to do something without fear or persecution, and the fact that religions had to be practiced in secrecy or adapted in order to have a sense of religious control makes it clear that freedom was severely lacking. Christianity in the Atlantic World created new religions entirely or strangled any foothold another may have been gaining. Religious freedom was not granted within the Atlantic World, but its people fought long and hard to retain their religious preferences despite the world in which they lived.

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[1] Klooster, Wim "Communities of port Jews and their contacts in the Dutch Atlantic World," Jewish History (2006). 20:131, http://www.springerlink.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/content/?k=doi:("10.1007/s10835-005-9001-0")&MUD=MP (accessed June 19, 2012).

[2] Klooster, 131.

[3] Klooster, 130.

[4] Klooster, 136-137.

[5] Afroz, Sultan. "The Jihad of 1831-1832: The Misunderstood Baptist Rebellion in Jamaica,"  Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs (2001) 21, no 2: 232, http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=03f99dbe-1e3a-49ca-9f8b-66d03ee1eeec%40sessionmgr12&vid=2&hid=10 (accessed June 19, 2012).

[6] Afroz, 232.

[7] Thornton, John K. "On the Trail of Voodoo: African Christianity in Africa and the Americas," The Americas (Jan., 1988) 44, no 3:264, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1006906 (accessed June 19, 2012).

[8] Thornton, 266.

Atlantic Peoples: John Billington and His Family

The Human Tradition in the Atlantic World 1500-1850, by Karen Racine and Beatrice G. Mamigonian, introduces the reader to fifteen separate individuals that embodied the nature of the Atlantic World. In order to fully understand the many theories that abounds about cultural integration and metamorphosis one must study the individuals that land among these situations. One of the more intriguing personas that are provided is that of John Billington and his family[1]. Billington and his family are prime examples of how the Atlantic drew in the common man with promises of wealth and prosperity. Although not every man was successful in his endeavor, with which Billington experienced firsthand, not every man molded the society with which he lived either.

  Billington was not an African, Indian, or other minority, he was a white man from desperate parts in England. Billington and his family were, in essence, indentured servants, not to an individual, but “the Company”[2]. Because opportunities were extremely lacking and overcrowding was pushing the economic divide further and further apart, he took the only possible path he believed would provide a way for himself and his family to finally move vertically within the world: the New World.

The Billington family embodies the idea of Ethnogenesis described by James Sidbury and Jorge Canizares-Esguerra in Mapping Ethnogenesis in the Early Modern Atlantic[3]. Ethnogenesis forms when individuals “reembed[sic] themselves into communities, creating new identities”[4]. This notion is not overly examined like that of creolization with Africans and Indians, but native Europeans also experienced similar cultural shock and transformations.

The Billington family left a mark on the Plymouth Plantation; whether it was good or bad is up to interpretation. They were stripped of everything they knew and thrust into a wild country surrounded by a group of people, the Separatists who haled from Holland and had an opposite belief system, signed a labor contract that would last for seven years and were considered to be the lowliest of people within the group[5].  Surrounded by everything unknown, Billington fought to preserve his identity and that of his family as well, mainly by retaining their loyalty to the Church of England. This loyalty did not sit well with the dominating religious Separatist conviction, and thus the Billington’s were treated less then equal. The Seperatist tried to break the Billington family into conforming more to their liking by excluding Billington from any position of influence and giving the family the “smallest per capita allotment in the entire colony”[6]. In essence, the family was being persecuted by those fleeing from persecution. They were bullied but did not give into the religious stance that surrounded them. They may have lived among the Separatist people, socialized and followed the laws to an extent, but they held on to their beliefs.

The Billington family situation is an example of intra-European ethnogenesis[7], which developed when separate European nationals came together within the same community. The Billington’s had to bend within reason to the demands of the larger population and adapt accordingly, however unwillingly, in order to survive. Although hardship followed them, they stayed the course, and “despite many setbacks and complaints”[8] , they never stopped pursuing opportunity.  The Billington family left a mark within the Plymouth community that was sour but may be looked upon today as a push for true freedom.

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[1] Racine,Karen. “Chapter 2: John Billington and His Family (c. 1582-1630), Doomed “Knave” of Plymouth Plantation”. The Human Tradition in the Atlantic World, 1500–1850. Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., 2010.  Pg. 13-26. <http://lib.myilibrary.com?ID=292261> (accessed June 14, 2012).

[2] Racine, 15.

[3] Sidbury, James, and Jorge Canizares-Esguerra. "Mapping Ethnogenesis in the Early Modern Atlantic." The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol 68, No 2. Pg 181-208. JSTOR. Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Apr. 2011. Web. 14 June 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5309/willmaryquar.68.2.0181>.

[4] Sidbury, 185.

[5] Racine, 16.

[6] Racine, 20.

[7] Sidbury, 203.

[8] Racine 20.

Atlantic Communities and Slavery

            Freedom, religion, slavery, and morality; four strong and driving forces that lead people to leave what is familiar and establish a new way of life, whether voluntary or not. The Atlantic World introduced a myriad of new possibilities; possibilities to reinvent one’s self and to find a more lucrative or better place with which to exist. The slave trade was very much a driving force in the formation of Atlantic Communities within the Atlantic World.  Whether it be to establish or to free one’s self from the slave trade culture, whatever the reason for the establishment of communities of the Atlantic, the central theme was slavery.

            The growth of communities within the Atlantic World grew exponentially once the slave trade blossomed. Communities grew and faltered under the weight and pressures of slavery. Even if the initial intention of an established community was not based upon the issue of slavery, slavery always pushed its way into the fabric of it.  The colony of Georgia and Minas Gerais, Brazil’s Our Lady of the Rosary, are two examples of such intrusion.

Georgia was established as a reformative community based on moral scruples and European self reliance. In other words, slavery was prohibited. James O’Neil Spady described the establishment of Georgia as a result of “unrestrained speculation in trade monopolies and land, the mass enslavement of rebellious Africans, and the emigration of Europeans throughout the Atlantic”[1], and it was to be “a place of (white) devotion to religion and labour [sic]”[2] in essence, the world was turning on its head and Georgia was a push for the old ways of morality and self reliance. Over time the colonists of Georgia realized the lucrative benefits of slavery and eventually won the debate to own slaves, and thus slavery helped establish Georgia and eventually became a part of it; diluting the moral integrity by which Georgia defined itself. My Lady of the Rosary in Minas Gerais, Brazil had a similar experience in regard to change due to the slave trade. This change is seen in the evolution of the religious beliefs that My Lady represented, and according to Elizabeth W. Kiddy African nationals, both free and slave, “rearticulated the African community by creatively molding cultural icons into symbols familiar to them…according to their own understanding of the world”[3]. In other words, they adopted and transformed the religion to their own, already established, understanding.  Slavery had an indirect influence on both Georgia and My Lady of the Rosary, but its impact was still felt.

On the other end of the Atlantic spectrum were the Atlantic communities that were directly influenced by the slave trade, such as the city of Bristol and the African Slave Coast. In Bristol’s case the city was built on the foundation of the slave trade, and consequently shriveled as slavery was outlawed[4]. David Richardson described Bristol’s success as being “unequivocally rested on enslaved African and the products they were forced to produce”[5]. In essence, the city of Bristol was built and defined by the slaves that were brought in through the slave trade. The same can be said for the African Slave Coast as well. The Slave Coast, as Robin Law and Elizabeth Mann describe, “existed first and foremost to move many thousands of slaves”[6] and “shaped not only the history of the community itself but also that of the regions of the world connected by it”[7]. The Slave Coast was directly influenced by the slave trade, as were the communities that it touched, whether they were willing or unwilling. Bristol and the Slave Coast were Atlantic communities that were blatantly influenced by the Atlantic slave trade and ultimately created new cultures and ways of life.  

Overall, slavery had some part in establishing and shaping Atlantic communities. It was a common theme that can be found everywhere in the Atlantic World. Some communities like those of Georgia and Our Lady of the Rosary were influenced by slavery mainly as a byproduct of the times; in contrast to the city of Bristol and the Slave Coast which were created as a result of the slave trade. History eventually formed a barrier where this common thread began to break down as seen through the United States’ Mason-Dixon Line; that line separating the free North from the Slave south. Up until that division, the commonality of the slave trade, and all of its varying influences, can be identified as a prevailing influence of the times.

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[1] Spady, James O. "Chapter Eight: Bubbles and Beggars and the Bodies of Laborers: The Georgia Trusteeship’s Colonialism Reconsidered." Constructing Early Modern Empires: Propriety Ventures in the Atlantic World, 1500-1750. Atlantic World, Vol. 11. Boston: Brill Academic, 2007. 213-68. Print. Web June 5, 2012. pg 213. <http://vizedhtmlcontent.next.ecollege.com/CurrentCourse/Spady_Bubbles%20and%20Beggars.pdf>

[2] Spady, pg 234.

[3] Kiddy, Elizabeth W. “Congados, Calunga, Candombe: Our Lady of the Rosary in Minas Gerais, Brazil” Luso-Brazilian Review, XXXVII. Board of Regents University of Wisconsin System. 2000. 49-61. Print. Web June, 5 2012. Pg  55.  <http://vizedhtmlcontent.next.ecollege.com/CurrentCourse/Kiddy_Our%20Lady%20of%20the%20Rosary.pdf>

[4] Richardson, David: “Slavery and Bristol's ‘golden age’”. Slavery & Abolition:A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies. 2005. Pg. 35-54 (Web accessed June 5, 2012)

<http://vizedhtmlcontent.next.ecollege.com/CurrentCourse/Richardson_Bristol%27s%20Golden%20Age.pdf>

[5] Richardson, pg 49.

[6] Law, Robin and Kristen Mann. “West Africa in the Atlantic Community: The Case of the Slave Coast” The William and Mary Quarterly. Third Series, 56, No. 2 African and Atlantic Worlds, April 1999. Pg. 312-313. (Web accessed June 5, 2012)  Pg. 332. <http://vizedhtmlcontent.next.ecollege.com/CurrentCourse/Law%20and%20Mann_West%20African%20Slave%20Coast.pdf>

[7] Law and Mann, pg 332.