Churches Role in Independence of Ex-slaves Essay

Churches especially the Quaker, Moravian, Methodist, and the Baptist played an important role to see the freed slaves had their freedom. They had this idea because most of the plantation owner wanted to retain them as laborers. A lot of effort put to see the freed slaves also enjoyed their rights. Churches were instrumental in learning, socialization and organized the free slaves politically. The church played a pivotal role to create freedom for the freed slaves. The functions include; provision of land to the ex-slaves, the establishment of the school and a church in every village, the Baptist acting as legal advisers and establishment of the free communities. As discussed below we can develop the mentality of how the church focused on helping the freed slaves to their independence.

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Baptist missionaries initiated the establishment of free villages. The Baptist missionaries raised funds in Great Britain to buy land for the emancipated slaves. This concept was launched because the planters did not want to sell the property to the freedmen. The ranchers wanted the free slaves to retain, as agricultural workers thus could not offer any land to them. This shows how they were against the freedom of the freed slaves after the abolition of slavery. The plantation owned vowed not to sell the property to the freed slaves. To keep low labor costs and prevent free labor choice the plantation owner could provide accommodation to the freed slaves. The plantation owners had this choice upon the abolition of slavery. This made the Baptist and the Quaker work closely with the African Baptist chapel to use land agents in England to buy land. The arrangement to use land agents was to hiding identity or avoided detection. In 1835, Rev. James Phillippo and his congregation financed for the purchase of land without the concert of the plantation owners. Upon emancipation, the property was availed to the freed slaves. The village was founded in the hills of Saint Catherine parish. The land was portioned rents were free and away from former masters control. During the same year, too another free village in Oracabessa was financed and founded. Jamaica also established a free town in 1838, to the city of Sturge. The freed slaves enjoyed the rent as their own since they were not for profit but only for their freedom, this was according to James Philip, 1843.

The Baptist acted as legal advisers to the freed slaves. This was a sign of making the freed slaves taste human freedom. They morally and spiritually reformed the slaves. They encouraged marriage that was in a legal process Christians could always support the public opinion on love. They emphasized loving each other as one loves himself. They taught about unity to each other. One must treat his neighbor as a brother, love him as his own, and not treat each as animals. They also encouraged them to take gender roles to gain that respect they had lost. Methodist and Baptists converted a massive number to Christianity and integrating them into their churches. This shows a sign of equality and no one is more important than anyone is. Racial inferiority ended when blacks converted to Christianity. They defined the roles of men and women to the freed slaves in a transparent way. In this setup, the freed slaves could realize that sense of unity among them. The Baptist advised them how to keep mutual respect between the parents and the siblings.

There was the establishment of schools in every free village. The free communities established to show ownership. The free villages made it easy for the Baptist to construct schools in each. Churches were also built. The missionaries encouraged the freed slaves to go to church. They also convinced the freed slaves to adopt the western culture. However, they did not assimilate themselves to it but practices their own. Despite financial and other challenges, there were several achievements in the provision of education to freed slaves. During the era of slavery, there was no formal provision of knowledge to the slaves. There was the provision of Christian education. This kind of experience was to be religious and moral to the freed slaves. The missionaries received financial support from the British government. The ministers used the funds to construct schools and cater to the needs of the teachers. Schools were established for primary education. The missionaries and the freed slaves were anxious about the education system.

Missionaries developed churches and mission schools where they taught about Christianity and the right to education to the slaves who have enslaved this act helped reform the people about the importance of equal treatment. Preparing to the ex-slaves could allow them to clinch great position rather than seen as tools of production as shown by Howard, Carl, and Campell in 1835. The Christianity attitudes towards slavery affected its mandate since it only involved ridiculing the action hence it brought massive changes to its practice. According to Solow, Barbara L. 1985 this attitude brought about the end of evil practices of slavery in the Atlantic hence ending the slave trade. The courage by the Christianity to fight slavery bore many efforts since they were not undermined. The Christian abolitionists believed in God as the father and unity to man. As such, they preach against any form of seeing oneself as superior to others. This could bring the issue of campaigning for the respect of persons as lamented by William Cowper. The Baptist used the church to acquire land for the slave. They could buy it through land agents in Jamaica to set up free villages. After the emancipation of freed slaves in 1834 Phillippo Baptist church and the new church of God were established.

The religious community had to organize how to create new lives for the freed slaves. This was a great move because most of the slaves had been separated from their families hence need to reunite with them. The church helped the freed slaves to find new jobs and feel the freedom of living in their land. A Payne and Gould Steward established churches and sponsored missionaries to steer forward the freedom of the freed slaves. They also opened up schools for the freed slaves and were concerned for the general welfare the slaves. The effort of the missionaries for the financial contribution of building schools and churches increased the literacy level of the freed slaves. This achievement brought the rise of the Africans into high standards in education and politics. The freedom to the freed slaves saw a significant improvement in self-reliance. The effort also saw a lot of change in their class and fostering of the religious beliefs and practices. These changes made by the missionaries saw an enormous difference to the freedom of the slaves. According to Claudius K. Fergus, freed Africans had to develop up mentally to have means of approaching life differently. They had the right to make their own decisions.

The church played a significant role to the freed slaves. The slaves who acted as tools of work had the choice to live their own lives. The church used different tactics to bring independence to the former slaves from the hands of the plantation owners. The plantation owners too put efforts not to guarantee the slaves freedom by denying them land. The plantation owners could also try to be on the look to know who was responsible for the buying of and used spies to detect this. However, they could not achieve the land agents used to buy land for the freed slaves. The plantation owners only wanted to provide rent from which they could obtain cheap or free labor. From the leases, they could get big profits and cheap or free labor. The freed slaves suffered a lot from slavery to ex-slaves until the efforts of the church were involved. Provision of land to slaves, free village establishment, acting as legal advisers by the Baptist and establishment of schools and churches were some of the ways the church used. It took time and commitment by the church to achieve this. At the end of it, the freed slaves had to be independent in their lives. They united with their loved one and made decisions at a personal level about their fate and path of their future. The roles of the church were highly recommendable as such could not have been a dream come through if they never involved themselves.

Works cited

Beckles, Hilary McD. "An Unnatural and Dangerous Independence': The Haitian Revolution and the Political Sociology of Caribbean Slavery." The Journal of Caribbean History 25.1 (1991): 160.

Howard A Fergus, A History in the British Leeward Islands, University of West Indies Press, 1838-1843

James Phillips Jamaica its past and present state, J Snow, 1843.

Klein, Herbert S., and Ben Vinson III. African slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean. Oxford University Press, 2007.

Morrissey, Marietta. Slave women in the New World: gender stratification in the Caribbean. Univ Pr of Kansas, 1989.

Patterson, Thomas C. "Early colonial encounters and identities in the Caribbean: A review of some recent works and their implications." Dialectical Anthropology 16.1 (1991): 1-13.

Solow, Barbara L. "Caribbean slavery and British growth: the Eric Williams hypothesis." Journal of development economics 17.1-2 (1985): 99-115.