Second Paper

In early modern Europe, each country had varying viewpoints and laws on how blacks were treated socially. Some places were free and much more lenient, yet still had prejudice, (France to name one.) and some allowed slavery, therefore blacks were seen to be lower on the totem pole, even if not slaves. The overlying theme however, was that Christianity, whether catholic or not, held a huge sway in peoples opinions. Thus, the connection between Christianity and social status when relating to Africans in early modern Europe was based off of the areas culture, in regarding how they viewed blacks regarding to their religion.

In these different regions, religious viewpoints held sway. If your opinion was that God made all men equal, then blacks were treated by those of that viewpoint like equals, and socially everyone was the same. On the other hand if the main line of thinking was that the bible allowed slavery, then blacks were looked at as a lower class because of the supposed “transgression” by their forefathers. Other areas, especially around the Mediterranean, if blacks were simply not thought to be christian, then they were looked down upon to be lower than the whites around them.

In James Walvin's piece, there is much mentioned about the early view of blacks, especially when looked at in a labor sense, but it does mention early religious viewpoints on black slave labor. It says that blackness was a defining characteristic, but religiously, or culturally religiously, black mean “dirty, sinful, impure; white meant beauty, virtue, cleanliness.” ¹ However, blacks were above pagan believers because they were at least inside the arms of a christian culture.

In Olaudah Equiano's writings, we also see a bit of how religion played into his life. At a younger age, he was introduced to church that white people went to, and he Learned about God. People were willing to tell more about God as well, showing some level of equality in just that. After this, he was treated fairly well, and had a white playmate, and her mother even treated him the same as her. There is a fairly interesting part later on in the reading where Equiano tries to become an ordained missionary and fails ² The letter he uses to try and become ordained has support from white friends, and he was even led to write the letter from them! This shows that on the lower class levels, a black christian was basically an equal, but those in a position of power didn't quite see it that way.

The reading of Peabody had little dealing with Christianity and African slaves, with the closest thing being all men are born free. This dealt more with freedom in France in general. The Garzina article speaks heavily of christian influence on slaves, in that reading, it talks of how former slaves actually took their white owners religion, and made it their own, which made them feel at “home” in their lives later on. That in the meaning of a spiritual home vs. a physical one.

Brown's writing has a huge amount of dealing with Christianity and it's viewpoint on slavery, and how to treat black slaves. A rising protestant movement at this time believed that all men were equal, and slavery needed to be abolished. Clearly those using this belief saw blacks as their brothers, and treated them as equals. However, other Christians, especially those who owned slaves disagreed with this view, and came up with ideas such as blacks being the descendants of Ham, and his curse was his dark skin, thus making blacks less than whites. They would also cite Paul speaking about slave/owner relationships to try and make their case. ³

Boulle's reading also has religion involved, and the piece deals with France, thus making it interesting because of the slave laws there. This one tells of how their was a prejudice against blacks from Christians, but mainly because blacks were not considered to be christian, so if someone didn't know if another was christian, discriminatory attitudes were soon to follow. Hudson's article deals largely with the legality of slavery, and brings up Christianity and religion when talking about the different groups, and saying how people like the Quakers were working hard to fight slavery, while the current church accepted it. This article is a nice read for this, because it also involves saying how the Americans left for religious freedom, but will not grant their slaves freedom based on their beliefs. Basically showing how British abolitionist view Americans as hypocrites.

the connection between Christianity and social status when relating to Africans in early modern Europe was based off of the areas culture, in regarding how they viewed blacks regarding to their religion. Each land or area was different, and one cannot pinpoint one belief to one area, but they can point out that Christianity, or specifically a people's viewpoint on Christianity, definitely affected how Africans were treated in the social structure.

---------------------------------------------

1 James Walvin, "FORGING THE LINK: Europe, Africa and the Americas" in James Walvin, Questioning Slavery (London, UK: Routledge, 1996), pg. 16

2 Olaudah Equiano, Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano: Or Gustavus Vassa, The African, (New York: Random House, 2004), pg. 235-238

3 Christopher Leslie Brown, “Christianity and the campaign against slavery and the slave trade,” The Cambridge History of Christianity Vol. 7 Cambridge Histories Online, pg .518