Contentious Liberties: American Abolitionists in Post-emancipation Jamaica, 1834-1866

Abstract

A small group of evangelical Protestant missionaries associated with Oberlin College and, later, with the American Missionary Association (AMA) were latecomers to the promotion of Christianity in Jamaica. Establishing their first mission station in 1837, their arrival coincided almost exactly with the end of slavery in the British Empire, making their relationship to the people they sought to convert significantly different from the relationships established by missionaries who began their work as ministers to enslaved congregations. The Americans’ commitment to radical abolitionism also distinguished them from other missionaries who were more politically cautious. And unlike the missionaries who were at the heart of the conflicts during the later years of slavery, the American missionaries appear to have made little impact on Jamaican religion or culture. Christianity was already widespread by the time of their arrival, and the trend in Jamaican religious history in the postemancipation period was toward independent black-led congregations. Although some American missionaries settled permanently in Jamaica, their formal mission lasted only thirty years. As Gale L. Kenny explains in this deeply researched study, the significance of the AMA’s Jamaican mission is as much its status as a precursor to the organization's work in the post–Civil War U.S. South as it is for the long-term history of Jamaica. Indeed, although a few Jamaicans are made visible in the book, the memorable characters are the American missionaries. Thus, in telling the story of this relatively neglected group of missionaries, Kenny contributes primarily to the history of American evangelical culture and American abolitionism.