Distant Garden: Moravian Missions and the Culture Of Slavery in the Danish West Indies, 1732-1848

Abstract

Abstract The author traces the effects of Moravian mission work on the slave culture of the Danish West Indies. She describes the colonization of the islands, including the context of its religious foundations and role of Moravian missionaries from their arrival in 1732 through the ultimate emancipation of the slave population in 1848. Although Moravians understood slavery as a condition ordained by God, they believed in the spiritual equality of all souls. One of the first missionaries, Friedrich Martin, became a strong advocate of teaching literacy among slaves in order to spread the gospel. Plantation owners initially resisted this instruction, but as the abolition movement swelled over the next hundred years, Moravians inadvertently became facilitators of peace and education. In 1839 all schools for free and slave negroes were placed under Moravian control. In their indirect role as teachers and purveyors of the gospel, Moravian missionaries nurtured a sense of dignity and equality among slaves, which contributed greatly to the emancipation movement in the Danish West Indies.