“Wherefore She Made Suit”: African Women’s Religious and Spiritual Determinism in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England

Tamara Lewis

doi:10.3390/rel8110251

Abstract

Historical evidence of early modern English religious communities demonstrate that culturally negative perceptions of skin color and ethnicity contributed to theological notions of black inferiority which supported societal hierarchies based on racial and gender discrimination. This essay analyzes three accounts of a group typically ignored by religious scholars on early modern England: sixteenth and seventeenth century African women. Despite living in a period that arguably witnessed the ideological birth and development of the racial construct in tandem with British colonialist and imperialist expansionism, these women defiantly crafted their own brand of spiritual determinism to wield personal agency in the face of racist theological discourse, ecclesiastical institutions, and legal authorities.

Highlights

Literature ReviewThis essay implicitly critiques Coffey’s conclusions, by arguing that despite the rhetoric of liberation gleaned from Protestant readings of biblical narratives, the legacy of theological rhetoric birthed during the Reformation excluded Africans from the theme of deliverance
Historical evidence of early modern English religious communities demonstrate that culturally negative perceptions of skin color and ethnicity contributed to theological notions of black inferiority which supported societal hierarchies based on racial and gender discrimination
It can be deduced that African women exercised religious agency through their interaction with ecclesiastical institutions, faith communities, and political structures

Summary

Literature Review

This essay implicitly critiques Coffey’s conclusions, by arguing that despite the rhetoric of liberation gleaned from Protestant readings of biblical narratives, the legacy of theological rhetoric birthed during the Reformation excluded Africans from the theme of deliverance. Focus on the ways that African women were affected by practical interpretations of the bible during this period widens the scope of different groups studied. This assessment is relevant with regards to Patricia Crawford’s breakthrough text Women and Religion in England: 1500–1720 (1996) which explores English women’s experience of the Reformation (Crawford 1996)

Historical Accounts of Three Remarkable Women

Blackness and the Christian Tradition in Early Modern England

African Women’s Spiritual and Religious Determinism

Conclusions