Introduction
The connection between Christianity and social status was that there might be religion to help bring up their spirits but they were still the lowest on the social ladder. There were many Africans that were considered free during this time period in Europe. Even though they were free they were still prosecuted even in the churches that they went to. Religion did some good to Africans for bringing them together and masters using it to their advance. These things are connected but not by very much.
Social Status of Africans
With one of the document that I read called “Racial Purity or Legal Clarity? The Status of Black Residents in Eighteenth-Century France” written by Pierre H. Boulle, it talks a lot about the social status that Africans had but it had nothing to do with religion. With the new laws that were in France, Africans were free citizens. “Slavery, however, was meant to be exclusively contained in the colonies, and the laws in France remained unchanged, stressing that ‘slaves acquire [their] liberty by the laws of the realm as soon as they touched land.’”[1] This was very confusing for both White Europeans and Africans but it was still Africans chance at freedom. They were not equal but they were at least free. Their status in society would always be low or nothing compared to White Europeans but they still wanted that chance.
In another document called “Race, Slavery, and the Law in Early Modern France” written by Sue Peabody, it takes the same subject as in the previous document that I talked about but it went in a slightly different way. One of the interesting things was this document states that eventually the law changed so that a slave couldn’t become free when the get onto land. There was a lot more to it now and the white Europeans wanted to keep fellow whites happy by getting rid of the loop holes in the law. The other thing was the way that they look the social status of Africans and Whites and turned it to their advantage. “His case demonstrates that they judicial elite of France were willing to preserve the notion of France as the seat of liberty, while at the same time promoting the image of blacks as an inferior race.”[2] Africans were slowly becoming free but nothing was going to make them equal to white Europeans no matter what they did. Whites always had to be superior and had to have someone below them that they could control.
In “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano” really puts into perspective the status of Africans as sailors compared to what you have learned in the past. In the third chapter it really goes into how much sea faring was very different for Africans compared to if they were to live on land. When you think about what you have learned in the past is that Africans lived on plantations and they would be discriminated by every white in the town. “I now thought my condition much mended, I had sails to lie on, and plenty of good victuals to eat, and everybody on board used me very kindly, quite contrary to what I had seen of any white people before, I therefore began to think that they were not all if the same disposition.”[3] On land they were not able to go anywhere without being noticed. When they were on a boat you are in a small environment, you know everyone, and you depend on others to get you through the voyage safely.[4]
In another document “Questioning Slavery” by James Walvin, he looks more at the social aspect of Africans not only in Europe but also in their colonies around the world. Africans throughout the world during this time period were still seen as an inferior race/species to everyone else. At the same time they were still depended on by many white Europeans. At first people wanted to use Native Americans for their labor force but too many were dying from diseases that were brought over from Europe. Africans became the people that they needed to make production commercialism high.[5] This document doesn’t talk about Christianity but it starts to look at how Africans started to gain their status and how people would want to start to put religion into the mixture.
Christianity Mixed In
Also in “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudan Ewuiano” in the 12th chapter it really goes into the religion and how it plays on Africans lives. This is the last chapter in his book and it is one that really shows how religion played a big part in people’s lives. He wants to go back to his country and to liberate his people. “On these terms I consented to the governor’s proposal to go to Africa, in hope of doing good, if possible, amongst my countrymen, so, in order to have me sent out properly, we immediately wrote the following letters to the late Bishop of London: …”[6] The thing that you have to ask is does he want to change people because he thinks that they need to find religion? Will it make them feel like they are higher up in society because of this? Or did he just want to finally go home?
When it comes to religion and Africans not everything was that easy. In the document “Mobility in Chains: Freedom of Movement in the Early Black Atlantic” written by Gretchen Holbrook Berzina, there were Africans that were not even slaves but even if they were members of churches they were still segregated. “He became a full member of the meeting in 1808, at a time when, despite the Quakers’ antislavery stance it was ‘the custom [for] servants – black or white – [to be] separated from the rest of any church congregation by being seated in a designated section, such as the black pews or the balcony. Blacks would have been assumed to be servants.”[7] When it comes to their status in society he was very high up. He was free, a captain, and he owns his own ship. But because he was black he couldn’t even have respect in a Quaker Church that is known for being against slavery.[8] “Whether they were enslaved or free, they became perceived as a community through the combined lenses of race, religion, and travel and ‘in the vanguard of defining a new black ethnicity for the many African peoples dispersed by Atlantic slavery.”[9] Religion helped them come together but they were still separated from the rest of the world as a race.
Some African slaves actually used religion as a way to get away from all the pain and anger that they felt towards their masters and overseers. In the document “Christianity and the campaign against slavery and the slave trade,” written by Christopher Leslie Brown, he talks about how religion was used to the masters advantage. “The promotion of Christianity, by contrast, seemed to offer the most promising way to sanctify human bondage and restrain its worse abuses without fomenting revolutionary change.”[10] The people during this time period were using Christianity to keep slavery instead of ending it. They were working on making slavery better if you want to say that but it didn’t work.[11] Slavery is always going to be slavery and Africans are always not going to like it.
Conclusion
Religion did play a major role in what went on in Europe and especially with African Americans. Religion helped many with the way that they lived their lives and then other times it just helped white Europeans. The only thing that wouldn’t change with Africans no matter where they went was their social status and the way that Europeans saw them as a race and as a species.
[1] Pierre H. Boulle, “Racial Purity or Legal Clarity? The Status of Black Residents in Eighteenth-Century France,” The Journal of The Historical Society VI:I (March 2006): 3
[2] Sue Peabody, “Race, Slavery, and the Law in Early Modern France,” Historian, 56:3 (1994: Spring): 10
[3] Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, (Modern Library paperback Edition, 2004) 45
[4] Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, (Modern Library paperback Edition, 2004)
[5] James Walvin, Questioning Slavery, (Routledge 1996)
[6] Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, (Modern Library paperback Edition, 2004) 235
[7] Gretchen Hollbrook Gerzina, “Mobility in Chains: Freedom of Movement in the Early Black Atlantic,” The South Atlantic Quarterly 100:1, (Winter 2001): 13 - 14
[8] Gretchen Hollbrook Gerzina, “Mobility in Chains: Freedom of Movement in the Early Black Atlantic,” The South Atlantic Quarterly 100:1, (Winter 2001)
[9] Gretchen Hollbrook Gerzina, “Mobility in Chains: Freedom of Movement in the Early Black Atlantic,” The South Atlantic Quarterly 100:1, (Winter 2001): 9
[10] Christopher Leslie Brown, Christianity and the campaign against slavery and the slave trade, (Cambridge University Press, 2008) 5
[11] Christopher Leslie Brown, Christianity and the campaign against slavery and the slave trade, (Cambridge University Press, 2008)
