The ‘New Mechanic’ in Slave Society
Socio‐Psychological Motivations and Evangelical Missionaries in the British West Indies
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10197409 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Patricia T Rooke (Education and Early Childhood Development, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1980 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 77-94 |
| Publication date | 1980-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Religious History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-4227 • E-ISSN: 1467-9809 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9809.1980.tb00432.x |
| OpenAlex | W1986392679 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 6 |
Histories which discuss the problems of missionary motivation in the nineteenth century seem to fall into two schools of interpretation: the Whigs and the Revisionists. The first school links missionary activity with the urge to improve and civilize the 'benighted' peoples of a farflung and glorious empire whereas the second school reverses the image and explains it as part of an imperialistic expansionism which succeeded in colonizing different racial groups. That is, soul-saving was the justification for profit-mongering. British West Indian slavery, which legally ended in 1833 but groaned out its death-throes in an apprenticeship period until 1838, offers a curious anomaly to the second, and currently favoured interpretation. This case reminds us that while generalization is necessary and integrating in history, historical 'truth' is frequently a matter of the unique particulars of our past. As far as we can ascertain, evangelical missionaries in Antigua, Jamaica, and British Guiana were less moral watchdogs of the empire and pawns in an imperialistic plot, and more the scapegoats of planter hostility. Planting interests did not see them as appendages of their social group nor useful in preserving social order. Instead they saw missionaries as insolent threats to slave society whose presence undermined the plantation economy by bringing Christianity and formal education to chattel property
Ethnology · Sociology · West indies · Anthropology · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Gender Studies · History · Race, History, and American Society
Evangelical enthusiasm, missionary motivation and West Africa in the late nineteenth century
The ‘New Mechanic’ in Slave Society
Missionary Interest in British Expansion in the South Pacific in the Nineteenth Century
Victorian Christianity in the South Seas
IV. The Colonial Office and the Abolition of Slavery
Protestant Missionaries in the West Indies
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,04 |
| Citation span | 1980 - 1985 (6) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |