In my opinion, the Atlantic World did not work to provide greater religious freedom than was found in the old world. For example, although the Sephardim in Dutch and English ports became able to freely profess their Judaic faith after 1630, later in that same decade, New Christians in Portugal were burned at the stake for their religion, and Brazilian conversos were harassed by the Office of the Holy Inquisition.[1] The special privileges won by the Sephardim after 1629 were the negotiated result of Jewish contributions to creating and expanding Dutch ports, as well as Jewish services to the Dutch State on the battlefield.[2] They did not represent a generalized trend towards religious tolerance. Furthermore, Klooster notes that “the Dutch Reformed Church in Brazil consistently opposed religious tolerance and on at least two occasions . . . private citizens tried to have” Jewish privileges revoked.[3] In addition, the intolerance of Islam noted in Sultana Afroz’s article also argues against a greater role for religious freedom in Atlantic World. Although Afroz’s numbers may be somewhat suspect, her argument that a significant proportion of putative African Christians were actually Muslims seems sound, and the reactions of the Christian religious leaders do show Islam was not a tolerated religious faith in the Christian dominated portions of the 18th century Atlantic World.[4]
Most scholars argue that shortages of missionaries in Africa, and the reluctance of African rulers to accept formal conversion and baptism, suggest that, like Muslims, non-Muslim Africans immigrants in the New World were Christians only in name, no more willing to change their beliefs than were the Jewish conversos.[5] Thornton however, suggests many Africans were aware of Christian teachings by the time they arrived in the New World as a result of Christianity’s role as a religion spread along African trade routes.[6] To this I would add that the Coptic Orthodox Church in Africa predated the European colonial era, and dominated the areas usually thought of as Islamic prior to Mohammed. Coptic Christians would have coexisted with both Islam and with the animist local African faiths. Furthermore, many rulers including Saint Constantine the Great have been reluctant to be baptized except on their deathbeds. Nevertheless, I agree with Thornton that African Christian faiths were heavily influenced by syncretism. While the Christian Atlantic World was somewhat accepting of syncretism, it was quite intolerant of fetishism suggesting that the experience of African Christians also does not lend credence to the argument that the Atlantic World was religiously tolerant.
[1]Wim Klooster, "Communities of port Jews and their contacts in the Dutch Atlantic World," Jewish History (2006) 20:131, http://www.springerlink.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/content/?k=doi:("10.1007/s10835-005-9001-0")&MUD=MP (accessed June 19, 2012).
[2]Klooster, 130.
[3] Klooster, 136-137.
[4] Sultana Afroz, "The Jihad of 1831-1832: The Misunderstood Baptist Rebellion in Jamaica," Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs (2001) 21, no 2: 232, http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=03f99dbe-1e3a-49ca-9f8b-66d03ee1eeec%40sessionmgr12&vid=2&hid=10 (accessed June 19, 2012).
[5] John K. Thornton, "On the Trail of Voodoo: African Christianity in Africa and the Americas," The Americas (Jan., 1988) 44, no 3:264, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1006906 (accessed June 19, 2012).
[6] Ibid, 266.
Your argument that the Atlantic World resulted in less religious freedom was clear, concise, and well defended. While I generally agree with your view, I wish to spin it in a different light. Very few people traveled prior to the discovery of the New World. Most people’s lives were sedentary and you died in the same place you were born. They might have had religious freedom, but their religion was largely handed to them by their surrounding culture. I do not judge the Atlantic World as being less religiously tolerant, but rather it was experiencing a major cross-cultural exchange. Any cross-cultural exchange in this manner was sure to result in clashes, and the religious intolerance is no exception. I do not see the Atlantic World as less religiously tolerant, rather it was experiencing religious mixing that it had not previously been able to handle.
ReplyDeleteIt seems as if limits were placed on religion in the New World because belief in something can lead to other things like rebellion. Master were also concerned for meetings of a great number of people and rules were in place to prevent that from happening. It can be a fallacy that some fall into, when you have concerns about someone's choices, you limit their ability to make those choices.
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