James Ramsay’s (1733–1789) first encounter with slavery came as a naval doctor stationed in the British West Indies. Called on to treat the crew and cargo of a slave ship who were suffering with dysentery, Ramsay saw firsthand the unspeakable conditions in which slaves were transported across the Atlantic. When an accident cut short his naval career, he settled in the West Indies and became an Anglican minister, attending to the spiritual needs of both black and white believers. He also became an outspoken critic of the brutality he witnessed on the region’s sugar plantations, earning the hostility of British planters.

After his return to England in 1781, he set to work on his Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies, focusing on two questions. First, could Africans be saved? That is, did they have the same capacity as whites to receive and be transformed by the Christian message? Second, what impact did slavery have on the ability of African slaves to achieve their full spiritual potential? In this passage, Ramsay describes the missionary work of the Moravians in the West Indies. As you read it, focus on the connection Ramsay made between the Moravian experience and the anti-slavery cause.

Section II

The Obstacles That the Moravian Missions Have to Struggle With

The Moravians show a remarkable and laudable degree of assiduity in making converts; and, taking their difficulties into account, they have had, on the whole, no inconsiderable success. Their disciples in Antigua are about two thousand in number; the fruits of twenty years’ labour. Several planters encourage their endeavours among their people. But some years ago they received a rude shock from an attempt of a particular master to intrude on them Mr. Lindsay’s tenets, which required their own firmness, and the affection of their converts to defeat. There are usually three missionaries. They have introduced decency and sobriety among their people, and no mean degree of religious knowledge. They have infant missions in Barbados, St. Christopher’s, and Jamaica.

They have made the greatest progress in the Danish colonies. In St. Croix they have fixed a bishop, with several ministers and catechists under him. They have chapels in the different quarters of the island. Many gentlemen have private chapels for their use, and encourage them in their labours. Government countenances them; but the Danish clergymen in the island do not favour or assist them.

Every evening, except on Saturday, they have distinct meetings, by turns, for their baptized and catechumens. Their hour of general worship is on Sunday evening; the slaves being obliged to labour on that day for their subsistence. The converts are taught to use private devotions. When they go to, and leave off work, they sing in concert a few hymns drawn up in the common language. Singing makes a considerable part of their common worship.

The most sensible, of both sexes, are raised to the dignity of elders or helpers, to superintend each the behaviour of their sex, and to forward the work of instruction. When a brother commits a fault, he is mildly reproved in private, or if it be of a public nature, before the congregation: if he obstinately persists in the fault, he is, for a time, deprived of the Eucharist, or separated from the congregation. This discipline seldom fails to produce repentance, on which he is readily re-admitted to the privileges of the society.

In bringing them on in religious knowledge, they begin by drawing their attention particularly to the sufferings and crucifixion of our Saviour. When this is found to have made an impression on their minds, and filled their hearts with grateful sentiments, they then make them connect it with repentance and a good life. Submission to their masters, and full obedience to their commands, even to working in the plantation, when so ordered, on Sundays, are strongly enforced; or rather, they impress on them the necessity of submitting to those irregularities which, in their state of subjection, they cannot avoid, that their masters may have no complaint against them, while labouring to gain the great point of general improvement. Their greatest trouble arises from the libidinous behaviour of overseers among the female disciples, which, however, some masters check as much as lies in their power.

The great secret of the missionary’s management, besides soliciting the grateful attention of their hearers to our Saviour’s sufferings, is to contract an intimacy with them, to enter into their little interests, to hear patiently their doubts and complaints, to condescend to their weakness and ignorance, to lead them on slowly and gently, to exhort them affectionately, to avoid carefully magisterial threatenings and commands.

The consequences of this method are observed to be a considerable degree of religious knowledge, an orderly behaviour, a neatness in their persons and clothing, a sobriety in their carriage, a sensibility in their manner, a diligence and faithfulness in their stations, industry and method in their own little matters, a humility and piety in their conversation, a universal unimpeached honesty in their conduct.

The brethren in Europe are at the expense of the missionary’s journeys, and contribute to their maintenance. They have a small plantation in one of the Danish islands, from which they draw part of their support. Some of the missionaries, at their leisure hours, apply to mechanic employments. The rest of their simple maintenance arises from trifling voluntary collections among their disciples. Some of them are men of learning, others simple well-meaning men. Their bishop is a man of plain good sense and discretion.

This account of the Moravians appears, at first sight, to contradict my position, that the present debased state of slaves favours not religious improvement. The circumstances in their favour are, that they are seen by their scholars only as instructors or comforters; that they try to lose sight of slavery and its consequences, and show their converts to themselves only in the light of a religious society; that, as far as the simplicity of their rites will permit, they draw imagination to their assistance, and paint religion almost in sensible colours.

But it may be observed, that the authority of the master which they must enforce, and the law of God, which they profess to teach, must often draw the hesitating slave different ways, and fill his mind with doubt, which of the two is to be obeyed. God sets apart the Sabbath to recruit the body for labour, and improve the mind for futurity; the master, having seized for himself the work for the week, obliges the slave to toil on that day for his own maintenance; nay, not infrequently for his (the master’s) avarice. Doubtless, however it may fare with the profane master, the fate of the slave himself is in the best hands; but he can acquire only an inferior kind of religion, and he must hold even that at the caprice of one who, in himself, perhaps has no religion. A mitigation therefore of their slavery, and a communication of some social privileges, are still a necessary foundation for any eminent degree of religious improvement.

Source: James Ramsay, An Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies (London: James Phillips, 1784), pp. 161–166.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER