Reading the American Past: Printed Page 94

DOCUMENT 5–5

A Moravian Missionary Interviews Slaves in the West Indies, 1767–1768

Few Europeans expressed much interest in the views of the millions of African men, women, and children enslaved during the eighteenth century. Christian George Andreas Oldendorp was a rare exception. A Moravian minister, Oldendorp was in his fifties when he traveled from Germany to the West Indies to write a history of Moravian missionary activities there. Oldendorp interviewed numerous slaves in the West Indies and described what he learned from them in a book published in 1777. Oldendorp's narrative, translated from German to English and excerpted below, emphasized the differences among Africans and the contributions of those differences to the slave trade. Had anybody taken the trouble to interview enslaved Africans in North America, the slaves probably would have echoed many of the observations made by the people Oldendorp interviewed.

Christian George Andreas Oldendorp

History of the Evangelical Brethren's Mission on the Caribbean Islands, 1777

The reports about the political and moral conditions of different black nations in Guinea and other African countries . . . have been gathered through interviews with Negroes from approximately thirty nations. I hoped, by means of these interviews with baptized slaves who were known as intelligent and upstanding people, to contribute additional and more reliable information concerning these nations than that which had been known heretofore. Yet the considerable ignorance of these people and their inability to articulately express their ideas has caused my hope to remain very much unfulfilled. ...

Europeans obtained black slaves from that part of the African coast which lies between . . . the Senegal or Niger River to the foothills of the Black Mountains — a stretch of some 800 German miles. ... This . . . same area contains many large and small kingdoms and peoples who differ in language, tradition, and custom. The number of these kingdoms is often exaggerated, because of misunderstandings caused by the different names which one nation may be given. ... Often when a black is asked for the name of his nation, he gives the name of the location of the nation in Guinea. Thus the location can easily be mistaken for the name of a nation. Even these names are pronounced differently by the Negroes. ...

There [is] . . . just as much variation among this race as exists among the white. ... The Negroes divide themselves into many peoples, which differ more or less in language, customs, traditions, and religion. They form many individual states almost all of which have a despotic political structure wherein the regent arbitrarily rules over his subjects. ...

I obtained a report about the Kanga nation from four Negro men and two Negro women. They share borders with the Mandingo and Fula, but don't understand their language. They do, however, understand the Mangree who live deep in the middle of the land. ... They do business with whites on the ocean, with whom they trade slaves, tiger pelts, and ivory for weapons, powder, lead, iron, corals, and rum. The Negro merchants who do this trade can reason mathematically and read. Iron rings which the Kanga forge themselves serve as currency within the tribe. Only the well-off have gold and the gold is not used for money. There are almost constant internal wars. One tribe attacks another solely for the purpose of capturing men to be sold to whites as slaves. ...

Now I come to the nations of the Goldcoast and from there eastward into the inland, the area in which most of the slaves brought to the West Indies originate. The most powerful nation on this coast is the Amina. I sought information on the Amina nation from five intelligent Negroes. One of them, a rich merchant and slave catcher in Guinea, knew more than usual because of his journeys. Another was the king's brother and the third had been in command of a 3,000-man army belonging to a relative who was a vassal of the king. The remaining two were of the common folk. ...

The nation is under a king, who governs the different provinces of his realm by vassal-kings. ... Their territory is very large and has many villages. Their neighbors fear them because of their power. They war almost constantly against the Sante, Akkran, Beremang, Assein, Kiseru, Atti, Okkan, and Adansi for the sole purpose of kidnapping. They have rifles while their enemies generally use bow and arrows. In addition, civil wars are often caused by the many royal heirs and heirs of vassal-kings who make the succession of government disputable for one another. There is much gold in the territory, but no iron, therefore iron is very valuable. Their money consists of gold pieces and partly of a type of ocean mussel they call Bujis or Cowris. . . . They trade gold, ivory and slaves with the Europeans for iron, weapons, etc. ... The Amina, like many other African nations, hold slaves as servants, who, in their opinion, are not treated as harshly as the West Indian slaves. ...

The Sokko or Asokko, of which I spoke to three Negroes, border the Amina on one side and Uwong on the other. They take from six to seven weeks to reach the seacoast from their country. Their king, who has many lesser kings or governors under him, is always called Mansa. They have to fight a continuous defensive war against the Amina and other nations which invade their states for the purpose of kidnapping. Nevertheless, they inflict the same injustice upon their neighbors that they find abominable in the Amina, only they don't kidnap any of their own people. They trade with the Whites and also have regular small shops. They use coral and mussels among themselves instead of small coins. They lack neither gold nor iron in their country, nor artisans to work the metals. ... I understand from the narration of one of the three Sokko Negroes who lived far from the other two, that a part of this nation is Islamic, and also some have employed the worship habits of Christians. They call God, Allah, and worship him in houses set aside for that purpose, and the priests who are in charge use a book during the worship service. They hold their morning and evening prayers very punctually. They get up before the sunrise and observe a deep silence until they have washed themselves. As soon as the sun appears, the father of the house kneels down with his family on a mat and leads the prayer with his face toward the sun. The evening prayer is done similarly after having washed their faces, hands, and feet. They have been introduced to baptism, as well as circumcision. The latter is performed on every slave, because, as they say, he otherwise could not be intelligent or speak. ...

The Kalabari live apparently on the river Kalabar. It is also possible that they are sold for the most part on this river, and received their name for that reason. The five Negroes from this nation to whom I spoke were cheerful and hearty. They told me they had lived very far from the sea, and that a large stream flows through their land. ... The Ibo, a very populous people, are their neighbors and friends who share the same language with them. Among their other neighbors they also named the Apur and the Bibi or Bivi. They claim that the latter were cannibals. Therefore they were very afraid of being captured by them. I have seen one of these Bibi myself, who recently was brought from Guinea to St. Thomas. His upper and lower teeth were filed to points like a saw; he had a fearsome countenance and was very strong. The land of the Karabari has gold, however, they use sea mussels instead of coins. Their king is called Delemango, which means a great man. Insults cause civil wars to break out frequently among chiefs or governors, whom he places over different provinces of his kingdom. The wars are put to an end by him, only when it appears that they are going too far with it. Their weapons consist of flintlocks, sabers, spears and poisoned arrows. They sell their prisoners of war who then are passed from one master to another so that one often has had 50 or more masters before he is sold to the Europeans on the coast. ...

A Loango Negro called the highest regent of his nation Aressan Congo. Two kings, Maluango and Macongo, are his vassals, between whom war broke out because the latter refused to continue to give the former a young woman as yearly tribute. They have firearms, bow and arrows as weapons. The Loango land is rich in gold. The king's throne is made from this precious metal and the women wear golden arm and leg bands. ... It is known that the English, Dutch and French get many slaves from this coast. ...

The Negroes from the Congo nation who came to the West Indies have, for the most part, a recognition of the true God and of Jesus Christ, and are more intelligent and cultured than other blacks. This is due to the influence of the Portuguese, who, from their arrival on this coast [of Africa], made an effort to enlighten and better this unknowledgeable people. They achieved that intention with those who lived near them; those who lived far from them deep in the inland had a religion that was a combination of Christian ceremonies and heathen superstition. ...

As I discussed [different crimes and punishments] . . . with the Negroes, an Amina who had been a merchant gave the answer that in Guinea one did not know much about sins, for everyone considered that which he did to be right. The Whites had a conscience indeed, but the Negroes had no self-reproach about anything. Also when they were punished for a crime, they did not seek the guilt in themselves. On the contrary, they blame all evil on the devil. Whereas a Negro is very forgiving toward himself, he tends to punish others harshly when they have committed some wrongdoing against him. Certain actions that negatively affect life, goods, or rights are consistently considered to be crimes and punishable. ...

The Amina merchant who was a slave in St. Thomas would give his debtors a grace period of three months in Guinea. If the payment was not made within that period, he would have the members of the debtor's family caught, if he could, especially the children, and paid himself by selling them to the Europeans. Many a debtor gives his wife or his daughter — of his own accord — in payment of a debt. The Negro believes he has as much right over them as over any other type of his possessions. Surely for this reason it must not be as strange for the Negro when he is sold, as for the European who was raised under different customs. Kidnapping is generally frequent among the Negroes not only to gain retribution but, like every other theft, for unjustified reasons as well. Since the European pays so well for this product, almost no Negro is safe from being sold into slavery by the first one who can overpower him. Because the regents themselves commit this injustice publicly, and invade each other's lands solely for this purpose, kidnapping has a privileged status among injustices. Furthermore, since one nation exercises its right to revenge on the other, enduring wars come about, which increase the misery in these nations to a point which complete anarchy would not exceed. ...

The Negro nations are as unknowledgeable as they are superstitious. The first case is due more to lack of teaching than to the lack of ability. A slave that has just been traded from Guinea to the West Indies is apparently as dumb as a child. But there is no lack of examples of such who with time, especially after they are enlightened through the teaching of Jesus Christ, have achieved a healthy mind and great physical dexterity. Even in Guinea there are different nations in which the art of reading and writing are not completely unknown. In addition to the Fula, . . . many Mandinga not only can read and write, but can do math and have a knack for business. Also many crafts are done among them, and spinning, sewing, and weaving are arts that they know.

From Christian George Andreas Oldendorp, History of the Evangelical Brethren's Mission on the Caribbean Islands of St. Thomas, St. Cross, and St. John (Leipzig, 1777), trans. from German in Soi-Daniel W. Brown, “From the Tongues of Africa: A Partial Translation of Oldendorp's Interviews,” Plantation Society, II (1983), 37–61.

Questions for Reading and Discussion