The Ultimate Importance of African Assimilation in Europe
One of the biggest issues regarding the social status for Africans in early modern Europe was assimilation. Through this assimilation, there grew a connection between Christianity and social status. This can be seen the most in The Interesting Narrative, written by Olaudah Equiano because it’s an autobiography about an African man and his journey through the different stages of his life after coming to England. Part of being assimilated meant adopting and practicing the Christian religion. Although this did not guarantee higher social status for Africans, it did allow them to blend in more with their new home, life, and surroundings, which in turn made their life easier and made their masters view them as better workers.
What we gain from reading James Walvin’s writing, “Questioning Slavery”, is an overview of how the slave trade was developed and how it grew. In his essay he states that there were three stages in the growth of the slave trade: The Portuguese/Spanish stage, the Dutch stage, and finally the English/French stage. Although Walvin does not spend a great deal of time discussing Christianity in his writing, he does touch on it briefly by crediting the success of English Christianity with the abolition of the slave trade. Through looking at how the slave trade was developed and then looking at what caused it to ultimately end, we are able to gain a better understanding of how large of a force Christianity really was during this time.
The two chapters (three and twelve) from Olaudah Equiano’s, The Interesting Narrative, provide us a first-hand look at what assimilation meant for Africans in Europe and allow us to gain a sense of what life was like for Africans living in Europe. There was a model of assimilation that was identified as existing in Spain and Portugal at the time that Equiano was following, but only to an extent. With his story we see how he was able to reconcile assimilation with his own African identity and the identity of other Africans as well. He begins his story by talking about his first days in England as a little boy and progresses all the way to his conversion to Christianity and to his last years as being a part of the abolition movement. Through this we not only begin to see why Africans felt the need to assimilate, but also a community effect occurring from the assimilation of Africans that is picked up on in other readings.
In her writing, “Mobility in Chains: Freedom of Movement in the Early Black Atlantic”, Gretchen Gerzina does just that. There is a very powerful statement that she makes in this piece that shows just what assimilation was for Africans. “In identifying themselves first as Africans and Christians and secondarily as seamen, these black intellectuals envisioned themselves as members of an international black community. Whether they were enslaved or free, they became perceived as a community through the combined lenses of race, religion, and travel” (Gerzina, 49). Here Gerzina is showing the strong bond that Equiano, as well as Prince, Cuffee, and countless other Africans grew to have through Protestant Christianity. She goes even further to suggest that it was Protestant Christianity that prompted them to see all people of African descent as related, establishing a communal identity.
Both Pierre Boulle, in his writing “Racial Purity or Legal Clarity: The Status of Black Residents in Eighteenth-Century France” and Sue Peabody, in her writing “Race, Slavery, and the Law in Early Modern France”, focused less on Christianity as it related to Africans and more on the legal debate that existed over slavery on the French soil. The difference between these two authors was that Peabody was an American interested in what exactly the debate revealed about race and racial profiling, and Boulle was a Frenchman interested in what the debate revealed about the workings of the French government.
In fact, the only time Boulle even discusses Christianity is at the beginning of his writing by saying that “if prejudice was expressed against them, it was only because they were not Christian” (Boulle, 21). This is a very strong statement and says much in regards to why assimilation, especially with the Christian religion, was so important among African in Europe at this time. In her writing, Peabody discussed Christianity briefly, but her main focus was how Africans ended up becoming free of their slave status. She brought up a good point in her discussion of the debate, stating that “Slaves could be brought to France for two reasons: for religious instruction or for training in a particular trade” (Peabody, 502). It is the former part of this quote that is of the most interest here because it shows us that slaves were considered to be “ok” as long as they were here to learn (and essentially assimilate into) Christianity.
Next we begin to see the discussion of abolitionism come into play and the role that Christianity played in it. Christopher Brown, in his writing, “Christianity and the Campaign Against Slavery and the Slave Trade”, explains how the abolition movement is what helped Christianity to gain its credibility back amongst the people and how it granted Christianity a moral high ground once again. He states that Christians had always been against slavery, but had no way of influence the government policy. Another writer who focused on this topic was Nicholas Hudson in his writing, “Britons Never Will be Slaves’: National Myth, Conservatism, and the Beginnings of British Antislavery”. Hudson argued with Brown in the sense that he believed the Christian source for the abolition movement was actually conservative Anglicanism. He stressed that Quakers were nothing more than hypocrites and were not nearly as pious as they were portrayed to be because they were the biggest slave owners until they decided they no longer needed slaves and outlawed slavery altogether. Although neither of these writers focused on how Christianity related directly to Africans and their assimilation, through reading them we see just what type of role Christianity played in the abolition of slavery and lifting the slave status from the Africans.
In conclusion, through the process of assimilation, Africans formed a connection between Christianity and their own social status. When they came to Europe, Africans sought to assimilate to their new life, and the biggest way to do that was through religion. In a sense, by doing this it not only made life easier for African in Europe because they were looked at higher by Europeans themselves, but it also helped them to form a communal identity, prompting them to see all people of African descent as related. Given that Christianity is credited with the abolishment of the slave trade, it can be said that this assimilation ultimately led to the end of slavery and allowed Africans to be a part of the abolition.
