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A Scramble for Souls: The Impact of the Negro Education Grant on Evangelical Missionaries in the British West Indies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Patricia T. Rooke
Patricia T. Rooke*
Affiliation:
University of Alberta, Edmonton
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Extract

The United States has produced a lively and impressive body of scholarship on the education of freedmen during Reconstruction The story has a consistently melancholy tone— that of the hopes, aspirations and rhetoric which accompanied the perilous journey from unschooled bondsman to schooled freedman — a journey which culminated in broken promises and repressive realities. It is too frequently forgotten that such an experience had been shared some thirty years previously in the British West Indies after the 1833 Act of Emancipation. The story however is somewhat different in that formal schooling had been available to some of the black population during slavery. When the dubious regulations of servitude were lifted while its real abuses remained, the British Government's Negro Education Grant, which spanned a decade from 1835–45, expanded existing missionary facilities so that during the apprenticeship period, 1834–38, the ex-slaves could be satisfactorily prepared for freedom. This preparation intended that they comprehend the skills, qualities, and virtues requisite for taking upon themselves the apparently onerous burden of their emancipation, thus becoming a “grateful peasantry.”

Type
Articles
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , Winter 1981 , pp. 429 - 447
Copyright
Copyright © 1981 by History of Education Society 

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References

Notes

1. There is no comparable study of West Indian slave education to Webber, Thomas L., Deep Like the Rivers (New York, 1978), nor any for post-slavery such as Vaugh, William Preston, Schooling for All (Lexington, Ky., 1974), and McPherson, James M., The Abolitionist Legacy (Princeton, 1975). Slave education in the British West Indies must be understood not in the context of North American common schooling but as an extention of British voluntarism and the education of the lower orders. Sturt, Mary, The Education of the People (London, 1967).Google Scholar

2. The political significance of education for slaves has been discussed by the author in, “The World they Made — The Politics of Missionary Education to Slaves, 1800–33,” Caribbean Studies, 18, 2 (July, 1978) and the historical significance in 'Missionaries as Pedagogues: A Reconsideration of the Significance of Education for Slaves and Apprentices in the British West Indies, 1800–38,” History of Education (U.K.) 9, vol. (1980):65–79.Google Scholar

3. “Negro Education,” House of Commons, Papers, 29 (April 27, 1836), p. 569.Google Scholar

4. Knibb, to Dyer, , 1st June, 1835 and 6th Sept. 1837; to Hoby, , 11th Aug. 1837, in Hinton, John Howard, Memoir of William Knibb (London, 1849), pp. 229, 225 and 221. John Mirams of the LMS agreed when he offered only absolute freedom could remedy slavery's immorality. Mirams to Ellis, 10th Aug. 1834, Box 3, British Guiana-Berbice (1834–36) London Missionary Society (hereafter cited as LMS).Google Scholar

5. Act of Emancipation, Parliamentary Debates, 3rd Series (1835–45), Vol. 17, 14th May, 1833, approved by the House of Commons, 12th June, 1834. Emphasis added. In 1837 Inspector Charles Latrobe was reminded to keep such principles in mind. Instructions to Inspector 1837 (393) XLIII:311.Google Scholar

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14. A discussion on the actual pedagogy used by evangelical missionaries by the author is in “The Pedagogy of Conversion: Missionary Education to Slaves in the British West Indies, 1800–38,” Paedagogica Historica, 18 (1978): 356–374.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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20. Beecham, to Chairman, , Antigua District, 15th December, 1836, Outgoing West Indies (November 1845–December 1854), pp. 55–58, WMMS .Google Scholar

21. The grant included the WMMS, the LMS, the Church Missionary Society (hereafter cited as CMS), the Baptist Misionary Society (hereafter cited as BMS), the Scotch Misionary Society, the Moravian Missionary Society, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the Conversion Society, the Mico Trustees and the Ladies Society for the Education of Negro Children. In the case of the BMS, however, only some missionaries received the grant.Google Scholar

22. Instructions to Inspector, 1837 (393) XLIII, 311; Latrobe, Charles, Reports on Negro Education , Guiana, British and Trinidad, , XXXIV (35), 455 (1839), Windward, and Islands, Leeward, XLVIII (520), 159 (1837–38) and Jamaica, , XLVIII (113), 61 (1837–38); and Report from Select Committee on the State of Education of the Negroes, 1837 (510) VII. 745.Google Scholar

23. For example, Cox, James, the district secretary of the WMMS in Antigua exclaimed to the secretary of the WMMS, “O Sir! If only you knew what delight the grant of a few paltry pounds gives to us poor hungry fellows … money out here literally answers all things.” 17th February, 1836, Item 13 (1833–40), WMMS .Google Scholar

24. Quarterly meeting, 29th April, 1835, Minutes for October 23, 1824–November 30, 1837, Vol. 10, p. 37, BMS .Google Scholar

25. Committee meeting, 11th December, 1834, Ibid., p. 11.Google Scholar

26. Baptist Magazine (March 1838), p. 121.Google Scholar

27. Latrobe, to Glenelg, , 14th August, 1838, CO. 318:137, pp. 16–37, PRO .Google Scholar

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29. Scott, to Ellis, , 1st April, 1836, and 12th August, 1836, Ibid.Google Scholar

30. CO. 318:122, pp. 80–22, PRO .Google Scholar

31. Several illustrations will suffice. In 1834 the BMS missionaries lodged a complaint to the Colonial Office against “An Act to Enlarge the Power of Justices in Determining Complaints Between Masters and Servants and Between Masters, Apprentices, Artificers and Others,” passed in House of Assembly, Jamaica, July 3, 1834, CO. 318:139, pp. 217–18, PRO. Reverend Betts reported Baptist political action to the secretaires of the CMS on August 14, 1838, CW/020/29 as does the Auxiliary Committee, July 30, 1839, CW/065/34 and October 30, 1839, CW/065/38, CMS. Knibb reported the flogging of a female apprentice June 30, 1835, Hinton, p. 229. John Mirams of British Guiana was slandered by the justice of the peace for “tampering with, and advising apprenticed labourers” not to “accede to any propositions about wages or hours of labour,” Henery, to Mirams, , August 7, 1834, Box 3, British Guiana-Berbice (1834–36) LMS .Google Scholar

32. These hostilities have been documented in “The World They Made …”. A detailed explication of the change in planter attitudes toward missionary education and how these and the previously antagonistic attitudes shaped post slavery educational reform is found in the unpublished dissertation, “The Christianization and Education of Slaves and Apprentices in the British West Indies: The Impact of Evangelical Missionaries 1800–1838.” (University of Alberta, 1977), pp. 242–263 and 290–295.Google Scholar

33. Although not the only case of persecution, John Smith's death in prison was the most sensational. “Proceedings of a General Court Martial Against John Smith of the LMS,” CO.111–42, The Guiana Chronicle (February 27, 1824): 1–2, The Guiana Chronicle (December 4, 1817), Smith's Journal CO.111–46, PRO. Also see Missionaries to Ellis, 30th March, 1836, Box 5, British Guiana (1836–38) LMS to see how the missionaries viewed the changing relationships with their past enemies.Google Scholar

34. Ketley, to Ellis, , 11th September 1838 and 13 March, 1837, Ibid.Google Scholar

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36. Ellis, to Watt, , 11th March, 1837, Ibid., p. 490.Google Scholar

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38. Pinnington, John, “The Anglican Struggle for Survival in the Period of Abolition and Emancipation, 1825–50,” Journal of Religious History 5 (December 1968): 136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

39. Latrobe, to Glenelg, , 14th August, 1838, CO. 318:137, pp. 16–37, PRO .Google Scholar

40. Latrobe, to Grey, , Report received 20th November, 1837, CO.318–130, PRO .Google Scholar

41. Latrobe, to Glenelg, , 7th February, 1838, CO.318:130, p. 5, PRO .Google Scholar

42. CO.318:118, PRO .Google Scholar

43. Wray, to Wilson, Thomas, 3rd January, 1837, Box 4, British Guiana (1836–39) LMS Google Scholar

44. Ellis, to Grey, George Sir, 1st March, 1836, CO. 318:126, pp. 192–194, PRO .Google Scholar

45. Coates, to Grey, , 28th July, 1837 and Grey, to Coates, , 21st August, 1837, CO.318:131, p. 122, PRO .Google Scholar

46. Beecham, to Grey, , 12th May, 1837, CO.318:131, p. 144–147 and “Report Respecting the Twenty-Four Schoolhouses which the WMMS committee had Engaged to Erect…” 7th June, 1837, CO.318:131, pp. 153–54, PRO .Google Scholar

47. Ellis, to Grey, , 4th March, 1837, CO.318:131, pp. 170–74, PRO .Google Scholar

48. “Statement of Applications,” 6th September, 1837, Ibid., p. 255.Google Scholar

49. Dyer, to Grey, , 23rd February, 1838 and 25th June, 1838, CO.318:139, pp. 196–97. 204–05, PRO .Google Scholar

50. Coates, to Lefevre, , 18th April, 1834, CO.318:118 and to Buxton, , 3rd December, 1834, CO.318:122, pp. 82–85, PRO .Google Scholar

51. Ellis, to Brown, Hugh, August 28, 1837, Box 2, Outgoing (July 1837–November 1839), LMS and Phillippo, James Mursell also used this term in Jamaica: Its Past and Present State (London: 1843), p. 423.Google Scholar

52. Underhill, Edward Bean, Life of James Mursell Phillippo (London: 1881), p. 139.Google Scholar

53. Betts, to Secretaries, , September 1, 1835, CW/020/4a, CMS .Google Scholar

54. Newman, to Jowett, , March 9, 1838, CW/062/10, CMS .Google Scholar

55. Betts to chairman of Jamaica District of WMMS, January 3, 1838, CW/020/18 CMS .Google Scholar

56. Mr. Vine wrote to Rev. Ellis that the Baptists has shown “unrelenting opposition” to LMS incursions in Jamaica, February 19, 1839 and March 5, 1839, Box 2 (Jamaica 1839) LMS. Rev. Panton wrote similarly to Coates, Dandeson, May 13, 1838, CW/065/31 and October 25, 1839, CW/065/38, CMS .Google Scholar

57. Panton, to Jowett, , July 30, 1839, CW/065/64, CMS Google Scholar

58. Curtin, Philip D., Two Jamaicas: The Role of Ideas in a Tropical Colony 1830–1865 (New York; 1970), p. 162. Such conclusions are substantiated by Annual Report of the BMS for these years, the Reports of the Committee of the WMMS and Minutes of the Wesleyan Conference, The Proceedings of the CMS, and Latrobe's Reports on Education.Google Scholar

59. Cork's Journal entry for September 18, 1839, CW/028/18 and Cork to CMS, March 29, 1838, CW/028/20, CMS .Google Scholar

60. Reverend B. Dexter, Clarkson School, Stewart Town, Jamaica and William Knibb's Report, 31st December, 1838, Suffield Normal School, Falmouth, Jamaica, in Report of the BFSS (1839), pp. 125–129.Google Scholar

61. Ellis, to Watt, , June 28, 1835, Box 1, Outgoing (November 1835–1837), p. 321, LMS .Google Scholar

62. Wray, to Wilson, Thomas, May 18, 1837, British Guiana-Berbice (1837) LMS .Google Scholar

63. Berneau describes LMS in-fighting to Jowett, , August 11, 1835, CW/018/26 and May 30, 1836, CW/018/17, CMS .Google Scholar

64. Ibid., and “Meeting held at Lewis Chapel House, 13th January, 1836,” by Mirams, , Haywood, , Kenyon, , British Guiana-Berbice (June 1834–36) LMS .Google Scholar

65. Especially among the CMS men. Panton, to Jowett, , May 18, 1839, CW/065/31, to Coates, October 10, 1836, CW/065/19; Haensel, to Coates, , August 8, 1836, CW/044/3 and Coates, to Panton, , March 31. 1836, L2 (1834–39), p. 187, CMS .Google Scholar

66. Haywood, to Ellis, , January 5, 1836, Kenyon, to Ellis, , December 17, 1835, Parish, to Ellis, , February 9, 1836, Ellis, to Ketley, , July 12, 1837, British Guiana-Berbice (June 1834–36), Howe, to Ellis, , March 7, 1836, “Meeting at Lewis Chapel,” op. cit., and “Brief Analysis of Minutes of Proceedings of the Committee of Investigation in Berbice, September 8–September 19, 1836,” Box 4, British Guiana-Berbice (July 1836–39) LMS .Google Scholar

67. The evidences are so extensive that the following are illustrative. Outgoing Jamaica, Box 2 (July 1837–November 1839) and Box 3 (December 1834–June 1843) and Incoming Jamaica, Boxes 3 and 4, (1839) LMS; Statement of the Committee of the BMS addressed to the Directors of the LMS, Fen Court, 2nd July, 1841; Statement of the LMS to the Committee of the BMS (n.d.); and “Minutes of the Eighth Annual Meeting of the Brethren of Jamaica Held at Chapelton, March, 1843,” LMS. Also see Committee meetings 1835–1842, BMS and “An Exposition of the System pursued by the Baptist missionaries in Jamaica by missionaries and catechists of the LMS in that Island,” 17th November, 1842, p. 204, LMS .Google Scholar

68. In 1841 the first stages of take-over were occurring, Coates to Bishop of Jamaica, April 13, 1841, CW/L3 (1839–58), p. 96, CMS .Google Scholar

69. Ellis, to Barrett, , March 31, 1837 and to Wooldridge, , Hodge, , Barrett, , and Slatyer, , April 14, 1837, Box 1 West Indies Jamaica November 1835–July 1837), pp. 520 and 520; Ellis, to Wooldridge, , Vine, , Alloway, , Slatyer, , and Barrett, , June 29, 1837, Ibid., pp. 532–549. These disputes and accusations also had some affect over the apprentices and just as insecurity and rivalry disrupted the comparative harmony between missionary groups during slavery so too did it contaminate missionary relationships with apprentices and native leaders. This has been discussed in “Evangelical Missionaries, Appretices and Freedmen: The Psycho-Sociological Shifts of Racial Attitudes in the British West Indies,” a paper presented by the author to the Duquesne History Forum, October 19th, 1978.Google Scholar

70. Barrett, to Ellis, , Item 22, March 30, 1836 and Slatyer, to Ellis, , Item 45, September 1, 1837, Box 1 Outgoing Jamaica (November 1835–July 1837), LMS .Google Scholar

71. Wooldridge, to Tidman, , January 29, 1842, Box 4 (1842–44) LMS Google Scholar

72. This has been discussed in “The New Mechanic in Slave Society: Socio-Psychological Motivations and Evangelical Missionaries in the British West Indies.” The Journal of Religious History 11(June 1980):77–94.Google Scholar

73. Coates, to Labouchere, , 26th June, 1839, CO.318:145, p. 98, PRO .Google Scholar

74. The LMS Minutes of Occasional Committees (1841–52) record withdrawal of funds after an investigation of finances in 1852. They had very little interest in the West Indies at this time. A resolution of the Jamaica BMS in 1842 opted for independency but debts and drought in 1844 led to a further grant for chapel debts in 1845. The WMMS included the West Indies Mission under the auspices of the British Conference until the 1883 minutes recorded that “West Indies Conferences” would be established. Methodist Missionary Society Annual Report (April 1883), p. 12.Google Scholar

75. Circular to Secretaries of BMS, WMS, Mico Trustees, Moravian Missionary Society, Scotch Missionary Society, CMS, SPG, and Ladies Negro Education Society, 4th September, 1845, CO.319:42, p. 102, PRO .Google Scholar