Race, Religion, and the Scottish Empire: St. Andrew’s Kirk, Nassau, ca. 1810-1852

Andrew Michael Jones

Abstract


This article examines the relationships between the Scottish diaspora community and the Afro-Caribbean and Anglican populations of New Providence Island during the first half of the 19th century. St. Andrew’s Kirk in Nassau was founded by Scottish emigrants in 1809 to provide them with a Presbyterian place of worship. The original members were, in part, British Loyalists – formerly based in North America – who had accepted Royal land grants on the archipelago in 1783. Many brought enslaved people with them, expecting their fortunes to recover in a new plantation economy. In 1837 William Maclure, a native of Ayrshire in southwest Scotland, became the fifth minister appointed to the Kirk. Unlike the previous ministers, Maclure remained in his Bahamian pulpit for over 25 years. Sources from his tenure at the church provide a window into the social, racial, and theological dynamics of Victorian New Providence. For example, in a letter published in a Scottish newspaper in the late autumn of 1852, Maclure stated somewhat cryptically that “the remains of the curse of slavery are upon us.” This article will offer an answer to the following three questions: First, to what degree have recent studies of the Scottish diaspora communities in the British West Indies underappreciated the Bahamian situation? Second, how did the members and ministers of St. Andrew’s Kirk, Nassau interact with issues of race and slavery from the founding of the church to the era in which Maclure’s letter was published? Lastly, what exactly was William Maclure referring to regarding the “curse of slavery”?

Keywords


Presbyterian Church of the Bahamas; Scotland; Bahamas; Religion

Full Text:

PDF FULL TEXT

References


Belam, M. (2018, September 17). Glasgow to make amends over slavery profits from past. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/sep/17/glasgow-university-to-make-amends-over-slavery-profits-of-past

Craton, M., & Saunders, G. (1992). Islanders in the stream: A history of the Bahamian people: Vol. 1. From aboriginal times to the end of slavery. University of Georgia Press.

Craton, M., & Saunders, G. (1998). Islanders in the stream: A history of the Bahamian people: Vol. 2. From the ending of slavery to the twenty-first century. University of Georgia Press.

Curry, C. (2005). Christianity and slave conversion: A catalyst for revolutionary change or a quest for respectability? Journal of the Bahamas Historical Society, 27, 4-8.

Devine, T. M. (2015). Introduction: Scotland and transatlantic slavery. In T. M. Devine (Ed.), Recovering Scotland’s slavery past: The Caribbean connection (pp. 1-20). Edinburgh University Press.

Edmonds, E. B. & Gonzalez, M. A. (2010). Caribbean religious history: An introduction. New York University Press.

Hamilton, D. (2005). Scotland, the Caribbean and the Atlantic world, 1750-1820. Manchester University Press.

Innes, W. A. (1913). The matriculation albums of the University of Glasgow from 1728-1858. James MacLehose and Sons. https://archive.org/details/matriculationalb00univuoft/page/iii/mode/2up

Johnson, W. B. (2000). Race relations in the Bahamas, 1784-1834: The non-violent transformation from a slave to a free society. University of Arkansas Press.

Lawlor, J. (2015). The history of the Christian religion in the Bahamas. Journal of the Bahamas Historical Society, 37(1), 6-16.

Letter from a converted heathen youth. (1848, July 28). The Well-Spring, 5(30), 117-118. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433008050142&view=1up&seq=101

Maclure, W. (1842, November). A graphic description of a remote and solitary station, occupied by one of our faithful ministers, the following will be found interesting. Home and Foreign Missionary Record for the Church of Scotland, 4, 155-156.

Maclure, W. (1844, February 1). Notice. Home and Foreign Missionary Record for the Free Church of Scotland, 1, 104.

Maclure, W. (1837, August 12). On leaving Scotland for a foreign shore. The Scottish Christian Herald, 2, 512. https://books.google.bs/books/about/The_Scottish_Christian_Herald.html

Maclure, W. (1852, November 1). West Indies. New Providence. Home and Foreign Record of the Free Church of Scotland, 3(4), 103. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.ah6fps?urlappend=%3Bseq=117

Morris, M. (2018). Scotland and the Caribbean, c. 1740-1833: Atlantic archipelagos. Routledge.

Mullen, S. (2016). The Scots Kirk of colonial Kingston, Jamaica. Records of the Scottish Church History Society, 45(1), 99-116. https://doi.org/10.3366/sch.2016.0008

Parrish, L. A. (1958). Records of some southern Loyalists: Being a collection of manuscripts about some 80 families, most of whom immigrated to the Bahamas during the American revolution.

Proctor, J. H. (2004). Scottish missionaries and Jamaican slaveholders. Slavery and Abolition, 25(1), 51-70. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144039042000220928

Rae, C. S. (1910). A short history of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Nassau, Bahamas. D.S.D. Moseley.

Register of Freed Slaves [manuscript]. (n.d.). Bahamas National Archives, Department of Archives, Nassau, Bahamas.

Rice, C. D. (1981). The Scots Abolitionists, 1833-1861. Louisiana State University Press.

Rules of the Saint Andrew Society of the Bahamas, established 1798, made under the authority of the Saint Andrew Society Incorporation Act 1901. (1941). Nassau Guardian.

Russell, C. S. (n.d.). A short history of St. Andrew’s Church, Nassau, Bahamas.

Sabbath school at Nassau, New Providence. (1848, July 21). The Well-Spring, 5(29), 116. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433008050142&view=1up&seq=99

Sands, K. C. (1998). The Anglican church and Bahamian cultural identity: The role of church-sponsored education, prayer book liturgy and Anglo-Catholic rituals in the development of Bahamian culture [Doctoral dissertation, University of Edinburgh]. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/30719

Saunders, G. (2016). Race and religion in the colonial Bahamas, 1880-1960. University of Florida Press.

Saunders, O. C. (2019). Slave-owners’ compensation: The Bahamas colony. International Journal of Bahamian Studies, 25(1), 45-61. https://doi.org/10.15362/ijbs.v25i0.343

Scott, H. (1928). Fasti ecclesiae Scoticanae: the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the Reformation, 7 Vols. Oliver and Boyd. https://archive.org/details/fastiecclesiaesc07scot/page/400/mode/2up

Sinclair, J. (1793). The statistical account of Scotland, Vol. 7. William Creech. https://stataccscot.edina.ac.uk/link/osa-vol7-p353-parish-ayrshire-st_quivox.

Whyte, I. D. (2016). From James Montgomery to James Macbeth: The development of Scottish antislavery theology and action, 1756-1848. In W. H. Taylor & P. C. Messer (Eds.), Faith and slavery in the Presbyterian diaspora (pp. 15-42). Lehigh University Press.

Whyte, I. D. (2006). Scotland and the abolition of Black slavery, 1756-1838. Edinburgh University Press.

Whyte, I. D. (2012). ‘Send back the money!’ The Free Church of Scotland and American slavery. James Clarke.

Whyte, I. D. (2015). ‘The Upas tree, beneath whose pestiferous shade all intellect languishes and all virtue dies’: Scottish public perceptions of the slave trade and slavery, 1756-1833. In T. M. Devine (Ed.), Recovering Scotland’s slavery past: The Caribbean connection (pp. 187-205). Edinburgh University Press.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15362/ijbs.v26i0.351

Copyright (c) 2020 Andrew Michael Jones