Slavery and religion in the Atlantic world: A comparative study of Christianity's impact on identity formation among slaves in colonial Spanish and British America, 1530--1800

This dissertation will explore the nature and role that Christian religions, both Protestant and Catholic, played in the formation of cultural identity in the slave populations of British and Spanish America from 1530 to 1800. The focus of this research will be to investigate and compare the practices and differences between colonial Spanish and British conversion ideology, resulting in more centralized religious circles among Spanish-American slaves, versus the more diffused religious conversions by the British. Also included will be discussion over the ways in which religion was utilized by each Empire's white population as a form of control, which in turn abetted in the formation of identity within the enslaved groups.;Because of the intersection of Church and Crown in Spanish America, and the lack of such in Britain's American colonies, there arose a paradox in that in British America there developed strong religious circles among the slaves that were religiously decentralized according to area or region. These diffused conversion practices, by mainly upstart evangelical groups and coupled with their lack of any prior experience with slavery, produced a conversion mosaic that resulted in a cultural identity that was not integrated into the British legal/political system.;In Spanish-America, the unifying force of the Catholic tradition, coupled with their legal precedence and prior experience with slavery, allowed for slaves' identity development that included acceptance into the religious sphere along with limited participation within the legal and political system.;The period, 1530-1800, has been chosen because of heavy African importation in both areas, when there was a noticeable increase in the influence of indigenous native religious practices. At the same time, Europeans began imposing their religious beliefs upon the slave communities in order control, subjugate and subordinate the black populations of the Americas.;I propose that Christianity, along with the influence or lack of, historical experience and legal traditions affected conversion ideology and practices within the respective colonial empires. From within this sphere, the slave populations were able to integrate and transform European Christianity with indigenous religious practices, thus creating a uniquely black religious experience, which then formed a core of their Pan-American identity.