Religious Freedom in the Atlantic World

         Religious freedom in the Atlantic World was relative to three important factors, religion and ethnicity.  Muslims and Jews experienced much less freedom to worship then the Christian powers that largely controlled the region.  Africans and Native Americans often had their native religious beliefs silenced by the European slave owners and invaders, often in the name of conversion.  And African Christians in Africa were allotted much more liberty in how they worshiped then African Christians enslaved in the New World. The following is an examination of the religious freedom of Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the Atlantic World as evidenced by the writings assigned for this course.

            For many of the Africans slaves forced across the Atlantic, Islam was their religion of familiarity.  But for these Africans, their religious beliefs were rarely if ever tolerated.  Though they would find ways to practice privately, many “African slaves who had been brought in chains from West Africa had been forced to observe the practices of their masters’ religion under rigidly specified conditions” (Afroz, 229).  Forced baptism was a normal occurrence, as the Christian slave owners were often required to convert their subjects to the faith of their ruling monarchy.  For Muslim slaves, though, it was not all that difficult to keep with their native beliefs, as Christianity and Islam follow much of the same doctrine, allowing Africans slaves to play the line between the two.  Regardless of the similarity, to “Muslim slaves… Christianity, represented oppression” (Afroz, 233). 

            Jews in the Atlantic World experienced much more freedom then the Muslim Africans of the region, but that does not mean that their religious beliefs were respected.  Jews were largely looked down upon in the Old World, and what flexibility they experienced in the New World was often due to their value to the corporate powers of the region.  In the Atlantic, Jews were able to pave a new path for themselves, with Jewish intervention being especially “instrumental in the extension of the privileges that were granted in the Dutch colonies… The Jews conspicuous significance in trans-Atlantic commerce earned them the right to retail trade in Brazil, which was not recognized in Amsterdam” (Klooster, 136).  By proving themselves invaluable, Jews across the Atlantic were able to establish themselves in the New World, and were thus allotted personal and religious freedoms not common in the Old World.

            There seems to have been two forms of Christianity in the Atlantic World.  On the Old World side, specifically Africa, Christian missionaries were often much more open minded, even willing to make certain concessions that would blend some of the African cultural norms with Christian practices.  In this respect, they were able to justify their actions as conversion.  However, for those who were to be shipped across the Atlantic to the New World, conversion was forced.  “Ever since the early days of the Atlantic slave trade, Papal Bulls and royal orders required that slaves be given religious instruction, and baptized as quickly as possible after purchase” (Thornton, 269).  Much of the infusion of African practices into Christian norms in Africa, were not tolerated in the New World.   “Christian clergy did suppress a considerable amount of African practice, some of it apparently religious, in the Americas” (Thornton, 276).

            Religious freedom was relative to ethnicity, religion, and location.  African slaves with Islamic beliefs experienced little religious freedom, and were usually forced to conversion.  African Christians in Africa were converted much more peacefully then their enslaved New World counterparts, and were allotted much more religious freedom in customizing their methods of practice.  Jews, meanwhile, experienced very different levels of religious freedom dependent location.  Though not necessarily forced to convert, Jews in the Old World were not allotted the social freedoms of other religious groups.  But in the New World, Jews established themselves as integral members of society, especially in the port cities of the Atlantic World.  In summary, religious freedom in the Atlantic World was relative to the circumstances of ethnicity, religion, and location.