Religion and Race: African and European Roots in Conflict - A Jamaican Testament (Revised)

Religion and Race: African and European Roots in Conflict - A Jamaican Testament is an investigation of the significant role of three churches, both European and Afro-Jamaican, and how their theologies, cosmologies, and cultural norms influenced the development of Jamaican colonial society. This study focuses on the dramatic interplay between the socio-cultural assumptions and values of the dominant planter groups and those of their Afro-creole workers, and the persistent problems that resulted from the perennial clash of such competing value systems, especially from 1823 to the early 1830s. Special attention is given to the role of key factors of culture, colour, and race, all operating within a distinctly religious framework that variously challenged or reinforced the status quo. The parallels with the 1831 Nat Turner rebellion in the U.S.A. are noted and the implications for social harmony raised.