Mastering Christianity Missionary Anglicanism and Slavery in the Atlantic World

Beginning in 1701, missionary-minded Anglicans launched one of the earliest and most sustained efforts to Christianize the enslaved people of Britain's colonies. This book offers a new assessment of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, which played a foundational role in colonial religious history and the history of British missionary activity. Based on a belief in the essential unity of humankind, the Society's missionaries advocated for the conversion and better treatment of enslaved people. Yet, only a minority of enslaved people embraced Anglicanism, while a majority rejected it. This book explores these missionary encounters in colonial America and around the Atlantic world.