Jonathan Edwards and Mid-Eighteenth Century Afro-Protestant Conversion

Jonathan Edwards, among several churchmen between 1680 and 1760, expressed views against the slave trade, colonial slavery, or masters’ abuse of slaves (Sallient). While very little has been written on the regional development of anti-slavery in the American colonies before and leading into the mid-eighteenth century, exploring Edward’s involvement in and treatment of slavery illuminates changes in Afro-Protestant conversion. The emergence of evangelical revivalism and the Great Awakening gave enslaved people new religious choices while underlining commitments to maintaining proper patterns of subordination (Glasson). Rose Binney Salter is owned by Jonathan Edwards and brought to Stockbridge with the family in 1751, and becomes a full member of the Stockbridge church and no longer a slave by 1771. Attention to Jonathan Edwards’ shifting thinking on slavery and the slave trade forces us to rethink the traditional timelines for the development of antislavery thought in New England and Rose’s confession of spiritual freedom (conversion) following her baptism and church membership, suggests new and different ceremonial connections to Christianity and freedom within the period.