Jon F. Sensbach, Rebecca’s Revival: Creating Black Christianity in the Atlantic World, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005.

In his cutting edge book, Jon Sensbach opens the reader’s eyes to a world often overlooked in historical writing.  Drawing from numerous sources, Rebecca’s Revival reconstructs and tells the exceptional life of Rebecca Protten.  Rebecca faces many challenges in her eighteenth-century world since she is mulatto, a woman, and a former slave.  Rebecca traverses cultural, societal, religious, racial, and geographic boundaries using her mulatto status privileges to evangelize in three separate continents.  Sensbach’s work is not a travel narrative, rather a biographical, religious, women’s, and transatlantic history constructed from primary source material from the archives of the United States, Germany, and Denmark.  The result is a brilliant, though contested, examination of the origins of the black church and the role of Rebecca Protten in its creation.  Ultimately, the main argument that Sensbach makes is that while Rebecca Protten is a single and exceptional example of New World Protestantism, her story is unequivocally tied to the nascent black church and its future development and impact in the Western Hemisphere.

Sensbach starts his work with a prologue that resembles a Hollywood introduction for a movie.  The reader is introduced to a vivid description of Fort Christiansborg, along the Gold Coast of Africa, with Rebecca near the end of her life.  Sensbach uses the rest of the prologue to summarize Rebecca’s life while boldly making claims of her impact on the Western world.  In this prologue is where Sensbach first likens Rebecca’s tenacity to that of the rest of the horridly abused people to whom she ministered.  Unfortunately, Rebecca is also portrayed as “never fitting in” (pg. 6) with the people she taught.  An extraordinary person in an ordinary black and white world, Rebecca was an exception to the rule that had almost been lost to oblivion save some archival material.  Rebecca’s greatest attribute was her mobility while still having a connection to the evangelized.  She was free and unbounded, though had the experience of being a slave.  She was Christian and rose to be ordained as a deaconess, though had the experience of no being Christian.  She was neither completely of white nor black ethnicity, though lived in worlds where people were.

In chapter one, Sensbach sets the table of the life and times of being a Dutch slave.  The cruelty of the Dutch is seemingly unmatched and there were two main slave revolts that Sensbach catalogues on the island of St. John.  The initial success of these rebellions has tie-ins to democratic ideals.  Women took part in the uprising as soldiers, which is something that did not happen in Africa at that time.  After the initial revolt, the land was divided up among the former slaves who did not destroy previous capital or institutions, except for slavery.  The second revolt was much more radical and less democratic in nature, and showed the desperation of the slaves of St. John to have freedom.  At the end of the chapter, Sensbach alludes to Rebecca, who is on the nearby island of St. Thomas, as a future instigator of a new type of freedom that slaves will embrace: spiritual freedom. 

The rest of the book chronicles Rebecca Protten and her life in the Moravian Brethren.  In St. Thomas, Rebecca preached in a very direct manner with the sole purpose of evangelizing.  Here, Sensbach describes Rebecca as revolutionary, but only in the sense that she is exceptional.  It was unknown if Rebecca was against slavery as “she knew quite well what it was to be a slave… but [never] spoke against slavery in public or private” (pg. 108), and therefore is not revolutionary in the traditional sense.  Rebecca marries two times and moves to both Europe and Africa, facing two distinct cultures, and learns to speak four languages and to write in two.  At the end of the work, Sensbach details how Rebecca dies in obscurity in Africa after turning down the opportunity to travel back to St. Thomas.  There, Rebecca’s memory remains relatively hidden until the recent research done by Sensbach in this work.

This work, while reconstructed well, is not without its limitations.  Throughout the work, Rebecca seems to disappear into her surroundings as she progresses through the course of her life.  Rebecca left very little primary source material, as only a few of her letters have survived.  Even those can be called into question whether or not they were revised, or whether or not she had to conform to conventional standards of that time.  Since so much of Rebecca’s life is hidden, the reconstruction of her life by archival data calls into question Sensbach’s interpretations of what Rebecca felt, where exactly she traveled, how she ministered, what she believed, and how she was accepted by others.  Sensbach also claims that the St. Thomas model serves as the basis for other evangelistic groups in their approach to slaves and the successful growth of the North American black church, but undermines his argument by stating that it “could have happened anyway” (pg. 240).  The work successfully conveys the interconnectedness and transatlantic nature of that time, with her traveling to all three continents and interacting with those cultures.  It also serves as a story of the growing role of women in Protestant churches and the community at large.  Rebecca’s Revival provides a good basis of knowledge for the scholarly and lay reader in studying women’s history and the African Diaspora.

With Rebecca’s Revival, Sensbach contributes to transatlantic thought in substantially different and unprescribed ways.  Rebecca’s travels between continents convey to the reader that the flow of people, ideas, and goods was multidirectional, helping to steer away from antiquated one-dimension thinking.  The role of religion in transatlantic thought has normally been prescribed as European missionaries, mainly those from the Catholic Church, branching out to the New World.  This book effectively conveys that Protestants played a large role in Christianizing the Caribbean and North America, and that missionaries traveled back to Europe, as well as to Africa from the New World.  Sensbach labels this as the “spiritual triangle of trade” (pg. 242).

J.H. Elliot, Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in American 1492-1830. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

Any historian who takes on the endeavor of writing a comparative history faces an extremely complicated task, regardless of the field of study. Many problems arise in the comparison of inherently different entities and there are numerous advantages and disadvantages to the implementation of this strategy. J.H. Elliot tackles this undertaking head-on, using the introduction to admit the numerous problems presented to him. Elliot uses this work to spark debate on well-researched, familiar topics and to call for changes to contemporary approaches to comparative history. Elliot’s thesis is ultimately contained in the idea that the British and Spanish empires were not two-self contained cultural worlds, rather two empires that were aware of each other while operating in the same transatlantic sphere, and that their histories are truly intertwined.

Before comparing Spanish American to British America and vice versa, Elliot uses the introduction to establish his framework and rationale for the work. Elliot points out the numerous technical problems of imperial historians, such as division and lack of collaboration between scholars, examining differences more than similarities, and falling into established stereotypes and patterns by using a teleological view. To remedy these problems, Elliot calls on imperial historians to equally evaluate points of similarity and difference, as well as incorporating a narrow focus in a transatlantic construction. A narrow focus is needed due to the seemingly infinite variables presented during the colonial period. Some examples are varying geographies, climates, native policies, imperial priorities, religions, and dates of colonization. For this work, Elliot focuses on the development of settlements and their relationship to the appropriate crown. By centering on New England and Virginia in British America, Spanish possessions in Iberian America, European ancestries, and the continental mainland, it becomes easier to intertwine the fabric of each empire. Here in lies the inherent problem with comparative history.

Omission of other influences can truly discredit any comparative imperial history. It is impossible to view truly pure connections between two empires because of the immense amount of variables presented. If one looks at the development of towns in New Spain and New England, one cannot simply pick five similar influences as a basis for comparison. While British America benefitted from the older institutions of Spanish America, it could not have influenced it in any pure form. The Portuguese, French, and Dutch influenced the British as much as they did the Spanish, and also influenced each in their own, unique ways. It is therefore folly to simply reduce the realm of the New World to the strongest and most influential powers. However, to include each of these empires would be a seemingly impossible undertaking as well, as the complexity of each layer being added would damage the validity of the content as well. Comparative history is useful in fleshing out certain aspects between groups, but is incapable of doing justice to something as large as an empire.

Empires of the Atlantic World is a large book, but Elliot is able to narrow his focus into three parts: occupation, consolidation, and emancipation. In each part, Elliot uses thematic chapters. Comparisons of British America and Spanish America are made throughout each chapter and are juggled back and forth moving to a new thought, much like a baton passed between runners. At the end of work, Elliot concludes his history with an epilogue which adequately summarizes the main themes of the book. The true masterpiece of the volume may be seen in the bibliography which encompasses twenty-percent of the total page count. As large as the book is, it is a fairly quick read that can be understood by lay and scholarly readers alike with its ability to simplify a very complex subject.

In regard to the concept of transatlantic history, Elliot strengthens the argument of connectivity across the Atlantic Ocean. In regard to the development of settlements, Elliot argues that European heritage is as important as any environmental factor. The westward influences of new technology, movements such as the Enlightenment, religious reform, and imperial policy play a substantial role in growth of New World settlements. Elliot also pushes the importance of eastward Atlantic trade in shaping imperial policy and the people who emigrated across the ocean. Unfortunately, this interconnectivity discounts Africa, which seems to be a stepchild of transatlantic thought. Empires of the Atlantic World‘s biggest contribution to transatlantic history may be through the compilation of sources in the one-hundred page bibliography, which can serve as a starting place for imperial comparative historians.

Timothy Hall Breen, The Non-Existent Controversy: Puritan and Anglican Attitudes on Work and Wealth, 1600-1640, Church History, Vol. 35, No. 3 (Sep., 1966), pp. 273-287 – Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3162308

• **Comparisons between Puritans and Anglicans and the supposed separation between the two as antagonists in class structure and matters of work and wealth**

Nicholas Canny, Writing Atlantic History; or, Reconfiguring the History of Colonial British America, The Journal of American History, Vol. 86, No. 3, The Nation and Beyond: Transnational Perspectives on United States History: A Special Issue (Dec., 1999), pp. 1093-1114 – Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2568607

• **Belief that colonial history is transatlantic; identified broadening of geographic focus, narrowing of chronology; redefining American colonial history as history of British America; positive status of Atlantic field**

Jack P. Greene, The American Revolution, The American Historical Review, Vol. 105, No. 1 (Feb., 2000), pp. 93-102 – Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2652437

• **Examines conditions of transatlantic polity of British Empire as authority from the peripheries moving outwards as opposed to imperial center outwards; identifies revolution as a British revolution; and examines how loose early-modern imperial polity vs. radical political actually led to a conservative revolution**

John M. Murrin, In the Land of the Free and the Home of the Slave, Maybe There was Room Even for Deference, The Journal of American History, Vol. 85, No. 1 (Jun., 1998), pp. 86-91 – Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2568433

• **Comparing and contrasting ideas of Aaron Fogleman and Michael Zuckerman on questions of dependency and deference in colonial America and whether or not the revolution made a difference in both cases; free labor vs. slave labor before and after war; elites and everyone else**

Mary Beth Norton, The Loyalists’ Image of England. Ideal and Reality, Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Summer, 1971), pp. 62-71 – Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4048414

• **Focus on cultural relationship between colonies and mother country and comparison of the two cultures by way of narratives**

Anthony Pagden, The Empire’s New Clothes: From Empire to Federation, Yesterday to Today, Common Knowledge,12.1 (2006) pp. 36-46 – Stable URL: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/common_knowledge/v012/12.1pagden.html#authbio

• **Comparing of empires and the shrinking of the Atlantic Ocean, and the shift from a Western world empire to a Western federation**

Michael Zuckerman, The Fabrication of Identity in Early America, The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 34, No. 2 (Apr., 1977), pp. 183-214 – Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1925313

• **Reevaluation of traditional social/communal norms and models and their destruction once they reached the New World; polarization of English with natives/Africans as opposed to interracial breeding; Old World vs. New World Protestantism**

Edmund S. Morgan, The American Revolution: Revisions in Need of Revising, The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 14, No. 1 (Jan., 1957), pp. 3-15 – Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1917368

• **Redefining roles for imperial historians, such as the explanation of key revolutionaries, roles, and fixing problems of people like Charles Beard**

David J. Weber, The Spanish Legacy in North America and the Historical Imagination, The Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Feb., 1992), pp. 5-24 – Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/970249

• **Writing about Hispanophobia by Anglo Americans and fear of mixed races; contestation of Spanish frontier history in North America**

Philip D. Morgan, Work and Culture: The Task System and the World of Lowcountry Blacks, 1700 to 1880, The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Oct., 1982), pp. 564-599 – Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1919004

• **Focus on experience of slave workers without a top-down managerial approach; how system arose and the structures that were in place, as well as ramifications for model; comparison to other Caribbean systems**