http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/1380214377

West Indies material in the archives of the USPG, 1710-1950

"Part 11 of the BOA series: British records on the Atlantic World, 1700-1900. Founded in 1701 to act as the spearhead of the Anglican Church overseas, the SPG was initially active only in North America and the Caribbean. Later it extended its activities to many other parts of the world, preaching and teaching, usually with the support of the established Church of England and of the British government. Although the work of the SPG in North America is well known and credit is given to the Society for its missions to the red Indians and negro slaves in the mainland colonies, in the West Indian islands the Society has more usually been regarded as a reactionary force, owning slaves openly and in league with the planters. In fact, the work of the SPG in the islands has received little attention and there is need for a further appraisal. One reason for the prejudice against the Society is that until 1824 all matters had to be referred to Britain where there was some conflict between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London over the direction of the Society. Only with the appointment of two bishops for the West Indies, for Barbados and Jamaica, in 1824 was there real diocesan organisation in the West Indies, working for emancipation and founding Christian institutions, although still raising controversy. The other issue which has over-shadowed much of the history of the SPG in the West Indies is the famous bequest of Christopher Codrington, a Barbadian planter, to the Society. On his death in 1710 he left the Society lands and slaves to found a college in Barbados to train negro slaves, a grant which received great support from the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1710 and again in 1792 but which was not used until the nineteenth century when Codrington College was founded in part as a theological college, though a grammar school for the education of whites had existed much longer, nominally part of the original grant. In fact the work of the SPG in the Caribbean, giving money and books, sending missionaries and teachers, especially after 1824 and emancipation in 1833, is one of very hard and quiet endeavour, ministering as far as possible to slaves and then to the newly emancipated. When, in the mid-nineteenth century, the had finished the first pioneer stages of work, it left behind strong and independent churches, a stable force in the history of the islands., etc. Accompanied by a guide to the collection by Dr Clare Taylor, of the former University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, and drawn from the archives of the USPG now held at Rhodes House Library in Oxford, this collection includes 20th-century reports recording the activities of a dedicated group of missionaries working in the West Indies at a critical and formative point of their history during the move from crown colony status to full independence."--britishonlinearchives.co.uk.

Open All Close All