Protestant Missionaries in the West Indies: Pioneers of a Non-Racial Society
In: Race & class: a journal for black and third world liberation, Band 6, Heft 3, S. 232-242
ISSN: 1741-3125
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In: Race & class: a journal for black and third world liberation, Band 6, Heft 3, S. 232-242
ISSN: 1741-3125
In: Race: the journal of the Institute of Race Relations, Heft 3, S. 232-242
ISSN: 0033-7277
Jamaica & other British or ex-British West Indian islands present a signif example of race relations. The historical origins can be traced to the missionaries who contributed to the elevation of the Negroes to full citizenship. They were the 1st to treat slaves as human' & educate them. Church-going was the first multi-racial activity. After Emancipation, missionaries settled fair wages for Negro laborers, fought the apprenticeship system & established free villages where large plots of land were bought & sold in smallholdings to followers of the missions. Such villages separated laborers from the planters but in fact created better relations between them. Missionaries also did much to help the Indian immigrants become absorbed into West Indian society by Christianizing & educating them. Pol'al equality for the colored classes was slow to come, but was achieved by the 1920's & 1930's. The present spirit of non-racialism has deep roots in the history of the islands, & the missionaries were the greatest single group of contributors to this ideal. AA.