RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
West Indies
while new difficulties were experienced through the necessity of learning the languages of the Hindu coolies, this problem being met in part by the coming in 1852 of a missionary who understood the Tamil language, to work specially among them. The emancipation of all slaves in the British Islands in 1834, which was completed in 1838, was followed by a similar proclamation in the Danish possessions in 1848, and many important changes followed. Education now flourished, the governments made grants in aid of land to the missions, and for a time it seemed as if the work of evangelization was to be speedily accomplished. But with their freedom the former slaves deteriorated, and many returned to heathen practises, while the terrible Obi superstition held not a few in its grip, and the lack of moral fiber added to the difficulties of building up a Christian civilization. By the middle of the nineteenth century (1850), the Wesleyan Methodist Mission had 4 circuits with 52 stations and about 400 preaching-places; 79 missionaries and assistants; 146 native helpers; 48,589 church-members; and 259 Sunday- and day-schools, with 18,247 scholars. In spite of opposition from the planters, and notwithstanding the superstition of the natives, the work increased from decade to decade, and, with the exception of the Bahamas District, the West Indies are now an independent church province, being no longer classed as a mission field.
The Baptist Missionary Society of England began work in Jamaica in 1813, building on the foundations laid by a negro from Virginia, who had labored in Kingston since 1783. After his death the work was continued by one of his followers, and he ap-
plied to the Baptist Missionary Society
7. English for aid. By the advice of William Wil-
Baptists. berforce (q.v.), missionaries were sent
out in 1813; chapels were built and schools established; more missionaries were sent out; and by 1831 there were 14 English missionaries in charge of 24 churches and 10,000 communicants. This year the slaves rebelled against their masters, and missionaries were charged with having instigated the insurrection. They were arrested and their lives were threatened, but when brought to trial they were acquitted. Many of their chapels and schools had been destroyed, however, and two of their number, Knibb and Burchell, were sent to England, not only to ask for assistance, but to enter a vigorous protest against the traffic in slaves. Their mission was successful, the government indemnified the mission for the property which had been destroyed, and the abolition of the slave-trade in their possessions immediately followed. The work was resumed and greatly prospered, so that in 1842 the Jamaica Baptist Missionary Union was formed, including 132 almost entirely self-supporting churches. Other stations were occupied, missionaries were sent to Trinidad, the Turk Islands, Santo Domingo, and the Bahamas, and here also the people contributed largely to their own support. The society gradually discontinued its workers, so that by 1900 of the ten English missionaries on the field, all but two were independent of its aid. At this time there were 286 stations and substations, some 600 native helpers, 186 churches, and 38,341 communicants,
The Church Missionary Society of England entered the field in 1814, beginning work on Antigua, and opening stations on Jamaica in 8. Church 1826, and on Trinidad in 1836. When, of England. however, the Colonial State Church was organized in 1839, the C. M.S. withdrew from the field. Early in the eighteenth century, General Christopher Codrington bequeathed two estates to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, to provide instruction for the negroesin the Barbadoes and other Caribbean Islands, with the stipulation that an institution be maintained where the “students shall be obliged to study and practice Phisick and Chirurgery as well as Divinity, that by the apparent usefulness of the former to all mankind they may do good to men’s souls while taking care of their bodies.”” The college was formally opened in 1745, and the S. P. G. still administers the trust by which it is supported. In 1818 the society sent missionaries to the Barbadoes, and gradually extended its work to the other islands, but it also withdrew from the field in 1839, only continuing its trust of Codrington College.
The Scottish Missionary Society began a work at Jamaica in 1824, which was rapidly pushed to other islands. In 1835 the first missionaries of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland were sent out, and Trinidad was occupied; while in the following year the two societies united in forming the Jamaica Presbytery. Three new stations were occupied 1837-40, and the work greatly prospered, until,
in 1847, the Scottish Society gave the
9. Scotch work over entirely to the United Pres-
Presby- byterian Church. During the next
terians and decade the ill-health of the mission-
English aries and an epidemic of cholera among
Congrega- the people caused a time of deep distionalists. tress and slow progress, but in 1861 a revival brought renewed interest and a great accession to the membership of the church. A seminary was established, with a department for training a native ministry which sends out capable colored pastors. Since 1900 the work has been carried on by the Committee of the United Free Church of Scotland, and at that time there were 60 churches in Jamaica and Trinidad, with a membership of 21,500, while the work was largely self-supporting. In 1835 the desire of the emancipated slaves for teachers led the London Missionary Society to send missionaries to Jamaica, in connection with their mission in British Guiana. In 1839 the West India Missionary Committee, consisting of residents of New England and New York, was formed to receive and forward contributions for the support of these missionaries; in 1843 the Jamaica Congregational Association was organized as a local missionary agency, though in 1847 the work passed into the care of the American Missionary Association. By 1867 the churches became self-supporting, and in 1876 the Congregational Association of Jamaica assumed full control.
In 1861 James Theodore Holly (q.v.) obtained permission from the Missionary Committee of the Protestant Episcopal Church to go to Haiti with a missionary colony; and he there established a work which, in 1865, was taken under the control
West Indies