UPSI Digital Repository (UDRep)
Start | FAQ | About

QR Code Link :

Type :article
Subject :H Social Sciences (General)
ISSN :2289-8689
Main Author :Thomas Susan,
Title :Anne Hart Gilbert (re)collecting The Rise & Progress of Religion in Antigua (IR)
Place of Production :Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris
Year of Publication :2016
PDF Full Text :Login required to access this item.

Abstract :
Anne Hart Gilbert (1768-1834) is the first known published African Caribbean woman writer. Her earliest extant piece of writing is an 1804 letter to the Methodist missionary Richard Pattison. This essay analyses Gilbert’s representation of the meanings of African diasporic culture and of Methodist conversion in the letter, a text marked by encounters between and across African and Methodist spiritual cosmologies. Gilbert’s collecting and mediation of local knowledges of religion points to the complexity and nuances of cultural crossing and creolization. Using a literary critical and historiographical approach, the essay demonstrates the need to contextualize ‘religion as a social framework, as a rhetorical construction, as part and parcel with ideology, and as a category of experience’ (Stein and Murison, 2010, pp. 3-4).

References

1. Adéèkó, A. (2009). Writing Africa under the shadow of slavery: Quaque, Wheatley, and Crowther. Research in African Literatures, 40(4), 1-24. doi: 101.1353/ral.0.0217. 2. Aravamudan, S. (2005). Introduction. In W. Earle, Obi or, the history of three-fingered Jack. Peterborough, ON: Broadview. 3. Austin-Broos, D.J. (1997). Jamaica genesis: Religion and the politics of moral orders. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. 4. Baxter, R. (1691/1834). The certainty of the world of spirits fully evinced. In The certainty of the world of spirits fully evinced, by Richard Baxter. To which is added The wonders of the invisible world, by Cotton Mather. London: Joseph Smith. 5. Biblos. (n.d.). Bible hub: Parallel translations and commentaries. Retrieved from http://biblehub.com. 6. Black, G. (1840). Letter to editor. Weekly Register (Antigua), 18 February, 3. 7. Brand, J. (1813). Observations on popular antiquities: Chiefly illustrating the origin of the vulgar customs, ceremonies, and superstitions (Vol. 2). (Henry Ellis, Revised). London, England, n.p. 8. Chireau, Y. P. (2003). Black magic: Religion and the African American conjuring tradition. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. 9. Coke, T. (1808-1811/1971). A history of the West Indies, containing the natural, civil and ecclesiastical history of each island: With an account of the missions instituted in those islands. 2 vols. London, England: Cass. 10. Cowper, W. 1785/n.d. The task (Book 2). Retrieved from http://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/william-cowper/the-task-book-ii-the-time-piece. 11. Davies, O. (2009). Grimoires: A history of magic books. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. de Mello e Souza, L. (2003). The devil and the land of the holy cross. (D.G. Whitty, Trans.). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. 12. English, J. C. (1994). John Wesley and the women of early Methodism. Methodist History, 33(1), 26-33. 13. Female Society for Birmingham (1826?/c. 1970). The first report of the Female Society for the Relief of British Negro Slaves,& c &c. In Records Relating to the Birmingham Ladies’ Society for the Relief of British Negro Slaves, 1825-1919. Wakefield, England: EP Microform. 14. Forde, M., & Paton, D. (2012).Introduction. In D. Paton & M. Forde (Eds.), Obeah and other powers: The politics of Caribbean religion and healing (pp. 1-42). Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 15. Frey, S. R., &Wood, B. (1998). Come shouting to Zion: African American Protestantism in the American South and British Caribbean to 1830. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. 16. George, O. (2002). The ‘native’ missionary, the African novel, and in-between. Novel, 36(1), 5-25. 17. Gilbert, A. (1804). Letter to Richard Pattison. Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society/West Indies/Correspondence. School of Oriental and African Studies Library, University of London. 18. Gilbert, A. (1804/1993). History of Methodism. In M. Ferguson (Ed.), The Hart sisters: Early African Caribbean writers, evangelicals, and radicals(pp. 57−75). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. 19. Gilbert, A. (1824/1999). Letter to Mrs Luckock. In W. Dawes, letter to the Secretaries of the Church Missionary Society, Church Missionary Society Archive(Section V, C W M1, Reel 2). Marlborough: Adam Matthew. 20. Gilbert, J., et al. (1835) Memoir of John Gilbert, Esq. late Naval Storekeeper at Antigua. To which are appended, a brief sketch of his relic, Mrs. Anne Gilbert, by the Rev. William Box, Wesleyan missionary. And a few additional remarks by a Christian friend. Liverpool, England: n.p. 21. Gilroy, P. (1993). The black Atlantic: Modernity and double consciousness. London, England: Verso. 22. Greer, J. M. (2003). The new encyclopedia of the occult. St Paul, MI: Llewellyn Publications. 23. Gunter, W. S. (n.d.) Arminian Magazine (1778-1797), annotated index. Methodist Studies Resources, Centre for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Retrieved fromhttps://divinity.duke.edu/initiativescenters/ cswt/research-resources/methodist-studies-resources. 24. Hammond, G. (2009) High Church Anglican influences on John Wesley’s conception of Primitive Christianity, 1732- 1735.Anglican and Episcopal History,78(2), 174-207. 25. Handler, J. S., & Bilby, K. M.. (2012). Enacting power: The criminalization of obeah in the Anglophone Caribbean 1760−2011. Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press. 26. Handy, S. M. (1891). Negro superstitions. Lippincott’s Magazine, 48, 735−739. 27. Hart, E. (1804/1993). History of Methodism. In M. Ferguson (Ed.), The Hart sisters: Early African Caribbean writers, evangelicals, and radicals (pp. 89−96). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. 28. Hempton, D. (2005). Methodism: Empire of the spirit. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 29. Horsford, Rev. J. (1856). A Voice from the West Indies: Being a review of the character and results of missionary efforts in the British and other colonies in the Caribbean Sea. London, England: Alexandra Heylin. 30. Jaudon, T. W. (2012). Obeah’s sensations: Rethinking religion at the transnational turn. American Literature,84(4), 715-741. doi:10.1215/00029831-1901418. 31. Jolly, M., & Stanley, L. (2005). Letters as/not a genre. Life Writing, 2(2), 75-101. 32. Jonson, B. (1979). The Alchemist. Ed. F.H. Mares. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 33. Lanaghan, F. (1844). Antigua and the Antiguans: A full account of the colony and its inhabitants from the time of the Caribs to the present day, interspersed with anecdotes and legends. Also, an impartial view of slavery and the free labour systems; the statistics of the island, and biographical notices of the principal families (Vol. 2). London, England: Saunders and Otley. 34. Lyerly, C. L. (1998). Methodism and the Southern mind, 1770−1810. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 35. Mack, P. (2008). Heart religion in the British Enlightenment: Gender and emotion in early Methodism.Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 36.Madden, R. R. (1835). Twelvemonth’s residence in the West Indies, during the transition from slavery to apprenticeship; with incidental notices of the state of society, prospects, and natural resources of Jamaica and other islands(Vol. 2). Philadelphia, PA: Carey, Lea and Blanchard. 37. Magaw, S. (1794/1862). A discourse delivered July 17th, 1794, in the African Church of the City of Philadelphia, on the occasion of opening the said church, and holding public worship in it the first time. In W. Douglas, Annals of the first African Church, in the United States of America, now styled the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, Philadelphia, in its connection with the early struggles of the colored people to improve their conditions, with the co-operation of friends, and other philanthropists(pp. 59−85). Philadelphia, PA: King and Baird, 1862. 38. Mathers, S. L. M. (Ed. & Trans.)(1888/1976). The Key of Solomon the King (Clavicula Salomonis). New York, NY: Samuel Weiser. 39. Maynard, G. O. [1968]. A history of the Moravian Church, Eastern West Indies Province. N.p., n.p. 40. M’Baye, B. (2009). The trickster comes West: Pan-African influence in early black diasporan narratives. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. 41. A Member of the Athenian Society. (1703). The Athenian oracle: Being an entire collection of all the valuable questions and answers in the old Athenian Mercuries(Vol. 2). London, England: Andrew Bell. 42. Palmié, S. (2008). Introduction: On predications of Africanity. In S. Palmié (Ed.) Africas of the Americas: Beyond the search for origins in the study of Afro-Atlantic Religions (pp. 1-38). Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. 43. Paton, D. (2012) Witchcraft, poison, law, and Atlantic slavery. William and Mary Quarterly, 69, (2), 235−264. doi:10.5309/willmaryquar.69.2.0235 44. Pattison, R. (1804). Letter to Joseph Butterworth. Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society/West Indies/Correspondence. School of Oriental and African Studies Library, University of London. 45. Scot, R. (1886). The discoverie of witchcraft. Ed. B. Nicholson. London, England: Elliot Stock. 46. Scott, D. (2004). Conscripts of modernity: The tragedy of colonial Enlightenment. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 47. Sobel, M. (1979). Trabelin’ on: The slave journey to an Afro-Baptist faith. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Stanley, L. (2004). The epistolarium: On theorizing letters and correspondences. Auto/Biography, 12, 201- 235.doi:10.1191/0967550704ab014oa. 48. Stein, J. A., & Murison, J. S. (2010). Introduction: Religion and method. Early American Literature, 45(1)1-29. doi: 10.1353/eal.0.0087 49.Taves, A. (1999). Fits, trances, & visions: Experiencing religion and explaining experience from Wesley to James. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 50. Thomas, K. (1971). Religion and the decline of magic. New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 51. Thomas, S. (2014). Telling West Indian lives: Life narrative and the reform of plantation slavery cultures 1804−1834. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. 52. Walsh, J. (1990). John Wesley and the community of goods. In K. Robbins (Ed.), Protestant evangelicism: Britain, Ireland, Germany and America c. 1750−c.1950: Essays in honour of W.R. Ward (pp. 25−50). Oxford, England: Basil Blackwell. 53. Wigger, J. H. (1998). Taking heaven by storm: Methodism and the rise of popular Christianity in America. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 54. Wisecup, K. (2013). Knowing obeah. Atlantic Studies, 10(3), 406-425.doi:10.1080/14788810.2013.809228


This material may be protected under Copyright Act which governs the making of photocopies or reproductions of copyrighted materials.
You may use the digitized material for private study, scholarship, or research.

Back to previous page

Installed and configured by Bahagian Automasi, Perpustakaan Tuanku Bainun, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris
If you have enquiries with this repository, kindly contact us at pustakasys@upsi.edu.my or Whatsapp +60163630263 (Office hours only)