"The Papists. . . have shewn a laudable Care and Concern": Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Slave Religion in Colonial Maryland

Abstract

This article addresses the longstanding historiographical debate over the conditions of slave life in the Americas, especially the treatment of slaves in Protestant Anglo America versus Catholic Latin America, by comparing the treatment of slaves by Catholics and Anglicans in colonial Maryland, an area where other factors--ethnicity, economy, climate, laws--were the same for both religious groups. It compares the attitudes of Anglican and Catholic clergy and laity about instructing the enslaved population in religion and providing access to sacraments and rites. It then looks at why slaves might have found one church more appealing than the other.