Short Essay #2

Short Essay #2

            John Thornton asserts the basic idea, through numerous examples raging from religious beliefs to dress, that the culture of African life was not lost during the middle passage and that assimilation into European culture was supplemented by African influences and rituals, which allowed for a level of personal control over slaves and slave communities. In “Afro-Latino Voices” an interesting look, using documentation from the time period of the Atlantic Slave Trade, is presented to the reader. In certain aspects the latter contradicts the former, but generally speaking and in this consideration they complement each other in thesis quite in the idea that African influence on their newly adopted European culture was apparent.

             In investigating what is potentially the most important establishment in humanity, religion, we can draw similarities to the findings of Thornton and McKnight-Garofalo. The original religion of Africans relied not on sacred text but on personal interaction through revelations from their deity, differing immensely from their European counterparts. Despite this difference both parties believed in “this world” and “other world” as the concept of the earthly and spiritual realms of existence. (Thornton, 236) What came to be in the Americas was a form of Christianity practiced by Africans that appeased Europeans generally, but incorporated their beliefs in personal revelations and dream interpreting.

            Integration of practices from both religions and the cultural tension it can create is well documented in the trials of Paula de Eguiluz, Equiluz, a black slave and baptized Catholic, stood trial for witchcraft in 1624 under the pretense of using spells, murdering an infant and being in association with the devil, (McKnight-Garofalo, 175) a not uncommon accusation made against Africans in the new world. “From 1610 to 1660, more than four hundred people were tried by the Inquisition…Sixteen percent of the accused, punished and imprisoned were classified as blacks…” (Mcknight-Garofalo, 176) lending to the idea that African traditions of using charms, consulting with the spirits and dream interpretation had maintained through assimilation. The case of Paula de Eguiluz highlights this as a circumstance of traditions maintaining across generational lines, as Eguiluz Caribbean born.

            The foundation of African religion was based upon revelations that took form by numerous modes of manifestation. Augury and divination, dream interpretation, visions, and relics were all methods by which an African could receive a message from the other world. (Thornton 239) These practices opposed the beliefs of traditional Christians, but were integrated into the African Christianity that would develop in the Americas, resulting in cases such as Paula de Eguiluz’ standing trial for witchery. Of the accusations against Eguiluz initially confessed to being a believer in her dreams and creating a remedy from the bones of a corpse in an attempt to heal her ailed master, (McKnight, 179). Of the other charges she faced most notable include using spells and believing superstitions, sucking the life from a newborn child and creating a pact with the devil.

            In response to her accusations Eguiluz claimed her actions in the case of the death of the child were of good intent and in an attempt to help the sick child, that she never used spells and that those who were jealous of her lifestyle created the accusations. (McKnight, 187-189) Although she did confess to making a pact with the Devil in a moment of despair, fearing injury in a confrontation with her master. (McKnight, 191)

            The impact of this specific case is not that an individual woman was tried for witchcraft, but the implication that a person with a strong, self-declared devotion to the Virgin Mary and the Catholic church actively practiced herbal healing, spell-casting and dream interpreting, among other anti-Catholic spiritual activities, activities that are parallel with traditional African religious practices and that after reconciling with the church and taking punishment Eguiluz fell back into practicing on numerous occasions. From an unbiased perspective of religion one can observe this instance and decipher that loose Christian knowledge and African religious practices coexisted in the lives of the African in the new world. The fact that Eguiluz practiced tribal spirituality with the intent to fulfill her obligations to her Catholic lord and that those practices of Africa were imbed in her despite being a second generation slave in the new world indicate that the African tradition survived middle passage and incorporated itself into the Creole lifestyle of American born blacks.

            As stated by Thornton and validated by McKnight and Garafalo through the story of Paula de Equiluz, African tradition survived and maintained in the Americas and found its way into the multi-generational assimilation of blacks into the European lifestyle. Dream interpreting, spell casting, charms and relics all stemming from the tribal spirituality and superstition of Africans in Africa supplemented the holy texts of Catholicism and provided African people in the new world with a form of Christianity that suited their heritage and lineage.