Rebecca Protten facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Rebecca Freundlich Protten
|
|
|---|---|
Rebecca Freundlich Protten
|
|
| Born |
Shelly
1718 |
| Died | 1780 (aged 61–62) Christiansborg, Gold Coast
|
| Nationality | Danish subject |
| Occupation | Missionary |
| Known for | Mother of Modern Missions in the Atlantic World |
| Spouse(s) |
|
| Children |
|
Rebecca Freundlich Protten, also known as Shelly (1718–1780), was a brave and important Caribbean Moravian missionary. She was one of the first people to share the Christian message with enslaved people on the island of Saint Thomas.
Rebecca was born into slavery in Antigua. She later became free and was known as a "mulatress," meaning she had both European and African heritage. She was a pioneer in Christian missions in the Atlantic World during the 1700s. Many experts call her the "Mother of Modern Missions." This is because her life connected Christianity in the West Indies, Europe, and West Africa. She lived in all these places during her lifetime.
Contents
Rebecca's Life Story
Rebecca Protten was born enslaved in 1718. She gained her freedom when she was a teenager. As a free woman of mixed European and African background, she lived on the island of St. Thomas in the 1730s. She joined a movement to teach African enslaved people about Christianity. She became one of the first African American women to be officially recognized as a leader in Western Christianity.
We don't know exactly where or how Rebecca was born. Some stories say she was taken from Antigua. She was then sold to a plantation owner on St. Thomas named Lucas van Beverhout. He made her a house servant and taught her about the Reformed Church. When she was twelve, Lucas van Beverhout died, and his family set Rebecca free.
Religion became very important in Rebecca's life after she was freed. Even though she was free, she had very few opportunities on St. Thomas. In 1732, Christian missionaries from the Moravian Church, also called the Moravian Brethren, arrived on St. Thomas. They came to share Christianity with people around the world. Their work opened up new chances for Rebecca. She became a leader in teaching enslaved Africans about Christianity. This was often difficult because plantation owners feared that united enslaved people might revolt.
In 1742, Rebecca left St. Thomas with several Moravian missionaries. They traveled to their home in Herrnhut, Saxony, Germany. There, she met and married Christian Protten in 1746. Christian also had mixed African and European heritage. Christian Protten wanted to start a school in Christiansborg, a Danish fort on the Gold Coast (now Ghana). He tried but didn't succeed at first. He returned to Herrnhut six years later in 1762. Herrnhut was the main center for the Moravian movement. Protten and Rebecca went back to Christiansborg together in 1763. They spent the rest of their lives teaching African children there. Rebecca Protten passed away in 1780.
Women were very important in the Moravian Church, unlike many other Christian groups. This gave Rebecca chances to participate in the church almost equally with men. The Moravian Brethren believed that men and women were equal in God's eyes. This belief helped Rebecca become a preacher. She was made a deaconess, a church leader, just a few weeks after her wedding.
Early Life
Rebecca Freundlich Protten was born enslaved in 1718 in Antigua. She was the daughter of an African woman and a European man, possibly Dutch. Her master gave her the name "Shelly." When she was about six or seven years old, she was taken from Antigua. She was then sold into slavery on the island of Saint Thomas, US Virgin Islands. This island was a Danish sugar colony at the time. Shelly's new Dutch Reformed master taught her about Christianity. A Roman Catholic priest baptized her, and she was given the Christian name Rebecca. Eventually, Rebecca Protten gained her freedom.
Rebecca's Work
In the West Indies
Rebecca worked with the Moravians in Saint Thomas. Filled with strong religious belief, they helped hundreds, and likely thousands, of people become Christians. Many of these new Christians were enslaved people. It was a difficult time. Plantation owners often treated missionaries and enslaved people badly. Rebecca's way of sharing her faith was to walk "daily along rugged roads through the hills in the sultry evenings." She did this after the enslaved people had returned from the fields.
The leaders in Saint Thomas generally did not want Christianity to spread among enslaved people. Because of these challenges, Moravian missionaries only allowed Rebecca to teach women in private. She was not allowed to preach in public. At this time, there were about 5,000 enslaved people in the Danish West Indies.
Rebecca became a spiritual guide for enslaved people. They often came to her for advice. It is said that "she taught at a church that held popular nightly meetings." These meetings were at the end of a difficult road known as 'The Path.' Her mission trips took her "to the slave quarters deep in the island's plantation heartland." There, she shared her message with house servants, cane workers, weavers, and cotton pickers. These people were suffering greatly from slavery every day. Saint Thomas became a key place for African Protestant Christianity in the Americas.
In 1736, when Rebecca was about eighteen, the German Moravian missionary Friedrich Martin arrived in Saint Thomas. He taught her that the Moravian movement encouraged women preachers. Martin was impressed by how well Rebecca's missionary work was going. He noted that she was "very accomplished in the teaching of God." He added that she had done the work of the Savior by teaching African women. She spoke about what the Holy Spirit had shown her. He found nothing in her but a love of God and his servants.
Experts Sylvia Frey and Betty Wood believe that the start and growth of African Protestant Christianity was a very important moment. It helped create a community of faith. It also gave African people a way to resist their situation. This was part of a big change from traditional African religions to new ways of thinking in the New World.
Rebecca and her Moravian husband were accused by the authorities. They were charged with speaking against God and trying to cause a slave rebellion. They were put in prison. After they were released, they were sent away from the island.
In Western Europe
In 1742, Rebecca left Saint Thomas and moved to Germany. She traveled with the Moravian missionary Friedrich Martin, her first husband Matthaus Freundlich, and their daughter Anna Maria Freundlich. Soon after they arrived in Amsterdam in 1742, Friedrich Martin was called back to the St. Thomas mission. This was because his replacement there had died. Rebecca Freundlich's husband and daughter both died in Germany.
With nowhere else to go in a foreign land, Rebecca Freundlich was taken by friends to a community. This community was owned by the leader of the Moravian church, Nikolaus Ludwig, Count von Zinzendorf. While living in Germany, she became a valued member of the Moravian community. She took on a leadership role in the women's Christian ministry.
Daily religious life in the Moravian community in the 1700s was very organized. Groups called "Choirs" were the main social units of the church. People were expected to put the group's wishes before their own. Choir members ate and slept together. They often worked side by side. They met at least once a day, often more, to worship and study religious texts.
In 1756, Rebecca Freundlich Protten and her second husband, Christian Jacob Protten, faced challenges. They were asked to leave the Moravian community in Herrnhut. They moved to the village of Großhennersdorf. This happened because Christian Protten and Count Zinzendorf, the Bishop of the Moravian Church, often argued. Christian Protten later received permission to return to West Africa. Rebecca Protten stayed behind and rejoined the Moravians at Herrnhut.
In West Africa
In 1765, Rebecca Protten arrived on the Gold Coast for the first time. With the Moravian church's approval, her husband became the headmaster of the Christiansborg Castle School. This school was for children of mixed European and African descent. He served there until his death in 1769. Rebecca Protten became a widow for the second time.
At this point, she had not fully adjusted to life on the Gold Coast. The Moravian missionaries thought about sending her back to Saint Thomas. However, she was in poor health. So, it was decided that she would stay on the Gold Coast. She eventually died there in 1780.
Personal Life
On May 4, 1738, Rebecca married Matthaus Freundlich. He was a German Moravian missionary on the island of Saint Thomas. Their marriage was arranged. Rebecca and Matthaus Freundlich had a daughter named Anna Maria Freundlich, born around 1740 in Saint Thomas. Sadly, Anna Freundlich died in 1744, at the age of four, in Germany.
The Freundlich family had traveled to Germany because Matthaus Freundlich was sick. They had also faced difficulties from slave plantation owners. They were even imprisoned for their Christian faith while sharing the Gospel with enslaved people in Saint Thomas. Matthaus Freundlich died during their trip across Germany.
On June 6, 1746, Rebecca remarried. Her second husband was Christian Jacob Protten (1715–1769). He was an educator and missionary from the Gold Coast. They married in Herrnhut, Germany. In 1750, Christian and Rebecca Protten had a daughter named Anna Maria Protten. She died as a baby in Herrnhut, Germany.
Death and Legacy
Rebecca Freundlich Protten died in 1780. She was 62 years old. She passed away in Christiansborg, Accra, on the Gold Coast.
Her biographer, Jon F. Sensbach, wrote a book called "Rebecca's Revival - Creating Black Christianity in the Atlantic World." He said that Rebecca Freundlich Protten was "a prophet." She was someone who followed her calling. She was also good at finding ways to live her life. She was clever in any place or language. She was determined to bring the Bible's message of freedom to people of African descent.
Sensbach noted that much of what we know about the black church today comes from these early beginnings. This includes the church being a center of community life. It also includes its role in fighting for fairness and inspiring spiritual music. Even though few people know her name today, Rebecca helped start a new kind of religion. This religion has given spiritual strength to millions of people over the centuries.
Rebecca Freundlich Protten became an example of how Christian missions could help free African people.
Biographies
Christian Oldendorp, a Moravian missionary, first wrote a lot about Rebecca Protten's life. He admired her work and wrote about it in his book, History of the Mission of the Evangelical Brethren on the Caribbean Islands of St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John.
More recently, historian Jon F. Sensbach wrote a book about Rebecca Protten called Rebecca's Revival. Sensbach focused on how Protten became a leader in the African Christianity movement. Rebecca Freundlich Protten was also mentioned in Time Longa' Dan Twine, a book written in 2009 by Arnold R. Highfield.
Literature
- Sensbach, Jon F. (2005) Rebecca's Revival: Creating Black Christianity in the Atlantic World. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press
