Inventing George Whitefield: Race, Revivalism, and the Making of a Religious Icon
Jessica M. Parr
Abstract
In 1770, English missionary George Whitefield died in Newburyport, Massachusetts. His death marked the start of a complex legacy that in many ways rendered Whitefield more powerful and influential in the afterlife than during his considerable career. Whitefield was a religious icon shaped in the complexities of revivalism, the contest over religious toleration, and the conflicting role of Christianity for enslaved people. Pro-slavery Christians saw Christianity as a form of social control for slaves. Evangelical Christianity’s emphasis on “freedom in the eyes of God” also suggested a path to p ... More
In 1770, English missionary George Whitefield died in Newburyport, Massachusetts. His death marked the start of a complex legacy that in many ways rendered Whitefield more powerful and influential in the afterlife than during his considerable career. Whitefield was a religious icon shaped in the complexities of revivalism, the contest over religious toleration, and the conflicting role of Christianity for enslaved people. Pro-slavery Christians saw Christianity as a form of social control for slaves. Evangelical Christianity’s emphasis on “freedom in the eyes of God” also suggested a path to political freedom. The book’s analysis of Whitefield’s fluctuating views on slavery is among the book’s central contributions, as a topic that has not been addressed since the early 1970s, and then only briefly.
Keywords:
George Whitefield,
Great Awakening,
Slavery,
Southern History,
Atlantic World
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2015 |
Print ISBN-13: 9781628461985 |
Published to University Press of Mississippi: May 2016 |
DOI:10.14325/mississippi/9781628461985.001.0001 |