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Slaves and Religions in Graeco-Roman
Antiquity and Modern Brazil
Slaves and Religions in Graeco-Roman
Antiquity and Modern Brazil

Edited by

Stephen Hodkinson and Dick Geary

 Slaves and Religions in Graeco-Roman Antiquity and Modern Brazil,
Edited by Stephen Hodkinson and Dick Geary

This book first published 2012

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright © 2012 by Stephen Hodkinson and Dick Geary and contributors

All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN (10): 1-4438-3736-9, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-3736-1

 In memory of the late Professor Thomas Wiedemann,

Founder of the International Centre for the History of Slavery,

University of Nottingham
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures............................................................................................. ix

Introduction ................................................................................................. 1
Slaves and Religions: Historiographies, Ancient and Modern
Stephen Hodkinson and Dick Geary (University of Nottingham)

Part I. General Perspectives

Chapter One............................................................................................... 34
In the Eyes of the Beholders or in the Minds of the Believers?
Historicizing “Religion” and Enslavement
Joseph C. Miller (University of Virginia)

Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 67

The Ritual Activity of Roman Slaves
J.A. North (University College, London)

Part II. Participation and Inclusion

Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 96

Slaves and Role Reversal in Ancient Greek Cults
Rachel Zelnick-Abramovitz (Tel Aviv University)

Chapter Four............................................................................................ 133

Slaves Included? Sexual Regulations and Slave Participation in Two
Ancient Religious Groups
Karin Neutel (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)

Chapter Five ............................................................................................ 149

The Journey Home: A Freed Mulatto Priest, Cipriano Pires Sardinha,
and his Religious Mission to Dahomey
Júnia Ferreira Furtado (Universidade Federal Minais Gerais)
viii Table of Contents

Part III. Status and Identities

Chapter Six .............................................................................................. 174

Manumission, Social Rebirth, and Healing Gods in Ancient Greece
Deborah Kamen (University of Washington)

Chapter Seven.......................................................................................... 195

The Apollo of Slaves and Freedmen
Bassir Amiri (Université de Franche-Comté)

Chapter Eight........................................................................................... 206

Infant Slave Baptisms, Legitimacy, Parental Origins, Godparenthood
and Naming Practices in the Parish of São José Do Rio Das Mortes,
Brazil (1750-1850)
Douglas Cole Libby (Universidade Federal Minais Gerais)

Part IV. Agency and Resistance

Chapter Nine............................................................................................ 244

“What will happen to me if I leave?” Ancient Greek Oracles, Slaves
and Slave Owners
Esther Eidinow (University of Nottingham)

Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 279

Magic, Religion, and the Roman Slave: Resistance, Control
and Community
Niall McKeown (University of Birmingham)

Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 309

“The Rights of Man” or “Afro-American Call to Holy War”:
Religion, Ideology and Slave Revolt in Brazil, 1750-1880
Dick Geary (University of Nottingham)

Contributors............................................................................................. 335

Index........................................................................................................ 338
 LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 5-1. Persons convicted of crimes of concubinage in the episcopal

inquisitions in Tejuco (1750 and 1753)

Fig. 7-1. Freedman and Slave Inscriptions in honour of Apollo

Fig. 8-1. Rates of Slave Legitimacy (selected regions and periods)

Fig. 8-2. Legitimacy among Slave Infants, Parish of São José, 1751- 1850

Fig. 8-3. Single Slave Mothers according to Origin, Parish of São José,
1751-1840

Fig. 8-4. Slave Couples appearing in Baptismal Registers, according to the

origin of spouses, Parish of São José, 1751-1830

Fig. 8-5. Godparents by legal condition (%), parish of São José, 1751-
1850

Fig. 8-6. Owners, Presumed Owners, Relatives of Owners, and Presumed

Relatives of Owners Serving as Godparents of Baptized Infant Slaves,
Parish of São José 1751-1850

Fig. 8-7. Selected Matching Names appearing in Infant Slave Baptismal

Registers, Parish of São José, 1751-1850

Fig. 8-8. Categories of Individual after whom Slave Infants were named,
Parish of São José, 1751-1850
 INTRODUCTION

SLAVES AND RELIGIONS:

HISTORIOGRAPHIES, ANCIENT AND MODERN

STEPHEN HODKINSON AND DICK GEARY

The essays in this volume are selected papers from the conference ‘Slaves,
Cults and Religions’, organised by the Institute for the Study of Slavery
(ISOS) at the University of Nottingham in September 2008. The Introduction
to ISOS’ previous conference publication on Slavery, Citizenship and the
State noted an increasing awareness among historians of all periods that
“slaves cannot simply be regarded as the objects, as merely the passive
victims, of the institution of slavery. Rather, against all the odds, slaves
succeeded in developing a wide repertoire of survival strategies and
displayed great ingenuity in preserving, restoring or creating families,
social networks and cultures.”1 That publication examined slave agency
and cultural strategies in terms of their recourse to legal systems. This
volume explores similar issues through their religious roles and ritual
activities.
This emphasis is reflected in the title “Slaves (rather than Slavery) and
Religions”, emphasising the religious lives and actions of slaves
themselves. Involvement in religion has been a ubiquitous part of the lives
of slaves throughout the history of slaving. As Joseph Miller argues in his
wide-ranging paper in Chapter One, slaves’ participation in religious
activities has frequently been a key response to their violent separation
from the human communities that had structured their lives when free.
Through engagement in divine worship—whether creating their own
religious practices, sharing in the worshipping practices of the free
population, or even simply assisting in the ritual activities of their masters’
households—slaves could potentially generate important elements of
community, social relationships and shared humanity within their lives.

1
Geary and Vlassopoulos, eds., Slavery, Citizenship and the State, 295.
2 Introduction

A distinctive feature of ISOS conferences is the participation of

historians from around the world, especially from Europe and Latin
America, examining slave histories across both the Ancient and the New
Worlds. In recent years the Institute has hosted a Research Interchange,
funded by the Leverhulme Trust, between British and Brazilian historians
of slave and “free” labour in the 18th and 19th centuries. The present
volume represents a development of that interchange, bringing into
juxtaposition issues of slaves and religions in Graeco-Roman antiquity and
modern Brazil. Such a juxtaposition is currently unusual in slavery studies.
Although the potential fruitfulness of comparison between Roman and
Brazilian slaveries has occasionally been suggested,2 historians of
antiquity have generally directed their comparisons towards slavery in
North America,3 whilst modernist comparative studies typically restrict
themselves to the modern world.4 Yet there are certain evident similarities.
In both Brazil and the Roman world (as also in many regions of ancient
Greece) slaves performed a wide range of economic functions: rural and
urban, manufacturing and agricultural, skilled and unskilled. Likewise, in
each society the relative frequency of manumission gave rise to a certain
degree of social mobility for some slaves.5 To what extent did these
similarities extend to the religious practices of Graeco-Roman and
Brazilian slaves?

Slaves and Religions in Graeco-Roman Antiquity:

A Missing Historiography
The volume’s juxtaposition of studies of Graeco-Roman antiquity and
modern Brazil highlights at least one significant difference: namely, in the
respective historiographies of the subject. In contrast to the considerable
body of modern literature on slave religions in the New World, the role of
religious activities in the lives of slaves in ancient Greece and Rome has
suffered a surprising degree of neglect. This is not to ignore the existence
of certain specialist studies, such as those produced by the two main

2
Bradley, Slavery and Society at Rome, 39, 54, 70, 87-8, 94, and especially pp. 67-
8: “The correspondence [of early-19th-century Rio de Janeiro] with Rome is
striking, despite the gulfs of time and distance.”
3
As, for example, in Volume 1 of the recent Cambridge World History of Slavery.
4
E.g. Degler, Neither Black nor White; Kolchin, Unfree Labor; Bergad, Comparative
Histories.
5
The frequency of manumission in Greece will be discussed by Kostas
Vlassopoulos in the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Slaveries,
ch. 16.
 Slaves and Religions: Historiographies, Ancient and Modern 3

Continental research organisations on ancient slavery. One of the earliest

studies produced within the long-standing research project Forschungen
zur antiken Sklaverei (FAS: founded in 1950 under the auspices of the
Mainz Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur) was Franz
Bömer’s four-volume Untersuchungen über die Religion der Sklaven in
Griechenland und Rom,6 which surveys the roles of slaves in the major
cults and religions of ancient Greece, Rome and the Latin West More
recently, a volume in the Mainz project’s series “Corpus der römischen
Rechtsquellen zur Sklaverei” has been devoted to the position of slaves in
Roman sacred law.7 Similarly, the Besan˗on-based, multi-national Groupe
Internationale de Recherche sur l’Esclavage dans l’Antiquité (GIREA)
has, since the early 1990s, devoted three of its published colloquia to
various aspects of the interaction between ancient slavery and religion.8
These specialist publications, however, have had comparatively little
impact on broader academic accounts of Graeco-Roman slavery or
religion, which frequently devote minimal attention to the religious
activities of slaves.9 For example, the recent volume on The Ancient
Mediterranean World (2011) within the multi-volume Cambridge World
History of Slavery devotes an entire chapter to “Slavery and the rise of
Christianity”, but none to slaves in other Graeco-Roman religions. Its
index entry on “religion” references nothing directly on Greek religion and
a mere four pages on Roman domestic religion.10 Likewise, Elisabeth
Herrmann-Otto’s excellent survey, Sklaverei und Freilassung in der

6
First published in 1958-1963, and partially revised in 1981-1990. For the Mainz
project publications, see the document “Publikationen der Forschungen zur
Antiken Sklaverei”, available (in January 2012) on the FAS project website at
http://www.adwmainz.de/fileadmin/adwmainz/projekte/as/FAS_Publikationen_20
10.pdf.
7
Schumacher, ed., Stellung des Sklaven im Sakralrecht.
8
Annequin and Garrido-Hory, eds., Religion et anthropologie de l'esclavage;
Divinas dependencias; Hernández Guerra and Alvar Ezquerra, eds., Jerarquias
religiosas y control social.
9
A full survey of the (in)attention paid to slaves’ religious roles in the recent
historiographies of these two fields lies beyond the scope of this Introduction. I
purposely focus on recent summative studies, especially works of high
vulgarisation, which are particularly revealing about the topics and approaches
judged most significant for presentation to a wider audience.
10
Subsidiary (“see also”) entries on “sacrifice” and “sanctuary” reference only a
further seven pages on Greece and Rome—far outnumbered by the page coverage
referenced in other subsidiary entries on “Christianity”, “Islamic societies” and
“Judaism”: Bradley and Cartledge, eds., Cambridge World History of Slavery,
Volume I, p. 586, with 568, 576-7, 587.
4 Introduction

griechisch-römischen Welt (2009), has no index entries under “Religion”

or “Kulte”.
Even studies which provide some coverage of slaves’ religious roles
tend to give the topic only limited prominence. Hans Klees’ Sklavenleben
im klassischen Griechenland (1998), a Mainz project publication, splits
and subsumes his discussions of religious aspects of slave lives under two
separate chapters on “Education, upbringing and cultural participation”
and “The position and valuation of slaves in state and society”.11 Thomas
Wiedemann’s ground-breaking sourcebook, Greek and Roman Slavery
(first published in 1981), includes several passages on slaves and ancient
religious practice. However, the passages on slaves and civic religious
activities all focus on the negative: the exclusion of slaves or the master’s
limitation of their involvement.12 The only sources illustrating slave
agency are those concerning leaders of the Sicilian slave revolts, whose
charismatic appeal was enhanced by special religious capacities such as
powers of prophecy and divination, skill in astrology or divine visions.13
This comparative neglect in the recent historiography of ancient
slavery is also largely replicated in modern studies of Greek and Roman
religions. Simon Price’s Religions of the Ancient Greeks (1999) contains a
mere six references to slaves. Although these cite ancient evidence
implying that slaves regularly participated in or attended public and
private religious rituals, slave roles receive no concerted discussion, in
contrast to a full chapter on the religious roles of citizens of different ages
and sexes.14 In similar vein, Robert Parker’s Athenian Religion (1995)
defines his subject as “the religious outlook and practices of Athenian
citizens”.15 Acknowledging the relevance of the religious practices of non-
citizens, his discussion includes occasional passing references to slave
participation in particular cults and to collective dedications by slaves; but

11
Klees, Sklavenleben, 218-96, at pp. 262-72; 355-431, at pp. 379-87.
12
Wiedemann, Greek and Roman Slavery, nos. 64, 80, 149 (p. 142), 151 (p. 149).
13
Ibid. nos. 229 (pp. 201-2, 203), 230 (pp. 211, 212-13); cf. no. 231 (p. 216).
These religious capacities do not always receive sufficient attention from
historians, receiving only passing mention, for example, in Theresa Urbainczyk’s
Slave Revolts in Antiquity, 12-13, 54-5, 57. In contrast, see the comments of North
and especially those of McKeown in this volume (chs. 2 & 10).
14
Price, Religions, 34, 45, 98, 102, 112, 153; contrast the focus of his ch. 5 (pp.
89-107) “on the individual citizen from birth to death” (89).
15
Parker, Athenian Religion, 4: his “short definition” of the subject.
 Slaves and Religions: Historiographies, Ancient and Modern 5

specific consideration of their religious activities appears only near the end
of the volume’s final Appendix.16
This lack of attention to slaves is shared by works on Greek religion by
leading Continental and American scholars. Walter Burkert’s Griechische
Religion der archaischen und klassischen Epoche (1977) contains only
one modest paragraph on the religious roles of slaves in historical
Greece.17 Louise Bruit Zaidman and Pauline Schmitt Pantel’s La religion
grecque (1989) includes a number of fleeting references, but not a single
paragraph addressing the subject in its own right.18 Slave religious
participation is similarly neglected in the multi-national collection of
essays in the Blackwell’s Companion to Greek Religion (2007).19 Only in
exceptional cases, such as Jon Mikalson’s Ancient Greek Religion (2005),
have recent studies of Greek religion provided any more sustained explicit
discussion of slaves’ religious activities or shown consistent alertness to
their supporting roles in the ritual practices of the free population.20
If anything, the subject’s neglect is even more apparent within
scholarship on Roman religions. There is no index entry for “slavery” or
“slaves” in John Ferguson’s The Religions of the Roman Empire (1970),
Robert Turcan’s Les Cultes Orientaux dans le monde Romain (1989), or
Clifford Ando’s collected volume on Roman Religion (2003). The ground-
breaking, two-volume, history-cum-sourcebook, Religions of Rome,
includes only a handful of brief references and a mere five source-texts
regarding the religious behaviours of slaves or freedmen.21 With occasional
exceptions, this comparative neglect is again replicated in the Blackwell’s
Companion to Roman Religion.22 Certain recent studies have, admittedly,

16
Ibid. 338-40; cf. also 340-2, as part of a discussion of associations of non-
citizens. Passing references at 5, 136 n. 54, 167 n. 48, 171 n. 66, 174 n. 74, 193 n.
146, 194, 266.
17
I cite by the 1985 English translation, Greek Religion, 259. He also provides a
brief discussion of slaves of the gods in Mycenaean religion: ibid. 45.
18
I cite by the 1992 revised English edition, Religion in the Ancient Greek City,
Index s.v. “slaves”.
19
Ogden, ed., Companion to Greek Religion: only two pages are cited under the
Index entry on “slaves” (pp. 287-8, from Charles Hedrick’s article on religion and
society in classical Greece), though Hedrick’s also provides a brief further
discussion on pp. 291-2.
20
Mikalson, Ancient Greek Religion, 156-7, with 133-6, 140-1.
21
Beard, North and Price, Religions of Rome, vol. I, pp. 294-5, 333 fig. 7.3, 357;
vol. II, texts 7.3(a), 12.3a, 12.5c(i) & (ii), 12.7c(i).
22
Rüpke, ed., A Companion to Roman Religion. Other than a modest number of
passing references (e.g. pp. 182-3, 199, 220, 244, 245, 263, 311, 363, 396, 400),
the only pages which include a specific focus on slave roles are Karl Galinsky’s
6 Introduction

acknowledged the religious engagement of slaves. Discussing the limitations

of the term “polis-religion”, Jorg Rüpke notes of slaves, foreigners and
non-citizens, that “they too ‘have’ a religion”. James Rives has commented
on how religion “provided opportunities for marginalized groups to
advance their social status in ways that would otherwise be denied to
them”.23 As regards slaves, however, such general observations are rarely
developed in any systematic or detailed manner.24
The limited attention given to slaves, especially in wide-ranging
studies of ancient religion, may be partly attributable to the typical
organisation of these volumes according to key themes, which—owing to
the skewed production and survival of ancient source materials—are most
easily illustrated through evidence for the religious activities of the free
population. Hence explicit attention to slave religious roles tends to be
restricted to occasional discussions focused, not thematically, but on the
activities of different personnel, associations or social groups or on
widening participation consequent upon religious change.
Even in such discussions, however, the attention given to slaves is
typically far outweighed by that devoted to persons of free status.25 As
John North notes in Chapter Two, there are understandable reasons why
this has been the case. As already intimated, the bulk of ancient literary
texts bearing on Graeco-Roman religious activity were written by, for and
about the free, adult male citizen elite. The negative effects of this literary
bias on the study of subordinate members of the free citizen population
have been combated in recent scholarship by determined attempts to
recover the contributions of women and those outside the elite: attempts
grounded in contemporary feminist and populist movements and
spearheaded by female scholars and academics from non-elite social
backgrounds. In contrast, few scholars of Graeco-Roman antiquity hail
from a modern slave ancestry; and movements against contemporary

discussions of “increased participation for the non-elite” (78-9; cf. also 72-3) and
Marietta Horster’s account of cult servants (332-4).
23
Rüpke, Religions of the Romans, 20; Rives, Religion in the Roman Empire, 128.
24
Only in connection with voluntary, organised religious associations does the
active participation of slaves, briefly, receive more than passing recognition:
Rüpke, Religions, 205-6, 214; Rives, Religion 128-9.
25
For example, Part IV, “Actors and Actions”, in the Blackwell Companion to
Roman Religion devotes three entire chapters, respectively, to republican nobiles,
emperors, and urban elites in the Roman East; whilst slaves (and other groups,
including freed persons) have to share a single chapter focused on religious
professionals and personnel. Mikalson’s discussion of “Religion in the Greek
family and village” devotes thirteen pages to free members of the household, but
only slightly over a page the slaves: Ancient Greek Religion, 133-57.
 Slaves and Religions: Historiographies, Ancient and Modern 7

slavery, though widely applauded, generally lack a comparable immediacy

and political force in those Western countries in which classical
scholarship is most strongly rooted.
In partial contrast to the elitist perspectives of Graeco-Roman literary
compositions stands the epigraphic and papyrological evidence, comprising
diverse kinds of inscriptions and papyri texts produced by a much wider
range of individuals or groups (though by no means fully proportional in
relation to the social composition of ancient populations), including slaves
and freed persons, alongside those from other subordinate statuses. Almost
all the Greek and Roman papers in this volume draw heavily upon such
epigraphic or papyrological texts to gain access either to the religious
voices and actions of slaves themselves—through highly “personal” texts
such as their funerary inscriptions (ch. 2), their vows, dedications and
votive offerings (chs. 2 and 7), their consultations of oracles (chs. 9 and
10), and their magical spells and curses (ch. 10)—or to actions by third
parties which bore directly on slave religious experiences: texts such as the
regulations of cult groups which included slave members (ch. 4) or public
records of sacral manumissions (ch. 6).
As a number of papers in this volume show, however, interpretation of
these epigraphic and papyrological texts is rarely unproblematic. At the
most simple level, the typical lack of explanatory preamble in “personal”
texts often inhibits comprehension of their precise character: for example,
the exact statuses of the persons involved and the specific context of their
consultation, vow, spell or curse are frequently unspecified (see Esther
Eidinow’s discussion of the Dodona oracular consultation tablets in
Chapter Nine). At a more advanced level lies the challenge of assessing
the significance of religious phenomena revealed by instances of
individual slave behaviour revealed in such texts: as Niall McKeown asks
in Chapter Ten, how many individual examples are required to constitute a
noteworthy historical trend? Even where the number of instances is
deemed to pass such a critical threshold, there remains the more
fundamental problem, highlighted by John North, of the lack of wider
evidential context. How can one properly assess the implications of
apparent slave agency in religious behaviour evidenced in epigraphic or
papyrological texts, given not only the relative invisibility of slaves in the
literary sources, but (worse) the predominant emphasis in those sources on
slaves’ lack of capacity for independent action in other aspects of their
lives?
The relative neglect of slave religious behaviour in broader accounts of
Graeco-Roman slavery and religion probably owes a lot to the state of the
available evidence. However, it is also strongly rooted in the modern
8 Introduction

historiographies of these fields. Approaches to the subject over the last

fifty years have been dominated by the weighty conclusions of Franz
Bömer’s major four-volume study (1958-63) mentioned above. As North
and McKeown point out in their chapters, although Bömer collected
together a diverse range of evidence for the religious activities of ancient
slaves, his analysis focused mainly on the narrow question whether slave
worship ever took place in an autonomous sphere of activity or operated
solely in a mixed environment together with free and freed persons. Not
only did Bömer’s consistently negative answer, that there was no sign of a
slave religious life different or separate from that of the free or freed
populations, rapidly become the orthodoxy in subsequent scholarship.26 It
has probably also discouraged further in-depth enquiry, overshadowing the
possibility that a wider range of questions might have elicited more
positive conclusions regarding slave religious agency from the substantial
body of evidence collected in his study.
Perspectives on slave religious activity have also been conditioned by
assumptions of “religious centralisation” shared by diverse modern
scholarly models of ancient, and especially Roman, religion: from the
Staatsreligion model of nineteenth-century Germanic scholarship to the
so-called “civic model” of “polis religion” underpinning much late-
twentieth-century Western research.27 In emphasising the overwhelmingly
collective character of ancient religious activity centred around ritual
performance, the embeddedness of worship in civic politics and culture,
and the role of cities and their citizen elites in patterning the religious
horizons of the entire resident population, the “civic model” leaves little
scope for personal religiosity or for the possibility that subordinate
individuals or groups, especially slaves, might fashion their own religious
behaviours. On this model, the only occasions when slaves exercised
prominent religious roles were during specific public festivals when
normal social positions were purposely reversed.28 (See, however, Rachel
Zelnick-Abramovitz’s re-evaluation of the nature of these festivals in
Chapter Three, which argues that most of the ancient Greek festivals in
question did not involve a true reversal of roles)
The impact of Bömer’s work and the civic model on approaches to
slave religiosity in the Roman world are discussed below by North and

26
Already by 1977 Burkert’s curt conclusion, “Slaves have the same gods as their
masters” (Greek Religion, 259) was supported by an endnote referring to Bömer’s
work. Not long afterwards, Bömer’s view was endorsed within slavery studies by
Garlan, Slavery in Ancient Greece, 198-9.
27
Bendlin, “Looking beyond the civic compromise”; cf. North, this volume, ch. 2.
28
Bremmer, Greek Religion, 3; Mikalson, Ancient Greek Religion, 157.
 Slaves and Religions: Historiographies, Ancient and Modern 9

McKeown; but their combined influence is equally evident in research on

Greece. Jan Bremmer’s judgement—in his commissioned survey of recent
approaches to Greek religion—that, “as life in Greece was dominated by
free males, they could (and did) seriously restrict religious opportunities
for … slaves, whose religious position was modest” appears in a section
on religion’s “embeddedness” and public, communal character, and is
supported by a direct reference to Bömer’s publication.29
Despite the general dominance of these twin influences, there are signs
in recent research of the emergence of different perspectives. One critique
of the application of the civic model of Graeco-Roman religion to
Republican Rome has challenged the claimed homology of “religion” with
“society”, “politics” or “culture”, proposing an alternative model involving
a significant degree of religious pluralism and scope for individual
religious choices.30 Another critique of the model’s application to ancient
Greece has drawn attention to the rigidity of the concept of “polis religion”
for the description of ritual activity—given the sheer variety of cult
organisations and the different levels and types of involvement by the
polis—suggesting instead a more fluid construction of ancient Greek
religion with the capacity to take account of co-existing, sometimes
overlapping, networks of ritual activities.31
An even broader challenge to current orthodoxies has questioned
standard unitary conceptions of the polis as the basic, self-bounded unit for
analysing ancient Greek communities and as an exclusive male citizen
club, with their associated assumptions of an “isomorphism between
society, economy and the state”. This new perspective views a Greek polis
as a variegated agglomeration of diverse kinds of everyday private
voluntary associations, formal and informal, short- and long-term. Many
of these associations—whether organised around an extended family,
neighbourhood, trade or religious cult, or brought together for some more

29
Greek Religion 3 with 9 n. 9: Bremmer’s survey, part of the authoritative
“Greece & Rome, New Surveys in the Classics” series, was first published in 1994
and reprinted in 1999 and 2003. Likewise, Mikalson’s view that, “Slaves have left
no evidence of a religious life of their own, apart from the communities of
citizens” (Ancient Greek Religion, 157) is simultaneously both a classic inference
from the civic model and a (possibly indirect) reflection of Bömer’s conclusions:
his “Further Reading” cites Klees’ study, whose above-mentioned relegation of
slaves’ religious activities depends heavily on Bömer’s work, cited repeatedly in
Klees’ footnotes (Sklavenleben, 264-72; 379-87).
30
Bendlin, “Looking beyond the civic compromise”, 125-35, with the approving
comments of Bispham’s editorial “Introduction”, 14-17.
31
Eidinow, “Networks and narratives”.
10 Introduction

temporary purpose—embraced men and women of various ethnic origins

and statuses, including slaves, and frequently operated with connections
extending beyond the borders of the polis.32 Most such associations
included some religious activities, but associations specifically dedicated
to the worship of particular deities or heroes are attested in late Archaic
and Classical Greece and became even more common in the Hellenistic
and Roman periods.33
The greater potential for slave agency implied by these new, more “de-
centralised” understandings of civic and religious behaviour suggests that
the time is ripe for a re-examination of the religious activities of Graeco-
Roman slaves.34 To what extent do the ancient papers in this volume
support or contradict the orthodox views of slave religious roles outlined
above? The picture is somewhat mixed. As already indicated, not all the
forms of ancient evidence considered in this volume offer insights into the
slaves’ own religious behaviours. The large numbers of Greek manumission
inscriptions studied by Deborah Kamen (ch. 6) are highly informative
about different forms of sacral manumission and the identities of the gods
invoked, but they provide no indication about the liberated slaves’ input (if
any) into the choice of god or the form or conditions of manumission. In
the dedications from Tres Galliae and Germania studied by Bassir Amiri
(ch. 7), current slaves are almost entirely absent. Worship of Apollo by
these provinces’ non-free populations can be observed only through the
religious practices of former slaves, freedmen from important Romanised
cities eager to display their social integration, especially their social
advancement into the local elite, and above all their adoption of their
cities’ religious codes through worship of one of their leading divinities.
Other types of evidence positively imply the limitations upon slave
agency. Rachel Zelnick-Abramovitz’s examination of literary evidence for
a number of publicly-organised Greek festivals which involved the full
participation of slaves (ch. 3) concludes that their inclusion was a
collective decision of the masters granted only as a fleeting privilege.
Karen Neutel’s study (ch. 4) of two religious groups which positively

32
Vlassopoulos, Unthinking the Greek Polis, esp. 68-99, 143-240; quotation from
p. 87; id., “Beyond and below the polis”.
33
Kloppenborg and Ascough, Greco-Roman Associations, esp. 1-13; Kloppenborg
and Wilson, eds., Voluntary Associations, esp. 1-15; cf. the nine-volume series
New Documents illustrating Early Christianity (1981-2002), variously edited by
G.H.R. Horsley and S.R. Llewelyn, reviewing inscriptions and papyri on Greek
social and religious history published between 1976 and 1987.
34
Vlassopoulos, Unthinking the Greek Polis, 174-5; cf. id., “Free spaces”;
“Slavery, freedom and citizenship”; “Two images of ancient slavery”.
 Slaves and Religions: Historiographies, Ancient and Modern 11

welcomed slave members—the Philadelphia extended household cult and

the Pauline early Christian communities—shows how, nevertheless, their
stricter than normal regulations for sexual conduct presupposed a level of
control over one’s body that lay beyond the capacity of most slaves.
Where the evidence does offer direct evidence of slaves’ own religious
activities, the situation is complex. Esther Eidinow’s study of fifth- and
fourth-century BC question-tablets from the oracle site of Zeus at Dodona
in northern Greece (ch. 9) shows slaves using the same means of oracular
consultation as slave owners and other free consultants. The more limited
forms of question posed by some slaves may reflect constraints on their
ability to make autonomous decisions or plans about their future. Other
slave consultants, however, show higher levels of self-determination,
including plans to escape. Moreover, the openness of the oracle and its
patron god to enquiries from slaves reveals an unexpected (and perhaps
unusual) scope for slaves in the Classical period to take independent
initiatives of a kind hitherto thought possible only in the apparently more
diverse and cosmopolitan religious landscape of the succeeding Hellenistic
age.
John North’s examination of the epigraphic evidence of Roman slave
funerary monuments, vows and dedications (ch. 2) affirms Bömer’s
established view, inasmuch that their publicly displayed inscriptions
provide no indication of a slave religiosity separate from that of the slave-
owning elite. Indeed, in undertaking and publicly recording their religious
activities, slaves were creating their own legitimate space within Roman
society precisely by exploiting established civic conventions. Nevertheless,
the wide range of ritual actions undertaken by slaves on their own
initiative suggests that the civic religious model has paid insufficient
attention to the agency of slaves, as they proclaimed their family
relationships in funerary inscriptions and made individual choices in their
vows and dedications about which gods to approach and which cults to
support, in a manner consonant with more pluralistic interpretations of
Graeco-Roman religion.
Finally, Niall McKeown’s wide-ranging exploration of Roman slaves’
involvement in magic, the collegia and the Christian church (ch. 10)
argues that magic was used by some slaves as a means of resisting their
owners; but he confirms another of Bömer’s views: that other forms of
religious activity were not a focus of slave resistance. However, slaves
were sometimes able to act with considerable autonomy through the use of
magic and through participation in religious associations, such as the
collegia and the Christian Church, which embraced both slaves and free
and which operated separately from their masters’ households. Regardless
12 Introduction

of the Church’s legitimation of the institution of slavery, Christianity

offered possibilities for some slaves to escape from their servitude by
becoming priests or joining monastic communities.
On this last point, McKeown’s analysis highlights how several of the
papers presented here reinforce a salient conclusion of the ISOS volume
on Slavery, Citizenship and the State: namely, that the lives and activities
of slaves were rarely confined to their relationships with their particular
owners and masters. In ancient Greece and Rome household slaves were
formally part of the extended oikos or familia and played subordinate roles
in its religious rituals. However, the direct engagement of slaves with
religious practices and institutions beyond the household—commissioning
funerary monuments, making dedications in sanctuaries, consulting
oracles, participating in public festivals, and joining various types of
voluntaristic religious associations—broke the binary relationship between
master and slaves, thereby providing places and spaces for slaves to create
some measure of everyday lives of their own.

Slaves and Religions in Brazil:

Historiographies and Histories
Whereas work on the religious identities of slaves in the ancient world has
been relatively limited until recently, the same cannot be said of the
historiography of slavery in the New World. Exactly what constituted
slave religion in the New World, and in Brazil in particular, however, is
far from simple to define, not least because we are presented with
sometimes competing, sometimes overlapping and sometimes synthesised
religions and cultures of different African, Amerindian and European
peoples. Indeed, if any one concept helps us to understand religious
identities in Brazil, it is that of religious pluralism. In the words of João
José Reis, writing about the North Eastern state of Bahia in the 1830s,
there was a “cultural free-for-all”.35
We will try to examine the complex contribution of African traditions
in the New World first. These traditions probably meant least in the case
of the USA, where the importation of African slaves largely ceased after
1808 (in the wake of British abolition of the slave trade the previous year)
and where the slave population was subsequently replenished by natural
reproduction. Here, therefore, linkages to the African past were
considerably more fractured than those in slave societies, such as Brazil
and Cuba, which continued to import vast numbers of Africans until the

35
Reis, “Slave Rebellion,” 218.
 Slaves and Religions: Historiographies, Ancient and Modern 13

mid-nineteenth century. Moreover, North American slaves found some

degree of spiritual succour in evangelical Protestantism. The Protestant
religious revivalism of the mid-eighteenth century in the shape of Baptist
and Methodist identities came to be embraced by massive numbers of
slaves in the Southern USA, who usually—at least initially—adopted the
same Church as their masters. The message of salvation and a relatively
egalitarian stance in evangelical Protestantism proved attractive to some
black slaves, as did the openings provided for black priests. In fact, by the
late eighteenth century 25% of the members of the Methodist Church in
the United States were of African descent. In some cases these were
integrated into single congregations with their white co-religionists; but in
other cases separate, specifically black churches developed. As is well
known, these churches subsequently played a major role in the
development of the abolitionist movement. In North America, therefore,
African influences diminished over time, although this does not mean that
the reception of Christianity by these slaves was not influenced by some
non-Christian traditions and rituals of African origin in the first place.36
In Brazil, on the other hand, where slavery was not abolished until
1888, where evangelical Protestantism was absent, and where the official
religious world was dominated by the Catholic Church, things looked very
different. Here Africa was far more obviously present, not least because
Brazil imported almost ten times as many African slaves as did the USA.
In fact almost 40% of all slaves exported from Africa to the New World
between 1550 and 1850 arrived in Brazil; and that trade in human cargoes
was never more intense than in the first half of the nineteenth century,
when around two million Africans were imported into the country.37 In
consequence “African” culture was constantly rejuvenated. A not dissimilar
pattern characterised Cuba. So what, in cultural terms, did African slaves
bring with them from the continent of their birth?
At first sight this question is preposterous. Firstly, the regions of Africa
from which slaves were transported to the New World covered vast areas,
many diverse political entities, and different ethnic and tribal groups.
Secondly, in some of these areas many of those to be enslaved had already
encountered Islam or Christianity, or both; and about these we will write
more below. However, the “great majority of Africans” adhered to what
Sylvia R Frey calls “traditional religious forms”, though these had already
undergone significant change even before their exposure to Christian and

36
Raboteau, Slave Religion; Bergad, Comparative Histories, 178-80; Frey,
“Cultural Migrations”; Frey and Wood, Come Shouting; Davis, Inhuman Bondage,
203-5; Drescher, Abolition, 252-4; Frey, “Remembered Pasts,” 163.
37
For literature on the slave trade, see n. 5 to Geary’s article (this volume, ch. 11).
14 Introduction

Muslim influences and were in a state of “continuous creation”. In West

Central Africa, in particular, these “traditional religious forms” shared
certain common, unifying themes across tribal and political divisions.
These included, in Frey’s words,

a developing concept of a supreme being or ultimate power who controlled

the universe; and a pantheon of subordinate deities, many of whom had a
dual nature that recognized female participation in the divine, and each of
whom had a cult with its own priests and priestesses, societies and
religious activities. Ancestral spirits occupied a special place in the
spiritual hierarchy. Endowed with a power to do good or harm, ancestral
anger was appeased and their mercy implored through ritual objects and
ceremonies....38

These shared perceptions, consequently, make some sense of the

question as to what cultural baggage enslaved “Africans” brought with
them to Brazil, whilst recognising that the term “African” is anachronistic
and that the tribal conflicts that took place in Africa could also be
translated to the New World. However, there is a second objection to the
view that African culture(s) were translated to the other side of the
Atlantic, at least in an unmediated form, by transported slaves. Those who
were enslaved were treated with great brutality. They were often deprived
of their own names, as well as their family. Cut off from their homelands
and kinship ties, slaves experienced, in the famous words of Orlando
Patterson, “social death”. Subject to a wide variety degrading treatments,
slaves were ripped from communities, in which they belonged, and
forcibly translated to societies in which they were stripped of kinship and
native affiliation. They became marginalized and degraded Others,
outsiders with no rights. So, at least, claims Patterson.39
In such circumstances, it was once believed, slaves had their African
cultures and identities knocked out of them in the dual trauma of
enslavement and transportation to the New World. The atomisation of
slave existence was further exacerbated by the policies of some slave
traders and owners to disperse slaves of the same origin in order to reduce
the risk of collective resistance.40 As a result, historians have doubted the
survival of “African” culture in the New World. The seminal work of
Sydney Mintz and Richard Price, for example, stresses the novelty of

38
Frey, “Remembered Pasts,” 153. Thornton makes a similar point about shared
cosmologies across large parts of Africa: Thornton, Africa and Africans, 261-78.
See also Assunção and Zeuske, “Ethnicity and Social Structure,” 418-19.
39
Patterson, Social Death.
40
See Geary (ch. 11) below, note 25.
 Slaves and Religions: Historiographies, Ancient and Modern 15

Afro-American culture and is sceptical of any idea of an unmediated

transfer of African traditions and practices to the Americas.41 Price further
criticises the views of Roger Bastide and R.K. Kent, who argue that the
ubiquitous quilombos (maroon societies: that is, communities of fugitive
slaves) of Brazil constituted “African” resistance to acculturation in the
New World. He writes,

However “African” in character, no maroon social, political, religious or

aesthetic system can be reliably traced back to a particular tribal
provenience; they reveal, rather, their syncretistic composition, forged in
the early meetings of peoples bearing diverse African, European and
Amerindian cultures in the dynamic setting of the New World.42

Though few historians would deny the fundamental syncretism of

various cultural and religious practices in Brazil, there has been a
significant change of emphasis in the assessment of Brazilian indebtedness
to African culture in recent years. Though some slave traders and
plantation owners tried to separate Africans of the same ethnic group from
one another in order to undermine the possibility of collective action and
understanding amongst their slaves, they were often not able to do so. The
economics of shipment from slave trading ports with relatively well-
defined recruitment hinterlands to destinations in the New World often
linked to specific African ports in a long-term trade nexus, as well as the
desire to deploy expensive slave labour as quickly as possible, given the
infrequent arrival of ships, militated against the systematic implementation
of any such policy.43 In fact, the creation of large-scale, computer-aided
statistical databases of slave voyages has enabled historians to establish
the origin of Africans exported to the Americas and their groupings, often
in clusters, in their Brazilian and other locations across the Atlantic: a
discovery reinforced by collaborative work on both sides of the ocean in
“diaspora studies”. As a result, Sylvia R. Frey goes so far as to claim that
“statistical quantification of the slave trade makes it possible to link
specific ritual practices to particular regions and in some cases specific
ethnic groups”, and that “core beliefs and ritual practices persisted in
relatively pure forms”.44 The work of Robert Slenes on various

41
Mintz and Price, Anthropological Approach, 1-11.
42
Price, ed., Maroon Societies, 26.
43
Hall, Slavery and African Ethnicities, 49-66.
44
Frey, “Remembered Pasts,” 156-7; Eltis, Richardson et al., eds., The Transatlantic
Slave Trade; Gilroy, Black Atlantic; Heywood, ed., Central Africans; Heywood
and Thornton, Central Africans; Curto and Lovejoy, eds., Enslaving Connections;
16 Introduction

conspiracies and risings in states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in the
1830s and 1840s seems to be one demonstration of this point, as he
identifies a Pan-Bantu culture, with its rituals, languages and artefacts, at
work on both sides of the Atlantic.45
Frey also takes issue with Ira Berlin, who has claimed that some West
Africans who lived in close proximity to Europeans had already been
“creolised”—i.e. had imbibed European religious and cultural influences—
before the onset of slavery and that these “Atlantic creoles” played a
critical role in shaping Afro-American cultures. Recent African studies
have claimed that Berlin exaggerated the role, the influence and the
number of such figures; and that their impact was regionally very variable
within Africa. Moreover, the depth of Christian conversion in West Africa
is open to question, with critics arguing that African Christianity existed in
parallel with traditional African religions, giving rise to the concept that
African “Christians” were “bi-religious”. What is certainly true is that only
a limited number of Africans were Christians; that they were often
converted in mass baptisms without any form of religious instruction; and
that selective elements of the Christian faith were “incorporated into local
beliefs and practices in such a way as to mutually enrich and inform both
religious traditions”.46
The idea that the slaves who arrived in Brazil from Africa were
rootless, atomised individuals is open to further question, whatever beliefs
they did or did not bring with them; and not only because we now know
much more about the statistical grouping of the various African ethnicities
in particular parts of Brazil. In the first place, many Africans of differing
ethnic origin often spoke related languages or were adept at learning new
ones on the lengthy Atlantic crossing, and their cosmologies often shared a
common core of foundation myths and beliefs.47 Moreover, even where
traditional collectivities had been destroyed, slaves showed great ingenuity
in building substitute solidarities, in creating what have been described as
“fictive” kinship communities. Thus African slaves in Bahia in the 1830s
extended the concept of “relative” (parente) to include all those of the
same ethnic group.48 So, as in the case of an overarching Yoruba identity,
new ethnic communities emerged in the Diaspora, where, unlike in Africa

Lovejoy, Transformations in Slavery; Lovejoy, Identity in the Shadow; Childs,

Slave Culture, 172.
45
Slenes, “Malungo, Negomo vem”; id., “A Avoré de Nsanda transplantada.”
46
Berlin, “From Creole to African,” 251-88; Frey, “Remembered Pasts,” 154-6.
47
Thornton, Africa, 261-78; Assunção and Zeuske, “Ethnicity and Social
Structure,” 418-19.
48
Reis, A morte, 55, 160, 198.
 Slaves and Religions: Historiographies, Ancient and Modern 17

itself, rigid distinctions of kinship and kingship were overcome and

commonalities of language and culture were stressed. This constituted the
background to the emergence of African “nations” (nações) in Brazil.
These did not correspond to precise historical groupings in Africa: they
replicated no single African tribe and their identities seem to have changed
over time. At the start of the nineteenth century they largely denoted an
approximate region of origin in Africa, whereas by the end of the century
they seem to have collated most closely with religious identity.49
This adaptability and creativity, already evident in religious identities
on the African continent, were translated to Brazil, as also to Saint-
Domingue (Haiti) and Cuba, by the huge numbers of imported slaves; and
produced, in their collision in these places with Catholic Christianity, a
range of “neo-African religions”: candomblé in Brazil, vodun (voodoo) in
Haiti, and santária in Cuba.50 According to Laird Bergad, there were three
different forms of Brazilian candomblé: candomblé ketu, practised by
Yoruba slaves in the North Eastern states of Pernambuco and Bahia;
candomblé bantu, which shared deities with the Yoruba variant; and the
candomblé jeje of the Fon and Ewe, which, though deploying a different
vocabulary, still shared similar gods and myths. The Afro-Brazilian
religion of macumba, which developed more specifically in Rio de
Janeiro, was, according to Bergad, distinct from the above and more
“superstitious”.51 Another historian claims that the manner in which
candomblé constituted a syncretistic religion varied, though it was always
dynamic and changing. The mix of religious cultures was not so much a
“fusion” in which no original elements of the other existed, as a hybridity
in which African, Portuguese and Indian elements could co-exist and even
be interchanged. Other commentators have identified various different
patterns of variation. In the first, the European (Catholic) religion
functioned as a disguise for what were essentially African images and
beliefs, in order to avoid the attention and persecution of the colonial (later
Imperial) administrators of Brazil, as in the candomblés in Cachoeira and
San Félix in Bahia. In the second, both religions existed side by side (the
“bi-religious” phenomenon already encountered in Africa) and were used
at different points in time by the same devotees. Thus some slaves might
attend a candomblé ceremony on Saturday night and a Catholic Mass on

49
See nn. 28-9 to Geary’s article in this volume (ch. 11); also Childs, “Slave
Culture,” 178-80.
50
Frey, “Remembered Pasts,” 164.
51
Bergad, Comparative Histories, 186-7.
18 Introduction

Sunday morning. A third form of syncretism involved a more fundamental

fusion of the two religious heritages into a new and unique creation.52
In the words of Rachel E. Harding, one of the leading authorities on
candomblé, it was a “poetic complex of ritual action, cosmology, and
meaning with deep and obvious roots in several religious traditions of
West Central Africa—especially Yoruba, Aja-Fon, and Bantu”. Though it
was initially able to develop through the interstices of the official Catholic
Church (of which more later), it “recreated” those African traditions and
thus provided a space in which Afro-Brazilians could express identities at
odds with those allocated to them by their masters. Candomblé, as the
product of this encounter, was extremely “plastic”; and its well-known
identification of various orishas (spirits) with Catholic Saints was but one
expression of the Catholic/African fusion or dualism. However, Harding
stresses that this Afro-Brazilian religion was much more than a meeting of
European and African traditions. It was—and increasingly became—a
fusion of different African traditions; it was above all “Pan-African”. As it
developed, therefore, it became less ethnically determined.53 Moreover, its
central ritual activities of healing and divination through drumming, dance
and trance were not immune to Amerindian influences, especially in terms
of magico-pharmacopoeic knowledge.54 Having said this, candomblé,
though practised by many slaves, was not exclusively a “slave religion”;
and the houses of free men seem to have been especially important for its
development. Nor was it exclusively black.55
As already noted, Catholic institutions were used by the practitioners
of candomblé, and it is to these institutions and the Christian legacy that
we now turn. As already mentioned, there was a long history of Catholic
conversion in Africa, which, for example, saw the King of Congo
embracing this religion in the 1570s.56 However, the extent and meaning
of conversion in Africa were unclear;57 and in any case most of the
Africans arriving in Brazil were not already converted. So the Portuguese
authorities in Brazil had to import Catholic institutions from Europe to
incorporate, instruct and convert the slave newcomers. Of course, these

52
Heuman and Walvin, 359; Hall, 46; Price, Maroon Societies, 29; Guimarães,
“Mineração, quilombos e Palmares”; Volpato, “Quilombos em Mato Grosso”;
Thornton, Africa, 2 and 213-18; Omara-Tunkara, Manipulating the Sacred, 3;
Wimberley, “Afro-Brazilian religious practice,” 81.
53
Harding, Refuge in Thunder, xiii; 39-40.
54
Ibid., 50.
55
See Geary’s article in this volume (ch. 11), 315.
56
Frey, “Remembered Pasts,” 153-64.
57
See above, p. 16.
 Slaves and Religions: Historiographies, Ancient and Modern 19

institutions were seen by masters and rulers as mechanisms of social

control; for in the minds of the authorities African drumming, dances and
other rituals constituted a threat to public order, to the economic
productivity of slaves; and possibly carried within them a message of
revolt.58 The principal institution of Catholic incorporation was the
irmandade (Brotherhood), which certainly existed in Portugal in the
fifteenth century and subsequently became associated there with blacks
and slavery. However, African irmandades had also come into existence in
various parts of the Portuguese Empire: in West Africa, namely Angola,
the Kingdom of Congo and the island of São Tomé. As a result, Sylvia
Frey speculates that such brotherhoods may have been brought to Brazil
from Portugal by African creoles, or by Africans who had been converted
in Africa but then enslaved and transported to Brazil.59 The brotherhoods
were dedicated to particular saints and, in the case of those dedicated to
Our Lady of the Rosary, unusually admitted women. Their principal roles
were the celebration of saints’ festivals and the physical and spiritual care
of the dead. In some cases they also functioned as friendly and
manumission societies. The precise social and ethnic basis of such
brotherhoods is far from clear. We know from work on Rio de Janeiro that
they often replicated ethnic solidarities and divisions, to which they gave a
religious dimension; and conflicts between the social worlds of creoles
(slaves born in Brazil) and Africans are well documented in the case of
Bahia, where brotherhoods were also organised along ethnic lines.
However, this was far less true in the state of Minas Gerais, where
divisions more usually ran along the lines of colour. Lines of division also
seem to have broken down in some urban areas.60 Whatever their social
composition, however, the relative absence in Brazil of anything
resembling the close control of the Inquisition in Mexico61 meant that the
brotherhoods became spaces, in which those of African origin could
construct new collective identities, find self-worth and constantly recreate
in new and various forms aspects of their African cultural past. The
precise nature of belief might be “bi-religious” or some kind of
syncretistic fusion, in which Catholic saints and African spirits became
interchangeable; but it would be wrong to draw hard and fast lines of
separation between different groups and different practices, especially as

58
Graden, From Slavery to Freedom, 103-6.
59
Frey, “Remembered Pasts,” 164-5; Kiddy, “‘Who is King of the Congo?’”
60
Childs, “Slave Culture,” 181; Soares, Devotos; Kiddy, Black of the Rosary, 118;
Bergad, Comparative Histories, 184; Libby in this volume (ch. 8), 216-18.
61
Frey, “Remembered Pasts,” 159-61.
20 Introduction

African identities were often extremely fluid and interchangeable.62 It is

also important to recognise that brotherhoods and their various identities
were not restricted to slaves but often included free and freed men, and, in
some cases, women.
Certain aspects of Catholic ritual, in particular baptism and burial,
were of great importance to the members of brotherhoods and to both
slaves and freed persons more generally. As Douglas Cole Libby reminds
us in Chapter Eight, “the sacrament of baptism was of fundamental
importance because it represented the admission of the baptized into the
Catholic Church and, in many ways, into the local community”.63 Baptism
also played a crucial role in the lives of Brazilian slaves in a further,
related way. Slaves often chose as godparents free or manumitted persons
who might help purchase a child’s future freedom. Though Libby shows
significant regional and chronological variations in this choice as far as the
Brazilian data is concerned, the links between the parents and godparents,
and between children and godparents, became “a major building block of
social organization in emerging black Catholic communities everywhere in
the Atlantic world” (Frey), as in parts of Bahia and in the city of Rio de
Janeiro.64 The extent to which participation in rituals of conversion or
incorporation into Catholicism indicated a real acceptance of Christian
beliefs, or was another building block of “bi-religious” or “syncretistic”
faith, or was, for that matter, simply pragmatic, is of course impossible to
know in most cases; and it is certainly true that ostensibly Catholic
funerals were often accompanied by African rituals of dance and
drumming.65 However, some Brazilians of African ancestry became much
more clearly committed to the Christian faith and rejected syncretism and
their African past, as Júnia Ferreira Furtado’s fascinating study reminds us
in Chapter Five. She demonstrates the social ascension of a mulatto, born
of an African mother and a white father, through the ranks of the Catholic
Church, his involvement in an attempt to convert the ruler of Dahomey to
Christianity, and his rejection of African practices as “demonizing”.66
A final thread in the complex religious map of slave Brazil is provided
by Islam. Islam not only had a long history in North Africa, but by the

62
Kiddy, Blacks, 58-77, 81-141; Bergad, Comparative Histories, 184. On the
fluidity and voluntaristic nature of African identities see Geary’s chapter in this
volume (ch. 11), 321-2.
63
On funerals, see Reis, A morte. For the Libby quotation, this volume (ch. 8),
220.
64
Libby (ch. 8), 220-29; Frey, “Remembered Pasts,” 163-4.
65
See Reis’ wonderful study, A morte.
66
Furtado, this volume (ch. 5), 167.
 Slaves and Religions: Historiographies, Ancient and Modern 21

fourteenth century many of the literate and commercial classes of West

Africa had been converted. However, pre-Islamic beliefs survived amongst
the rural populations until the jihads of the eighteenth and nineteen
century imposed a greater orthodoxy. Significantly, it was at this time that
there was a marked increase in the importation of slaves from the interior
of present-day Nigeria and Benin, especially into Bahia and its capital
Salvador. Many of these slaves had been involved in or were the victims
of jihads (holy wars) in the hinterland of the Slave Coast; and, as the
insatiable demand for slaves became ever greater, from the 1790s the slave
trade penetrated ever deeper into Africa and on to the Muslim fringes of
the Sahara, where the local populations were rallied by Islamic clerics. It
was these slaves who formed the backbone of the numerous uprisings in
Bahia between 1800 and 1835, when the famous Mâle revolt took place.
Again, however, the solidarities that underlay such risings involved free
and freed men, as well as slaves; and some of those involved were
adherents of the Yoruba orisha cult and Aja-Fon voodoo, as well as
Muslims.67
Of course the participation of Africans rather than Brazilian-born
slaves in the many “slave revolts” in Brazil was not just a function of
cultural difference and African religion. Africans were far less likely to be
manumitted than creoles, less likely to get skilled jobs, less likely to
participate in the limited and complex reality of social mobility that
characterised Brazilian society. Creoles, on the other hand, were more
likely to be manumitted, more likely to exploit the social interconnections
of Catholic brotherhoods. Moreover, attempts to link candomblé with
revolt are highly problematical; for, however African in origin, its
practitioners became increasingly diverse and its practice less exclusive. It
did signal a process in which some Brazilians sought to distance
themselves from Western science and medicine through African-derived
divination, healing, witchcraft and counter-witchcraft, but which was itself
increasingly creolised.68
It should be clear that it is virtually impossible to draw hard and fast
lines between social and ethnic groups and their often syncretistic religious
beliefs in the cultural melting pot that was Brazil. What can be said is that
over the long term Islam did not survive, though other religions made
substantial borrowings from it.69 This least syncretistic of the religions did
not have sufficient numbers of practitioners in Brazil over the long term to

67
Reis, “Slave Rebellion”; Geary (ch. 11), 315.
68
On manumission and mobility, Geary (ch. 11), 319-20. On candomblé, Reis,
“Candomblé”.
69
Frey, “Remembered Pasts,” 166.
22 Introduction

sustain the necessary infrastructure of mosques and religious schools—a

problem compounded by the deportation of many after the Mâle rising to
other parts of the Americas, and even Africa; and by a sex ratio, in which
males hugely outnumbered females. Candomblé and related beliefs, of
course, survive to this day; whilst the Catholic Church, strengthened by
the definitive end of African slave imports in 1851 and the subsequent
process of creolisation, remains extremely powerful, despite a rapid
growth in the number of poor Brazilians seeking succour in evangelical
Protestant churches in the early twenty-first century.

Towards a comparison
At the start of this Introduction we raised the question whether the
similarities evident between certain aspects of the lives of Graeco-Roman
and Brazilian slaves extended to their religious practices. A full answer to
that question lies beyond the scope of this Introduction, but a few outline
conclusions can be suggested.
Clearly, the huge differences of religious context forbid simplistic
comparisons. The ancient Mediterranean was mainly a world of polytheism:
a world without Islam and, for many centuries, without Christianity. In
contrast to the Catholic Church’s dominant position in colonial Latin
America, even after its creation early Christianity remained largely an
upstart and often persecuted sect until its incorporation within the power
structures of the Roman Empire during the 4th century AD. To these
religious differences we should add important differences in the context of
slaving. Both the Graeco-Roman world and modern Brazil were
characterised by significant imports of slaves from outside their societies;
but the circumstances were very different. The length and distance of the
Atlantic crossing stand in stark contrast to the high levels of inter-
connectedness and shorter geographical distances between the ancient
Mediterranean and its adjacent slave-supplying regions. The grand scale,
regular routes and infrequent arrival of ships of the Atlantic slave trade
differed sharply from the fragmented but “omnipresent and routine series
of small-scale exchanges, made everywhere, by all manner of individuals”
which characterised slave trading for most of Graeco-Roman antiquity.
Even the huge numbers of persons directly enslaved by Roman armies
during their imperial expansion were only occasionally transferred en bloc
for auction in Italy; more often they were dispersed among the general
Mediterranean supply chain through sale to accompanying itinerant
 Slaves and Religions: Historiographies, Ancient and Modern 23

merchants, auctioning in local markets, or distribution among the army’s

soldiers.70
The more fragmented character of Graeco-Roman slave sources and
supply, in combination with the different religious context, meant that
among ancient Mediterranean slave populations there was no equivalent to
the constant rejuvenation of “African” culture evident among Brazilian
slaves, to the emergence of African “nations” (nações) collated with
religious identity, or to the emergence of “neo-African religions” such as
candomblé. Foreign cults certainly entered the Graeco-Roman world from
adjacent slave-supplying regions, but they were imported and sustained as
much by free foreign immigrants from those regions as by captive slaves.
Such imported foreign cults consequently rarely had revolutionary
potential.71 The appeal of slave rebel leaders may have been enhanced by
special religious capacities, but religious cults or adherence per se never
formed the unifying basis for ancient slave uprisings.
Nevertheless, despite these significant historical differences, there
emerge certain common elements, as Niall McKeown intimates in the
Conclusion to his paper. At the most basic—but still important—level, in
both societies involvement in religion provided a source of succour and
escape from the harsh realities of slave existence; or, more positively
phrased, a vehicle for slaves to develop purposeful communal activities
and foster meaningful human relationships. Moreover, as has already been
emphasised, in both societies religious activity constituted one means for
slaves to act beyond the confines of their obligations to their owners or
masters, to engage with the wider society.
Of particular importance here were two phenomena common to both
Graeco-Roman antiquity and modern Brazil. First, despite the presence of
religious mechanisms of social control, the sacred landscape of both
societies was marked by significant degrees of religious pluralism. Slaves
were often able to exercise levels of agency and choice over their religious
activities that were unavailable to them in many other aspects of their
lives. The second common phenomenon is the frequency of religious
interaction and shared activity between slave and free, including freedmen:
whether in antiquity through various types of voluntaristic religious
associations, including the collegia and the Christian church; or in Brazil
within candomblé, Islam or the Catholic brotherhoods (irmandade), or
through relationships of godparenthood.

70
Braund, “Slave supply”: quotation from p. 113; Scheidel, “Roman slave supply”;
Volkmann, Massenversklavungen, 106-9.
71
We should distinguish here the Roman authorities’ fears about Bacchic cults of
south-Italian Greek origin which included slave members: see below, pp. 69-70.
24 Introduction

Slave religious agency and interaction with free and freed persons
played an important role in one of the broad similarities between Brazilian
and Graeco-Roman slaveries mentioned earlier: the relative frequency of
manumission compared with many slave societies. As already noted, slave
parents in Brazil frequently chose free or freed persons as godparents with
any eye to their potential future assistance in purchasing their children’s
freedom; and the irmandade sometimes also functioned as manumission
societies. Likewise, in the Graeco-Roman world voluntaristic associations
often provided donations or interest-free loans to secure the freedom of
their slave members and subsequently offered some measure of protection
against the possibility of their unlawful re-enslavement.
Both these phenomena were doubtless aided by the other similarity
noted earlier between Graeco-Roman and Brazilian slaveries: the wide
range of slave economic functions, including a diverse range of skilled
roles in urban settings, which placed many slaves in positions of initiative
and quasi-independence living and working in daily contact with persons
of free or freed status. In this respect, the similarities between slave
religious practice in these very different societies reflected fundamental
parallels in the practice of slaving itself.72

72
It remains to express our thanks to Jack Lennon and Peter Davies for their
assistance with proofreading and indexing the volume.
 Slaves and Religions: Historiographies, Ancient and Modern 25

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 PART I.

GENERAL PERSPECTIVES
 CHAPTER ONE

IN THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDERS

OR IN THE MINDS OF THE BELIEVERS?
HISTORICIZING “RELIGION”
AND ENSLAVEMENT

JOSEPH C. MILLER

In the service of full disclosure, I should allude here at the beginning of

these remarks to my personal appreciation of the conferences of the
Institute for the Study of Slavery, which have repeatedly provoked, and
enabled, me to extend some rather broad thinking that I have been doing
on slaving as a historical strategy ubiquitous throughout the human
experience. A few years ago I opened my comments on the none-too-
modestly conceived ISOS gathering (in 2002) to discuss the modest span
of “5000 Years of Slavery” with a remark that the organizers had
identified “just my period”; thoughts that they and others present provoked
then have since informed the “world history of slaving” that continues to
thrive in its lengthy gestation in my head.1 That ISOS meeting, on
“Women and Slavery”, fed directly into another conference on the subject
elsewhere and framed my contributions to the two published volumes of
papers that eventuated from it.2 Another ISOS gathering on “Resistance
and Accommodation” (2003), to me, suggested doubts about the
seemingly axiomatic centrality of these tropes in studies of slavery and led

1
Preliminary versions of these thoughts have appeared in Miller, “Strategies de
marginalité”; id., “The Historical Contexts of Slavery in Europe”; id., “A Theme in
Variations”; id., “Slaving as Historical Process.” The epistemological issues are
taken up in Miller, The Problem of Slavery as History.
2
Campbell, Miers and Miller, eds., Women and Slavery, including “Preface,”
I.xvii-xxix; “Introduction: Women as Slaves and Owners of Slaves,” I.1-38;
“Preface,” II.xiii-xx; “Introduction: Strategies of Women and Constraints of
Enslavement,” II.1-24; “Displaced, Disoriented, Dispersed, and Domiciled,”
II.284-312.
 Historicizing “Religion” and Enslavement 35

me to replace “resistance” with “belonging” as the basic response of the

enslaved, in an essay eventually published in one of Paul Lovejoy’s many
collections.3 Yet another paper, that eventuated from the ISOS conference
on “Practices and Discourses of Abolition” (2004), has fueled a series of
challenges to the structural thinking about nations conventional among the
currently rampant “Atlanticists”.4 That is to say that I am grateful to my
colleagues in Nottingham for these provocative and productive occasions
and for their continuing toleration of my preliminary formulations of ideas
about aspects of slavery, or—as I prefer to historicize the subject of our
shared concerns—slaving as a strategy. These historical accents extend to
the experience of enslavement and underlie the following reservations
about the relatively abstract premises of “Slaves, Cults and Religions” that
we assembled in Nottingham in 2008 to consider, in full academic regalia
of rationality.
I direct my historicizing challenge more to my colleagues in my own
academic discipline of history than to proponents of other disciplinary
approaches to slavery, or to the abstractions of “resistance” or gender or
abolition or—in this case—religion. My basic and continuing argument is
not that literary or philological or sociological or legal or economic
approaches to any of these subjects are not productive. I contend only that
they are not historical, and that proper historicity matters not only to us
historians but also to them as well. However, we historians have hidden
our own distinctive disciplinary light under a broadly sociological bushel
as we have resorted to faint versions of all of these other disciplines rather
than exploiting the distinctively historical epistemology of the slaving
seemingly pervasive in the human condition.
History as a way of understanding is more precise than the prevailing
eclectic applications of approaches to whatever we might consider in “the
past”. Evidence from “the past” can be analyzed productively in all of
these other ways, and more. Further, for historians, the pastness of the past
as such is incidental, since things that people did then are the only domain
of data that have accumulated in ways that historians can sequence the
motivated actions that we track as inherently dynamic, changing, and
generative. These actions are thus only proxies for historians’

3
Miller, “Retention, Re-Invention, and Remembering.”
4
“Abolition as Discourse: Slavery as Civic Abomination” (in preparation). The
underlying emphasis in this paper on the Atlantic as a profoundly dynamic—or
unsettling—experience informed Miller, “Atlantic Ambiguities of British and
American Abolition.” A developed version of the original paper has been
translated into Portuguese as “A abolição como um discurso de apreensão cívica,”
forthcoming.
36 Chapter One

distinguishing—and utterly vital (and not in just a metaphorical sense)—

analytical sensibility to change. Historians properly foreground the
experiential sense of profound —and hence frightening, and therefore
often and elaborately denied—ephemerality in the human condition. What
we moderns (distinctively) construe as “past” is merely the lineal array
along which we chart our (and our ancestors’ and predecessors’) constant,
baffled confrontations with the unanticipated, half-understood novelties
that they themselves created, usually driven by felt needs to recover from
the anxieties of confronting their best efforts’ unintended outcomes.
The systematically structured sociological disciplines also acknowledge
change, of course, but mostly they leave it as an unexamined truism.5
Moreover, when they seek to sequence the stabilized, orderly analytical
systems that they construct and contrast, they treat “change” as “transitions”
between one coherent state and the next. They tend to attribute the causes
of such transitions to abstractions, not to human initiatives, which they
often lament as “noise” distracting from the logical integrity of their
models.6 Historians, on the other hand, embrace disorder and contradictions
as fundamental, ironically explanatory aspects of the human motivations
behind actions reconstructed from their observable outcomes, whether
poems, economic models, tracts, the statistical patterns beloved of
behaviorists (sociologists and political scientists, particularly in the United
States), or the ideological abstractions that sociological disciplines reify as
“institutions” and other sorts of “structures”. These last constructions, or
fantasies of the a-historical mind, include the “religions” and other
ideologies (or cultures) by which all human communities, by definition,
have lived.
Historians do not question the ontological “reality” of any of these
structures, since they are the perceptions that motivate historical action
and thus historians’ proper concern. People perform the actions that
historians seek to understand according to their beliefs in the “institutions”
that they create, or they create institutions in order to coordinate their
actions. Rather I am distinguishing the historian’s proper (because
distinguishing) approach to all of these as human creations, infinitely
variable through time and space in their specifics, from the social sciences’
proper generalizing search for universality, if only as measurable
tendencies. These broad patterns may be evident to skilled sociological

5
For convenience of expression only I characterize as “sociological” the entire
range of what are sometimes grouped as “human sciences” (sciences humaines,
Geisteswissenschaften) or, in the U.S. “social sciences”—however they seek order
in aggregates of varying components.
6
For a lament along these lines, Quirk, “Historical Methods.”
 Historicizing “Religion” and Enslavement 37

observers, only retrospectively, but—by definition—they are not perceived

by particular actors confined in their own times and places and therefore
cannot have motivated them. Structural stability and change, generality
and particularity, all happen, and they are intricately and fascinatingly
enmeshed. But they all attain their heuristic value for historians only in
their particularities.
For the last half century or more, historians have let down their side of
this productive engagement of diverse intellectual resources. We set out in
entirely legitimate pursuit of the less directly documented majority of the
human experience by substituting sociological or economic modeling for
the direct evidence lacking, by definition, in new fields. However, the
sociological means appropriate to these beginnings became ends in
themselves, and we have remained focused on generic outcomes even after
a half century of research has provided plenty of the particulars that we
lacked when we started. This self-defeating process of attempting to
discover the unknown by projecting the familiar, often reasoning explicitly
by analogy, has afflicted most of the challenging fields represented at the
2008 Nottingham conference—primarily slavery itself, but also the ancient
Mediterranean, and certainly my own primary field in Africa.
These particulars allow us now to sense more directly the actual
experiences of others, which generated specific historical processes that
eventuated in infinite particularities of their structures and institutions,
none imaginable by projecting onto them ideological habits of our own. A
classic instance of this abandonment of the ship of history, from my own
regional field of Africa but in the domain of “religion” shared by
contributors to this volume, is the chapter heading conventional in
textbook surveys of African history: “The Spread of Islam”. The abstraction
of this umbrella neatly obscures the great variety of the histories of the
Saharan, western, and eastern coastal regions of the continent, starting in
the eighth century CE.
Historians must abandon animated abstractions like “Islam”, and not
just in Africa, and focus instead on the human experiences of the places in
Africa where certain people, but not others, added select elements from
this literate expression of universality to the particularisms that they
already shared among themselves, and often also maintained. For
historians the emphasis falls not on a coherent “Islam”, as theologians or
sociologists of reified “religion” might construe it, but rather on the
infinitely innovative ways in which local actors, in local contexts, adapted
hues from its rich palette of possibilities to accommodate or to accomplish
changes with which they were living. Institutions, including enduring and
widespread cultures and systems of belief like Islam, are outcomes; for
38 Chapter One

historians, they explain nothing; instead, they are what historians ought to
try to explain by intuiting the momentary motivations of their creators and
adapters.
Taking slaving as a similarly creative strategy, the epistemological
confusion of sociological means with historical ends has all but defeated
historians’ efforts to understand the dynamic processes that it generated
and that enabled it. Slaving thrived in historical contexts that motivated
specific actors in specific ways, rather than floating as the transcending
static “institution” that prevails in a literature pervasively sociological in
perspective. Readers can test their susceptibility to this a-historical
tendency by assessing how routinely, when they utter the word “slavery”,
they add the phrase “as an institution”. As “an institution” “slavery” is
conceptually simply a given. The association between the two words—
“slavery” and “institution”—is so automatic that few of us pause to
consider the historical problematics behind them both—who enslaved
whom, for what purposes, and how, and when and where did the
ideological construction of a strategy of change as a stable “institution”
emerge.
To overcome the epistemological elisions of thinking in these
structural terms I prefer a verb referring directly to acting—“slaving”.
Slaving refers to the contextualized actions that for so many years, all but
universally, condemned so many people to being uprooted and left them
vulnerably isolated, through no volition of their own. In respect of slaving
as history, historians would do well to exploit Aristotle’s analytical
statement of unanticipated and involuntary change, using the misfortune
that the slavers create by slaving, not taking him merely to have
acknowledged fate as an irony but rather to have problematized the
ephemerality of life, the historical processes of human vulnerability.
When the subject turns to “religion”, most scholars run no less
routinely for the cover of abstractions, as observed. Hence, in my title I
propose the contrast between “believers”, whose beliefs I take to be
experiential and historically motivating,7 and the [implied] abstractions to
which even historians regularly resort to behold and attempt to structure as
“ritual” behaviors that are in fact essentially (sic!) spontaneous. The strong
overtones of routinization in the general understanding of “ritual” are a
self-defeating effort to express the inexpressible in academic abstractions.

7
And consistently with what I am informed has become an emphasis on “religion”
as practice rather than as “belief” in the rational sense of theology or philosophy;
my phrasings of religion in these comments as “experience” are a historian’s
accent on the motivations of historical actors that sociological observers
characterize as “practice”.
 Historicizing “Religion” and Enslavement 39

That is to say, beholding belief is no less an oxymoron than the classic

anthropological dilemma of self-declared outsiders showing up in a village
somewhere and attempting to observe others’ cultures8 while at the same
time claiming to participate in them. The following remarks propose some
ways of integrating the experiential aspect of history’s epistemology with
the quintessentially existential qualities of religion to understand “Slaves,
Cults, and Religions” as believers created and experienced them, historically.
First, a schematic summary of the historiography—or the scholarly
literature generally—of the combination that is usually observed, and
thereby essentialized, as “slave religion”. I will return to the even more
objectivizing—and, to me, also therefore historically objectionable—
connotations of exoticizing—even faintly denigrating—anything in the
realm of “religion” that the enslaved have created as the “cults” in the title
of our proceedings. Aware as I have become of the respectful senses in
which classicists use this term, I remain dubious of its analytical
respectability as history, since it functions as yet another descriptive
abstraction, a label rather than a reference to contexts suggestive of the
motives and means of their practitioners. The motives implicitly ascribed
to the behavior of the enslaved observed as “religious” derive rather from
the highly moralistic, in modern terms, and accordingly politicized starting
point for the entire literature on slavery in a neo-abolitionist condemnation
of “ ... the permanent, violent domination of natally alienated and
generally dishonored persons.”9 The motives that this definition encapsulates
have fallen into the two possible—and mutually contradictory—logical
extensions of ways to condemn the condition rather than seeking to
understand its experiential qualities, and hence the motivations and actions
that these inspired.
One historiographical stream emphasizes the universality of domination,
generalizing from the ample evidence of the brutal behavior that has all
too often followed from the contrasting positions of power in which
resident masters and the outsiders they acquired through slaving found
themselves—the former insulated from all significant social constraints on
impulsive acting-out of presumed inner demons on the enslaved, and the
latter correspondingly isolated from the security of access to others
morally committed to shielding their own from such abuses. The “masters”
in this modeling of slavery seem unproblematized monsters, men (and also
women, although less clearly so) without motivations other than sheer
domination of another. This focus on what I have called the “master-slave

8
NB the abstraction.
9
Patterson, Slavery and Social Death, 12.
Other documents randomly have
different content
 CHAPTER TENTH.
'It is good to see a little light in these dark days,' said Lyford,
addressing Miss Elliott on their return from church. 'Mr. Willard has
acted the hero and the christian.'
'He has indeed,' said Margaret; 'I hope his counsels will be regarded;
for I am confident he has given them at the risk of his life.'
'I never before heard a sermon,' said Lyford, 'which contained so
much sound mental philosophy. If feeling and fanaticism condemn it,
reason and common sense will approve. But he who has most of the
former, and least of the latter, is counted the wisest man in these
days.'
'Yet these are times,' said Margaret, 'in which the truly wise man
may add vastly to his stock of wisdom. It is interesting after all to
trace the windings and workings of this fanaticism, especially when it
acts upon such minds as Cotton Mather's. This man is a perfect
paradox to me. His mind is original and bold, yet his language is
often so puerile as to disgrace his intellect. His manners and
conversation are pleasing and often fascinating; he is beyond all his
compeers in industry and intelligence, yet his pedantry and
superstition are intolerable. I have a great desire to hear him preach
this afternoon. Miss Graham also wishes to go; and as the occasion
is so remarkable, I think we shall be justified in leaving our own
church. If you and Mr. Strale will accompany us, your curiosity at
least will be gratified, and we hope some greater good may be the
result.'
Walter and Lyford readily consented, and when the interval of public
worship had elapsed, the party went to the North Church, where the
services commenced at two o'clock. An immense congregation had
assembled, for it was understood Mr. Mather would defend the
popular theories, and on such an occasion no one could be listened
to with more interest and attention. After the preliminary exercises
by Dr. Mather, which were exceedingly interesting, and a psalm of
nearly the same character as those sung at the South Church in the
morning, the text was announced by Cotton Mather from Isaiah
xxviii., 15: 'For your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and
your agreement with hell shall not stand. When the overflowing
scourge shall pass by, ye shall be trodden down by it.'
The great object of this discourse was to support the position that
Satan has confederates among men, and that some of these
individuals are parties to a covenant or agreement, in virtue of which
they are regularly enlisted in his service, and empowered to act in
his behalf.
The nature and provisions of this contract, he alleged, were in
general uniform, though in some cases slight variations were made,
and now and then special powers were conferred. The confessions
of witches, and the concurring testimony of the Bible, furnished an
amount of proof on this subject, which, however remarkable and
opposed to the usual course of events, could not be rejected without
incurring the displeasure of God, and subjecting the land to still
greater encroachments from the powers of darkness. The
providence of God had unfolded a variety of facts from which we
were enabled to state the general terms and conditions on which the
confederacy was founded, and he felt it due to the occasion and to
his people to make known its principal features, in the belief that it
might induce his hearers to watch the first approaches of Satan, and
shun every possible temptation.
To the mind, in its common apprehensions, he said the influence of
Satan was only perceived in the general forms of temptation and
suggestion; but in proportion as it yielded its consent to sin, in these
days of Satan's peculiar power, its perceptions of the invisible world
became enlarged and distinct, and the advantages and pleasure of
sin were greatly magnified, while its dreadful consequences were
thrown entirely in the back ground, and the mind was wholly
occupied in grasping at the luminous and beautiful forms which were
made to pass over the imagination. In this state of feeling the
suggestions of Satan became more rapid and distinct, until they
were imbodied in a regular system. At this stage of the transaction,
Satan appears in a visible form, adapted to the temper and feelings
of his victim, doing no violence to his natural taste, but assuming an
air of dignity and authority, blended with seeming kindness, and
proffers his terms of treaty on a scroll, in the form of interrogatory,
in substance as follows:
First. Have you a supreme contempt for the laws and authority of
God?
Secondly. Are you disposed to resist his will, and gratify your own?
Thirdly. Do you reject the Scriptures so called, as containing unjust
and unreasonable requirements?
Fourthly. Do you contemn and despise the sacraments and
institutions of God?
Finally. Do you surrender yourself, soul and body, to my service, to
be employed in whatever way I may judge conducive to the progress
of my kingdom among men?
These questions, and others like them, are accompanied by a
statement of immunities and privileges which Satan promises to
confer in case the party gives his assent, and pledges himself to
fidelity in all parts of the compact to the best of his ability. The
advantages to be conferred on the part of Satan are as follows:
First. He promises to preserve his subject from all personal danger,
for having entered into this contract.
Secondly. To allow him free indulgence in whatever sins may be
most agreeable to his taste and disposition.
Thirdly. To invest him with new faculties, by which he may enter the
spiritual world, and hold communion with kindred spirits, who inhabit
the regions of the air.
Fourthly. To give him power over the bodies and minds of others,
that he may torment and perplex them, and then free them from
disquietude and pain, on condition that they will come over to his
service.
Finally. To give him honors and rewards in his kingdom, proportioned
to the value of his services and the degree of his fidelity.
The terms being agreed upon, the solemn assent of both parties is
given, and the bond is written in mystical characters, sealed with a
black seal, and the miserable man signs it with a pen dipped in his
own blood. After this, all fear of God, all dread of wrath, all
sensibility of conscience, and every disposition to good cease for
ever, and no renewing grace, no sanctifying influence can evermore
visit that heart, which is thus abandoned of its Maker, and separated
to all evil and misery for ever.
Such, continued the preacher, is the nature, and these are the terms
of this dreadful confederacy. For its proof, we have only to refer to
the facts and confessions that are daily passing under our
observation. That Satan has come down upon us in great wrath, is
no longer to be denied; that God, for wise but inscrutable reasons,
has permitted this calamity to come upon the land, no one can
doubt. These reasons in due time will be unfolded, and meanwhile
we may be assured that our sins as a community have done much to
provoke God, our rightful governor, to leave us a prey to this 'roaring
lion, who goeth about seeking whom he may devour.'
But if any one denies that the confessions and statements which
have been so often and solemnly made, are to be relied upon, we
will refer them to an unerring record, an infallible proof that Satan
possesses such power on earth. The plainest precepts of the Mosaic
law recognized such wicked agencies, and provided for them
summary and dreadful punishment. The first king of Israel
worshipped at the altar of demons, and at the instance of a witch,
the holy Samuel stood before him. In the dim shadows of the
invisible state, that venerable form, in distinct and solemn features,
was presented to his eye, and in the strange and mystical tones of
that unimagined state of being, denounced the death and ruin of
himself and his house. As we come down to later times, we find in
the days of our blessed Saviour, the presence and power of evil
spirits, and it was one of his offices of love to deliver men from this
cruel bondage; and in all succeeding times, we see traces of the
same dreadful agencies, until at length, upon this land, consecrated
to God, the visible footsteps of the destroyer are seen, and every
means of expulsion which the Scriptures warrant, must be employed
to drive him from our midst.
Having thus stated the nature and proof of this confederacy, he
proceeded to point out the means by which the tempter might be
resisted and overcome. These, he said, were obviously watchfulness,
fasting and prayer. When a christian was faithful in these duties,
there was little danger of being overcome by temptation, and he
detailed at length, the times and seasons and the different points of
character at which the assaults of Satan would be most successfully
directed, and the various methods by which he might be repelled.
He then showed that Satan could not, and never intended to
perform his part of the contract; that so long as his subject was
useful in his cause, he might defend and protect him; but the
moment his affinity with the master spirit was detected and
exposed, he seldom, or never interposed to save him from
punishment. He then closed his discourse by the most passionate
entreaties to his people, to guard against the wiles of the adversary;
to watch and pray lest they entered into temptation; to repent of
their sins, which had brought down the judgments of God on the
land, and to be fruitful in those works of faith and labors of love
which would prove the sincerity of their trust in God, and turn away
from his heritage these tokens of his anger.
As Strale and his friends returned from church, the sermon was a
fruitful theme of conversation. 'I could almost forgive Mr. Mather for
his superstition,' said Walter, 'if it would hurt no one but himself.'
'And why pardon it in him,' said Mary, 'when you condemn it so
much in others?'
'Because,' returned Walter, 'I admire his genius: it is grand and
beautiful even in its illusions; he has the faculty of making rank folly
appear like luminous and well-supported truth.'
'And it is the more criminal and dangerous for all this,' returned
Mary; 'he reminds me of a beautiful stream, which in the distance is
invested with a thousand charms. Its banks are arched with shades
and bordered with flowers. Every thing is inviting and lovely; but
when you approach, the rustling of the serpent among its bushes,
and the poisonous green on its margin, show you that Death has
planted his engines among that foliage, and hurls his arrows with
destructive aim upon the unsuspecting traveller.'
'It is safe enough for me, Mary, to admire the beauty of that river,
provided I see its dangers and avoid them; but I am fully aware of
the justice of your views, and in the present state of public feeling,
such a sermon may do inexpressible harm. I cannot doubt Mr.
Mather's sincerity, but he ought to know better; he has the means of
knowing better and is deeply responsible for the mischievous effects
of such preaching. He has a wonderful faculty of making the worse
appear the better reason, and clothing his own hallucinations in the
garb of truth; but he will never be a safe man, and I dread his
influence in our political circles.'
'We must deal with him in all charity,' said Mary; 'he aims to do
good, and I have a prevailing opinion of his piety, though I must
confess, the picture is shaded by many a sombre line.'
The young friends soon reached home, and agreeably to the pious
custom of those days, each one retired to his chamber for
meditation and prayer. These duties were kept up till nearly sunset,
when the family assembled at the tea table, where no secular
conversation was permitted to intrude. The evening was usually
occupied in religious conversation or sacred music. On the present
occasion, some appropriate selections were made from the version
of Sternhold and Hopkins, at that time used by the Church of
England, and the sweet voices of the young maidens gave utterance
to strains of melody which for culture and expression, were seldom
heard in the primitive days of New England.
The later hours of the evening were spent in the garden. The moon
was riding with her starry train, in peerless beauty above them. The
fragrance of the apple blossoms filled the air, and the sweet
tranquillity of a Sabbath eve came down upon this lovely circle of
friends, as they contemplated that better land, whose vivid emblems
were shining above and around them.
 CHAPTER ELEVENTH.
The beautiful month of June was now spreading its green ornaments
over the face of New England. Never did the early summer unfold a
more luxuriant foliage, or cover the fields with a fresher beauty, than
that which now adorned the land. The forests and gardens were
vocal with the music of birds, the rose and violet came forth in
unwonted fragrance, and a cloud of incense went up from every
valley and hill, to the praise of their Creator and Lord. The world of
nature was moving on in perfect harmony and beauty. But the world
of mind was in ruins, its stately palaces had fallen, Reason was
dethroned, and a dark mass of chaotic elements moved over its
surface in mingled confusion and horror. Spirits of evil were riding on
the blast, unnatural and distorted shapes occupied every field of
thought and reflection, and Superstition held in her mighty grasp
whatever element opposed her power, and scowled in triumph and
scorn over a perverted understanding and a misguided conscience.
On the 10th of June, 1692, the first victim of this mournful delusion
died at the scaffold and by the hands of the public executioner. Her
indictment stated, that she had made a covenant with Satan, and in
obedience thereto, was engaged in the practice of wicked arts, to
the great annoyance of godly persons. The nature of these practices
was described at length, and consisted in the infusion of wicked and
devilish thoughts into minds hitherto pure and uncorrupt, in the
infliction of sharp pains on the hands, the neck and the limbs of the
sufferer, in various temptations to assist the devil in his nefarious
designs upon the peace and order of society, and in promises of
future rewards if the party would consent to become a subject and
servant of Satan.
A company of nervous and agitated witnesses supported the
indictment, by testifying to the power she exerted over their minds
and bodies, and the wild actings of their own fanaticism, and its
physical effects, were imputed by them to a mysterious energy
derived by the supposed witch from the master of apostate spirits.
On such evidence as this, she was condemned by the highest court
in New England, and, by a sentence most unjust and cruel, was
consigned to an ignominious death. As the multitude, who witnessed
the execution, retired from the dreadful spectacle, it was only to
tremble for themselves and for each other: even the pleadings of
mercy and the voice of pity were suppressed, and those who dared
to intimate a belief in opposition to the prevalent opinions, were the
first to be suspected and arrested.
On the evening of this day, two persons were seen on their way to
the house of Mr. Parris, the clergyman of Danvers, at that time called
'Salem village.' One of these was a young man of genteel
appearance, and the other a female, whose dress was that of a
country maiden, but whose sharp countenance and cunning, selfish
aspect denoted that she was intelligent beyond her apparent
condition. The conversation was earnest and vehement on both
sides; and as they approached the house, the slowness of their pace
indicated that their plans, or purposes, were not fully matured.
'This business looks too serious to me,' said the female; 'I hardly
dare undertake it. Miss Graham must be innocent; and how can I be
the cause of her death?'
'Did you not say,' said Trellison, 'that she had been the cause of
constant torment and vexation, that she controlled your movements,
and by a look suspended your purposes; that in her presence, you
would weep or smile, without any cause whatever? Moreover, did
you not see her at that cursed sacrament of devils, where every vow
is sealed by blood, and where she solemnly ratified the hellish
compact? What are all these but proofs of her damnable affinity with
Satan? You cannot go back. The Lord requires your service, and it
must be done.'
'But, Mr. Trellison,' replied the female, 'if I take this course, what will
become of me? I shall be shunned by the good; and if Miss Graham
is acquitted, where shall I find recompense and security?'
'Have I not told you of recompense? Is it nothing to free the world
from the possessed of Satan? Is it nothing to foil the great adversary
of soul and body? Is it nothing to free yourself from these
annoyances? Is it nothing, Clarissa, to save your own life?'
'My own life—what is that worth, Mr. Trellison, if the mind is loaded
with conscious guilt? Even now, I start at every shadow, and
imagine a foe in every one I meet. And what is the amount of this
victory over Satan, as you call it? Why it seems to me, such a victory
would be my ruin. But I have started in the race, and fate seems to
press me onward. I may be doing God service. Will you, Mr.
Trellison, pledge yourself that my reward shall be reasonable and
sure?'
'I have pledged my word, and the assurances of all the faithful are
yours, that whatever injury any one suffers in this righteous cause,
shall be fully recompensed. You shall be rewarded.'
They now separated as they approached the house, and Clarissa,
who had been fully instructed in the part she was to act, entered the
kitchen, and took her place with the servant, with whom she had
long been acquainted. Trellison, as he entered the parlor, saw Mr.
Parris, through an open door, seated in his library alone. They had
long been familiar acquaintances, and though the clergyman was
many years his senior, yet he was fully aware of the reputation of his
friend for piety, and had known him personally since his first
entrance at Harvard College. After some desultory conversation, the
mournful events of the day were called up, and Mr. Parris remarked,
that he looked back upon its scenes with extreme agitation and
horror. 'Surely, Mr. Trellison,' said he, 'it was a dreadful sacrifice. But
how could it be avoided?'
'It was a sacrifice well pleasing to the Lord,' said Trellison. 'Why
start, Mr. Parris, at the sternness of the divine command? Must our
pity overcome our sense of obligation?'
'No indeed,' said Mr. Parris; 'and here is the bitterness of the trial. He
that putteth his hand to the plough, is forbidden to look back: but
how can I behold such misery without a tear of pity?'
'When Abraham was commanded to slay his son,' said Trellison, 'he
laid him on the altar and took the knife in his hand. Was there any
misgiving? Doubtless pity moved his heart; but his hand was true to
the divine mandate, and he only forbore at the express command of
God.'
'But are we equally sure, that God commands us to this work of
violence? Might we not by prayer disarm the Tempter, and drive him
from our midst?'
'Faith without works is dead; and how can we expect the blessing of
God, but in the use of means? Shall Satan rage in our land, and the
servant of God remain idle at his post? Every thing depends on the
energy and zeal with which this arch-apostate is hunted and driven
from his hiding places; and those, who harbor him and practice his
wicked devices, must perish without mercy.'
'True, most true, Mr. Trellison: forgive the momentary, the sinful pity,
which would, if indulged, unnerve my hand, and draw me back from
the service of God. I would not shrink from my duty; but I am
startled and confounded at the numbers who have engaged in this
cursed league with Satan. They must be punished. You are aware,
that a society has recently been formed for the discovery and
punishment of witches. This scroll was brought to me to-day by a
member, and all the persons on this list will be watched, and
probably most of them arrested. If you know of other cases, where
the charges can be supported by competent evidence, it will be my
duty to present them to the society.'
Trellison took the list, which contained the names of seven or eight
persons. Most of these had long been suspected; but the last name
on the scroll was that of one, whose blameless life and holy
profession had hitherto given him a high rank in the community. It
was the Rev. George Burroughs, a minister of the gospel, of the
same religious faith as that of Mather, Parris and their associates,
and perfectly exemplary in his deportment and conversation.
'And has it come to this?' said Trellison. 'Oh, the power of these
hellish arts, that have profaned even the house of God, and turned
the servant of Christ to a minister of Satan! But I can hardly credit
what you say. Is the proof convincing?'
'Perfectly so,' said Mr. Parris. 'He was Satan's minister at that
dreadful sacrament, in which most of those now in prison bound
themselves to his service by their own signature, under the bloody
seal. Moreover, he has the promise of being a prince in Satan's
kingdom; and he took one of those faithful maidens, who have put
their lives in jeopardy for the service of God, and carried her to a
high mountain, where, after the fashion of his master, he showed
her the glory of the world, and promised to give her all, if she would
but sign her name. But she wisely told him, those things were not
his to give, and refused to sign. Such is the evidence against Mr.
Burroughs. There is no alternative; we have canvassed the whole
matter, and he must die.'
'So perish all the enemies of the Lord!' said Trellison. 'And now, Mr.
Parris, there is yet one name to be added to that gloomy catalogue.
Until now, I have not been nerved with strength to go forward in this
divine work, and while my heart rebels at every step and my whole
frame is convulsed with agony, I pronounce the name of Mary
Graham.'
Mr. Parris started from his seat. 'Such a name, and from you, Mr.
Trellison?'
'Tremble not, my friend, nor wonder at what seems so strange. I
have had such revelations from the Lord, such experience of her
dreadful compact with the Prince of darkness, and such proofs from
others who know her well, that, upon the peril of my soul, I dare not
disobey a voice louder than seven thunders to my ears. Miss Graham
is bound over to Satan!'
'I cannot credit your assertions, Mr. Trellison: Miss Graham is above
all suspicion. If such a mind is affected by this dreadful influence,
who of us shall escape?'
'Nevertheless you must,' said Trellison. 'I was once held in bondage
by her magic arts: but, thanks to God, my soul is now at liberty;
escaped, as a bird out of the snare of the fowler. But others are still
entangled in her yoke of bondage, and they must be liberated. Some
of our students have fallen under her power, and under this roof is
one who is daily persecuted by her devices. Clarissa Snow, the
faithful servant of Mr. Ellerson, is now here, and will tell you in
person what she has suffered.'
'Oh, righteous God!' said Mr. Parris, 'spare me this heavy blow! let
not thy wrath wax hot against thy servant; and if this work of
judgment must proceed, consign it, I beseech thee, to other hands,
and let no more blood be found in my skirts!'
'What means this language?' said Trellison. 'Has not God vouchsafed
to you his peculiar presence and blessing? has he not revealed to
you these mysteries of iniquity, and made you the honored
instrument of bringing to light the hidden things of darkness? will
you pause in the work to which he calls you?
'I cannot pause,' replied Mr. Parris; 'but I know not how to proceed.
Once more, I appeal to Heaven for the rectitude of my purposes;
and if I am the chosen instrument to sweep the chaff from his
threshing floor, I can only say—Oh God, thy will be done! let me not
turn back from this work; let me not blench in this terrible conflict
with the powers of darkness; let me not turn my hand from the
shedding of blood, till a voice from the excellent Glory tells me to
forbear!'
'And now,' he added, 'your testimony shall be examined, and if it be
such as the revelations of God to my own soul shall approve, Miss
Graham, whatever may be the consequences, must be arrested.'
In a few moments, Clarissa was introduced, and to the several
questions that were asked, she replied in such a manner as
confirmed the statements of Trellison. She complained of various
torments in the presence of Miss Graham, which torments ceased
when she was absent. She also complained of dark purposes and
evil thoughts, which always vanished when Miss Graham was out of
sight.
It is not necessary to repeat more, for the credulous clergyman was
easily convinced; and moreover, these results accorded with those
inward revelations which to him were conclusive evidence of her
guilt; and he now, though with a trembling hand, added her name to
the list of victims.
This was but the first step in the dark machinations of Trellison. He
knew the ground he occupied was treacherous: but confiding in the
strength of the public delusion, and perhaps believing, in part, he
was doing God service, he was emboldened to proceed and carry on
his designs of blood. In the picture, which the conversation we have
related gives of his character, the lines are deepened to an
uncommon shade of guilt. But in the midst of the revenge he
sought, there were feelings of gloomy fanaticism, which probably
concealed from his own view the enormity of his purposes, and even
clothed them with a false lustre. He was a believer in these
compacts with Satan; and the very unaccountable testimony of
credible witnesses had led him to look upon those who practiced
witchcraft, as persons who must be cut off, and the land be purged,
in this way, from the demons who had broken loose upon it. Yet in
the midst of all, there must have been moments, when the accuser
Conscience broke in upon his refuge of lies, and upbraided him with
a purpose, which came nearer to the acts of Satan, than any which
visible evidence had yet developed.
 CHAPTER TWELFTH.
Soon after the return of Lyford from Hadley, Strale having no longer
any special occasion for Pompey's services, determined to give him
his liberty, in advance of the time specified by his father. He
accordingly informed Pompey that he now wished him to enjoy the
luxury he had so long desired, that of being his own master. Walter
furnished him with a small sum of money, and Mr. Gardner assured
him he should have employment about the wharf at reasonable
wages. Pompey was in raptures in the possession of his newly
acquired liberty, and for many days his enjoyment was unbounded.
But he had no notion of being employed as a laborer; and having
procured a fashionable hat, with silk stockings and a coat well
covered with gilded buttons, and silver buckles on his shoes, Pompey
strutted up and down King street for a month or more, to the great
amusement of the shop keepers, and with such vast opinions of his
own consequence, as no amount of ridicule could possibly diminish.
But the golden dream could not last always; it was not broken,
however, till the last penny of his cash had disappeared, when he
awoke to the consciousness that he had played the fool, and that his
pretensions to the character of a gentleman of leisure must be
abandoned. In this condition, he had recourse to Strale as his only
friend, and begged him to find employment for him on a farm, at a
distance from town, where he was willing to go back to his old
habits of labor and care. Walter had taken no pains to arrest him in
his course of folly, believing that experience was the only cure for his
extravagant dreams; but he was very willing to assist him in any
way, that might promote his good, and accordingly procured for him
a situation on a farm in Danvers, occupied by Mr. Putnam, a highly
respectable man, who promised to watch the motions and check the
follies of Pompey, as much as might be in his power.
It was a new and not very agreeable scene to Pompey. He had no
chance for the display of authority; but was ordered to mind his own
business, whenever he presumed to step out of his sphere. This life
of discipline was too severe to be endured, and he gradually became
remiss in his labors, until at length, it required the constant exercise
of authority to induce him to labor at all. In this condition, he
contrived various methods of escape from a post that was every way
disagreeable; but he well knew, that if he left Mr. Putnam without
good reason, he had nothing further to expect from Walter. Happily
for him, as he thought, the witch delusion was now advancing with a
power which nothing could resist; he saw the influence and
importance which had been gained by the impostors who pretended
to be afflicted; and there seemed no way so likely to mend his
fortunes as to be afflicted himself, and then turn informer.
With a view to carry out this policy, Pompey went to Mr. Parris and
entered a complaint against his master. He declared, that Mr.
Putnam tormented him night and day, and that strange things were
going on at the farm; that one morning a field of grass was cut
without hands, and the hay was put into the barn, perfectly dry in
one hour after cutting; and that only the day before, as he was at
work loading hay, Mr. Putnam stood at a long distance from him,
with a hayfork in his hand, and that, in a mysterious manner, the
fork entered his arm, inflicting a severe wound, the effects of which
were now visible. These wonderful events excited the astonishment
of the clergyman, who sent for the farmer, and requested his
attendance on the afternoon of the next day.
A few minutes after Trellison's departure, the farmer entered the
room, and found his minister in a reclining posture, and apparently
absorbed in deep meditation. 'I have come,' said he, 'Mr. Parris, in
obedience to your summons, and wish to know your pleasure.'
'Satan is among my flock, Mr. Putnam, and as the good shepherd
careth for his sheep, I have feared you may be entangled in his
wiles.'
'In my belief, and I am sorry to say it,' said the farmer, 'Satan has
more to do with the minister than among the people.'
'Dare you speak thus to the Lord's ambassador, his commissioned
and anointed servant, whom he has clothed with the helmet of
salvation, and the shield of faith, that he may quench the fiery darts
of the devil?'
'You claim a high character, Mr. Parris; but I have heard of wolves in
sheeps' clothing, and the course you are pursuing, leaves me in little
doubt whose servant you are.'
'What other language than this is to be expected from those who
have signed the black book, and eaten the sacrament of devils. You
have sold yourself to the service of Satan, and these are the cursed
fruits of your compact; it was to question you on this point, that I
sent for you to-day, and you owe it to my forbearance, that your
name is not now on the scroll of the accused. I wished to know
whether the evidence of your servant Pompey could be relied on.
Your own language now convinces me of its truth, and you will soon
reap the wages of your iniquity.'
'I well know,' replied Mr. Putnam, 'how little evidence it takes to
satisfy you, when you are resolved to carry out your purposes. Your
own inward convictions, you say, support the evidence of my
servant. It will, however, be well for you to inquire, how far his
testimony may be trusted. I have brought him with me, that you
may question him in my presence.'
'It is a grace you do not deserve, but to show you my forbearance
and lenity, I will admit and question him now. You shall not be
condemned without a hearing.'
This concession from Mr. Parris was sudden and unexpected; but he
knew the sturdy character of Putnam, his excellent reputation, and
the danger of pushing matters to extremity. He was therefore glad of
the opportunity to come down from the high ground he had taken,
and to assume the appearance of fairness and liberality.
Pompey was now introduced, and the poor African was in no very
enviable position, between the two inquisitors; but he made the best
of his circumstances, and sat down quietly to undergo the
examination.
'You seem to be in a calmer state to-day, Pompey,' said the
clergyman; 'I hope the cause of your trouble is removed.'
'Witch gone, Massa Parris, all gone; Pompey well as ever.'
'Thanks be to God!' said the clergyman; 'he has heard my prayer. I
wrestled with him a full hour on your account, and he gave me faith
to believe that the devil would be cast out.'
'Massa Putnam got the witch out; he did it all himself—nobody
helped him.'
'What do you mean, Pompey? I do not understand you.'
'I must now explain,' said Putnam, 'and am willing to apologize for
the language I used when I came in, so far as to express my belief
that you are under a strong delusion, and I do not wish to impute to
you corrupt and wicked motives. You have been a good minister, and
a kind man in past years, and you well know that in the contest for
your parish rights, I have taken your side and supported your
claims; but in these witch prosecutions, I have been astonished at
the madness of your course, and can only account for it on the
ground that you are partially insane; and now in regard to the
change in Pompey, I will tell you all the facts. I went out this
morning to oversee some men whom I had employed to dig a well.
Pompey was there, dancing about in strange attitudes, and presently
he threw himself on the ground and began to bite the roots of a
tree, and fill his mouth with gravel. I asked him the cause of his
strange conduct, and his only reply was, 'Witch, Massa, witch got
into Pompey.'
'Who put the witch in, Pompey?' was my next question.
'You, Massa; all well, when you go away.'
'Well, Pompey,' said I, 'if I made you sick, I ought to cure you. The
same person who put the witch in, ought to drive the witch out; and
taking him to a tree, I gave him, at least, forty stripes, every one of
which seemed to possess a magic power. The witches fled in every
direction, and I have brought him to you to-day, clothed, and in his
right mind. Now, Mr. Parris, I would not detract from the efficacy of
your prayers; you know my reverence for religion; but in my poor
opinion, if you would take those four wicked girls, (one of whom, I
grieve to say it, is my niece, and bears the honest name of Putnam,)
and apply the same remedy which has done so much for Pompey, no
sign of witchcraft would be seen, and the community would be
restored to reason and common sense.'
So saying, the farmer took his departure with Pompey, leaving the
minister to his own reflection, and to the deep mortification and
shame, in which his own credulity and folly had involved him.
The position of Mary Graham was now critical and alarming. Since
her return to Salem, she had boldly condemned the witch
proceedings, and in every circle where she moved, her whole
influence was directed against the prevailing delusion. Unappalled by
the dangers that surrounded her, she extended her sympathy and
pity to those who were in prison, and favored the escape of some
who were in imminent danger of arrest. In these offices of love and
charity she was nearly alone; for though her friends admired her
courage and fortitude in the cause of humanity, yet few of them
dared to imitate her example. She wrote to Walter and her brother,
begging them in concert with Mr. Willard to see Dr. Mather, who had
returned from England, and enlist his influence to suspend all further
prosecutions. But this good man, though he deplored the excesses
into which the community was rushing, either believed the evil
would soon be cured, or was so far influenced by his son, that he
could not be induced to take a bold stand against the courts; yet it is
believed he used much private remonstrance and expostulation, and
it was generally supposed the public movements had none of his
countenance and support.
Walter replied to Mary's letter, and informed her that no measure
had been left untried with Sir William Phipps and his advisers; but
nothing could be done; the delusion had seized the minds of the
most gifted men in the land, and it was vain to hope for relief until
the public malady had run its course; and he expressed his fears
that her own standing in society, and the general esteem in which
she was held, might not prove a sufficient protection against the
envy and malice of some, and the credulity and superstition of
others. He expressed his admiration of the course she had taken,
but in the present violent stage of the delusion he thought it would
be best for her to retire from active participation in any remedies
which might be applied, as they could not benefit others, and might
be attended by the worst consequences to herself.
Stoughton's court was now in full operation. His associates were
Gedney, Winthrop and Sewall. This court was confessedly illegal, but
the urgency of the occasion was considered a sufficient warrant for
its organization. It was, in fact, an exparte tribunal, as all the judges
were known to favor the superstition, and the only hope for those
who were brought before it was in the jury, who were so perplexed
and overawed, as in general to conform their verdicts to the known
opinions of the court.
While affairs remained in this state, there was little prospect of relief
from courts and judges. No other hope remained than that the
delusion would soon show itself in forms so extravagant and
revolting as to excite the contempt and rouse the indignation of the
public. This conviction soon reached the mind of Miss Graham, and
she forbore to remark upon the subject with her accustomed
freedom. In fact it was no longer safe to ridicule or condemn; and
with all her popularity and the universal esteem in which she had
been held, it was evident she was now regarded with distrust and
suspicion. Mr. Ellerson, whose views in general agreed with those of
Mary, was extremely guarded and cautious, and often suggested to
her his fear that she spoke with too little reserve. In fact, she was
soon painfully convinced on this point: many of those whom she
loved, began to withdraw from her society, and in various methods
discovered their coolness and reserve. She was no longer welcomed
with the smile of confidence and affection, and her evening walks, in
which she was usually attended by several young ladies and
gentlemen, were either wholly omitted or kept up in solitude. This
change of the public feeling towards Mary was equally sudden and
startling. She was unable to perceive the causes, or trace the
insidious agents, who were fastening their toils around her. Neither
explanation nor satisfaction could be had, and the mysterious
reserve still gathered and increased, wherever she went. Some of
her friends, particularly the Higginsons, confessed they dared not be
seen in her society, while they privately assured her that their
friendship was unabated, and begged she would still regard them
with confidence and love.
There was a beautiful walk on the ground now occupied by the
Salem Common and the buildings on its left, in the direction towards
Beverly. This was a favorite resort for Mary, a place where she
indulged in many a happy contemplation on the works of nature,
and the wonders of Providence: here too, in the sweet interchange
of sympathy and affection with her young companions, she found
sources of innocent and unalloyed satisfaction, and sometimes when
alone, as she penetrated the depths of the forest and sat down on
the green border of the rivulet, or under the shade of the
magnificent elm, she realized what the poet many years after sung,
in numbers that will never cease to move the contemplative and
pious mind:

'The calm retreat, the silent shade

With prayer and praise agree;
And seem by thy sweet bounty made,
For those who follow thee.'

Though forsaken in great measure by her friends, Mary continued

her visits to this chosen retreat, and there, in pensive recollection of
other days, and a humble trust in Providence, she found solace and
support for her disturbed and anxious mind. Mr. and Mrs. Ellerson,
conscious of her innocence, did every thing in their power to soothe
her feelings and sustain her sinking courage, but her sensitive mind
drooped under the cold neglects of the world, and she even
imagined that Walter's letters, though written in all the warmth of
affection, began to show symptoms of coldness. Mr. Ellerson thought
it his duty to inform Lyford of the state of things, and request his
immediate attendance at Salem: this was accordingly done without
her knowledge, and on the evening of the twenty-sixth of June, she
found herself in the arms of her affectionate and sympathizing
brother.
Lyford was soon convinced that some deep laid plan had involved
Mary in the suspicion and distrust of the community; but while he
trembled at the dangers which surrounded her, his first object was to
soothe her feelings, by the kindest offices which affection could
suggest, while he constantly revolved in his mind the most probable
methods for her deliverance. He wrote immediately to Strale,
concealing none of the difficulties and dangers of the case, but
requesting he would not now visit Salem, as he feared it might
increase the danger, and excite a greater watchfulness against any
means that might be devised for her escape.
The next evening, Lyford and his sister walked together and visited
the place which was so much endeared to her, by its many delightful
associations. It was a fitting occasion to reveal all her griefs, and
Lyford no longer wondered at the unbroken sadness of her feelings.
She informed him, that as she walked on the borders of a little
stream in the forest, she had several times heard voices,
pronouncing her real name, and sometimes accompanied by a soft
strain of music, inviting her to new habitations among the immortals,
and making promises of every kind of enjoyment, if she would but
consent to join a company of spirits now on a visit to earth, and
offering her distinctions and honors in a new kingdom, which was
about to be established in the world. In conclusion, she had no
doubt a conspiracy had been formed against her reputation and life,
and she believed Trellison had set in motion these unseen agencies,
which she feared would soon betray her to prison and death.
'And now, dear brother,' said she, 'what can I do? friends have
deserted me on every side; wherever I turn, I meet no response to
the most common offices of friendship and good will. When the
Sabbath comes, that day of holy rest, whose heavenly influences
have fallen so peacefully on my heart, it brings no relief to my
troubled spirit: in the very temple of God, I see nothing but averted
faces or disturbed looks, and I go and come more lonely and
neglected than even the sparrow, who finds a nest for herself among
the altars of God.'
'I know not what it means,' said James; 'I am sure, Mary, it is not
safe for you to remain here, and yet to attempt flight would probably
be followed by instant pursuit, and go to confirm the suspicions that
already exist. I shall not leave you, but we will consult together, and
our earnest prayers must go up to Heaven for light and deliverance.'
'I have thought, James,' said Mary, 'that it is no longer of any use to
conceal my name. The purpose intended by this concealment has
been answered; and though it may prejudice my cause still more
with the authorities at Boston, yet, in my present circumstances, I
wish there may be no ambiguity or deception in any part of my
conduct: besides, it is already known to some extent, for it has been
repeated in yonder woods in my hearing.'
'You are right, Mary,' replied her brother. 'I believe more good than
evil will result from the disclosure: I will get Mr. Ellerson to mention
the facts to a few of his friends, and they will soon become generally
known; but dear Mary, do not sink under this load of sorrow; Walter
and myself will love you even unto death. It is a dark day, but light
may arise, and I feel assured that your deliverance will in some way
be effected.'
'Ah! my brother,' said Mary, 'I would that such a hope could send its
reviving influence to my heart, but I have the most gloomy
anticipations and painful forebodings of the result. As I was walking,
a few evenings since, by the side of this beautiful stream, I was
enabled to cast my eye forward to the land of perfect and eternal
repose; the lovely images of nature reflected to my mind the glories
of the heavenly world, and I longed to put on the garments of
immortality and walk among those pleasant landscapes, where the
storms of trouble never blow. But the strife will soon be over, and
'mortality will then be swallowed up of life.''
'Why speak so mournfully, dear Mary? This world is not yet a desert,
which no flower of hope nor green beauty of summer can adorn.
Winter may come with its frost, but spring will return and bring
freshness, blossoms and life in its train. There is a bright side to the
picture; do not refuse to behold it.'
'Hush,' said Mary, 'hear you not the voices in yonder forest?' James
paused, but no sound reached his ear. The wind sighed mournfully
along, as if in sympathy with the sadness which had fastened deeply
on the minds of brother and sister, as, arm in arm, they walked on
the borders of the forest.
'Listen again,' said Mary; 'surely you must hear them, James.'
A low strain of music, like a faint chorus of voices, now fell upon his
ear; in a moment it swelled to a distinct sound and sent its notes of
melody among the valleys and rocks. A few words only of the first
and second verses were distinguished, but every sound became
more clear and impressive, until the following lines were distinctly
understood:
 'On the bright and balmy air,
On the summer clouds we ride,
From our golden realms we bear
Jewels for our master's bride.

'Mary, in the bowers above,

Sweetest groves of fairy land,
We will crown thee Queen of Love,
Princess of the fairy band.

'Where the living palm-trees grow,

Where the crystal waters glide;
Realms untouched by want or wo,
Thou shalt be our master's bride.

'Far below the sunny waves,

We have gems and jewels rare,
Pearly grots and coral caves,
Thou shalt be our mistress there.'

At this stage of the music the words became inaudible, until the
sound died away in the forest, and the quiet stillness of the evening
again rested on the landscape.
'These are strange things, Mary,' said her brother, 'but they are only
a part of the snares which are intended to betray you. Time will soon
disclose all; meanwhile, have courage, my dear sister; in your
conscious rectitude you will find consolation and support; in God
there is abundant strength, and what man can do shall be faithfully
done. Have no distrust of Walter; his love to you is all you can
desire; he would be here to-day but for my cautions and warnings.
As the danger thickens around you, we will watch and protect you at
every step; but let us not trust in ourselves; it is not to be denied
that your danger is great, and I am now of opinion that immediate
flight is necessary: we will consult our friends to-night, and what we
do must be done quickly.'
They soon returned home; it was too late for any hope of flight, and
that very evening, Mary Lyford, by a warrant from the magistrate,
was placed in the custody of the sheriff, to await her trial for the
practice of witchcraft and sorceries.
 CHAPTER THIRTEENTH.
The news of Miss Lyford's arrest, and the disclosure of her real
name, produced a deep sensation in the community. The victims of
this delusion had been hitherto taken from the lower walks of life,
and this first attack upon the high places of society, while it shocked
the feelings of many, served to reconcile the populace to the action
of the courts, as it indicated that no influence of wealth or standing
would be allowed to protect the guilty from punishment. Such was
the state of the public mind, that except among Mary's immediate
friends, no effort was made, or contemplated, for her deliverance.
The sin of witchcraft was of too deep a dye to be forgiven; and the
common doctrine was, that religion itself must turn away from such
deadly foes to God and man. When the warrant was served, she was
immediately removed from her friends, and placed in the care of an
officer, who was directed to furnish an upper room in his house for
her reception, and to guard her with ceaseless vigilance. There was
little occasion for this warning, for the officer, whose name was
Harris, would have thought himself bound over to perdition, had he
suffered any prisoner in charge for a crime so enormous, to escape.
All access to Miss Lyford was forbidden, except to her brother and
Mr. and Mrs. Ellerson, who, assured of her innocence, did not scruple
to express to the officer the utmost indignation and horror, at the
violence thus done to one of their own family.
It was scarcely possible to realize the change which the period of a
single month had produced. The whole affair of Mary's arrest and
confinement seemed so like a dream, that they could hardly
persuade themselves of its reality. But in a short time they saw the
full extent of her danger, and had little doubt her death would be
demanded by the populace, and that the court, whatever might be
its wishes, would not dare to refuse the victim. The kind of evidence
which was then current and considered valid, was so completely
interwoven with every feature of her case, that her guilt, in the
public view, was already proved. In these circumstances, Mr. Ellerson
and his lady forbore to excite the populace, by public denunciation;
but in their own circle of high respectability and influence, they were
loud in their demands for her release, and insisted that some sinister
motive had betrayed her into the toils of the accuser.
Lyford had accompanied his sister to the jailer's room, where he
provided every convenience which the rough and superstitious
keeper would allow. For several days before her arrest, Mary had
been prepared for the worst; and she calmly resigned herself into
the hands of the law, to await an issue, which she from the first
apprehended would be fatal. There was no visible emotion in her
countenance, but a deep melancholy had fallen upon those lovely
features, which in their mild and beautiful, yet pensive and solemn
aspect, would have excited in any heart, not steeled by fanaticism,
the liveliest interest and sympathy. No ray of light could penetrate
the cloud that shaded her earthly hopes, and her spirit was now
struggling to free itself from worldly ties, and to move in a calmer
region, beyond this stormy and distracted world.
The next day after Mary's arrest, Lyford returned to Boston, to
communicate the tidings to Walter, and prevent any rash or violent
measure, to which his vehement temper might prompt him. No
language can describe his feelings, when the facts were disclosed by
Lyford; but the strong excitement of his mind was soon subdued by
the calm remonstrances of his friend, who assured him that every
thing depended on coolness and deliberation. Walter immediately
laid upon himself the most severe restraints, and while he vowed to
effect her deliverance, or perish in the attempt, he soon became so
entirely the master of his own feelings, that no perceptible change
was visible in his deportment. His first impulse was to proceed
directly to Salem; but Lyford convinced him that such a step would
be worse than useless, as he would not be permitted to see Mary,
and it might throw serious obstacles in the way of her escape. It was
therefore concluded he should remain at home, and that no
interview with Mary should be attempted, but through the medium
of her brother.
The trial of Miss Lyford took place about the middle of July. Several
witnesses were examined, whose testimony was considered
conclusive of her guilt. Clarissa, Mr. Ellerson's servant, testified to
the strange influence she exerted over her, and even in court took
care to exhibit one of those remarkable fits of agitation and nervous
excitement, which were universally satisfactory to the judges.
Another witness declared she had seen Miss Lyford walking alone in
the neighborhood of the forest, and that mysterious voices were
heard in the woods, and unearthly music, and she remembered and
repeated some lines, which intimated that she had consented to
become one of a band of spirits, on account of which, she was soon
to be crowned queen of a new kingdom, and to receive an untold
amount of riches. Other testimony of a similar character was
produced, but Trellison took care not to appear in the case; he did
not choose to involve himself in unnecessary difficulties, and was
probably aware that revenge for his known disappointment might be
assigned as a motive for his testimony, and thus defeat the great
object he had in view.
Such was the nature and amount of the evidence, it was scarcely
possible to expect an acquittal. The examination was indeed
prolonged, beyond the usual time, perhaps with a view to give some
notion of the lenity of the court; but when the case was given to the
jury, they scarcely hesitated, and when the verdict was demanded, it
was with a bolder voice than usual, that the foreman pronounced
the fatal word, "Guilty!" There was a deep solemnity and silence in
the thronged court room, though little sympathy was manifested for
the unoffending and beautiful maiden, whose fate was now so
certain. The public frenzy had sealed the fountains of compassion,
and the judge soon after pronounced sentence of death, to be
executed on the twentieth of the following August.
We have not yet spoken of the demeanor of Miss Lyford, during this
fearful period. Suffice it to say, it was calm and dignified, worthy her
illustrious descent, and adorned by every christian virtue. Her
confidence was not in man; and though her ties to life were of the
strongest character, she could contemplate death without dismay.
The shock attending the trial and sentence was indeed great, but
the gospel was present to her aid with its well-springs of
consolation, its life of immortality, and 'its exceeding weight' of
future and eternal glory. Her eye of faith looked beyond the
tempests of that awful night, whose fearful horrors thickened over
her, and beheld the rising day of celestial glory.
The friends of Mary now sought from Gov. Phipps, through the kind
offices of his lady, the executive clemency: but the faint hope they
entertained of a pardon, soon died away in total despair. Sir William
absolutely refused to interpose, and his purpose was strengthened
by his knowledge of her name and descent, which were more odious
to him, if possible, than her imputed witchcraft. But when it came to
be announced that the young lady hitherto known as Miss Graham,
was a relative of the venerated Goffe, a feeling of sympathy and pity
was strongly and generally manifested; but its public exhibition was
soon hushed by a sense of personal danger; every one was too
deeply concerned for himself, to bestow much solicitude upon the
fate of others.
Other methods were now adopted, and high rewards were offered in
private, to bold and adventurous men, if they would procure her
escape from prison: but no one could be found of sufficient courage
to make the effort. Walter then attempted to bribe the jailer; but
that resolute officer would not be tampered with. He was too much
concerned for his own soul, he said, to suffer a witch to escape. He
redoubled his vigilance; other sentinels were also placed on guard,
and no access to Miss Lyford was permitted, except an occasional
visit from James, who now spent all his time at Salem; and even this
boon was with great difficulty obtained.
On these occasions, James bore to his sister the most affecting
memorials of Walter's continued love, and assured her of his belief
that some way of escape would yet open, and that all his time and
thoughts were employed in devising plans for her deliverance. Mary,
however, placed little reliance on such deceitful grounds of hope,
and remitted nothing of her endeavors to prepare for the awful
scene that awaited her. It was indeed grateful to see such proofs of
Walter's affection, in the midst of all the obloquy which had clouded
her name, and made her the reproach and scorn of the community;
but her ties to earth were loosening, the glorious visions of the
heavenly rest absorbed her mind, and she looked beyond the
troubled stream she must soon cross, to a land of undecaying
beauty and eternal repose.
All the efforts of James and Walter were warmly seconded by the
Ellersons; and in their frequent conversations, every suggestion that
prudence could make, was carefully balanced and weighed. But it
was reserved for the fertile invention of Strale, to devise the only
expedient which seemed to offer the least chance of success; and
though this was confessedly romantic and extremely difficult to
manage, it was resolved to make the trial.
Near the house of Mr. Harris, who had charge of Miss Lyford, there
was a small cottage, occupied by a poor but honest laborer, named
William Somers. This man was an ardent admirer of Gen. Goffe, and
had once seen and conversed with him at his retreat in Hadley.
Moreover, he was a sturdy Puritan, and in high reputation for
honesty and piety: no one ever questioned his integrity, and he was
the last person to be suspected of any plot against the peace of the
community, Somers was just the man for the present emergency;
and as soon as Miss Lyford's name was publicly disclosed, he went
to Mr. Ellerson, and volunteered his services in any proper measures
for her release, assuring him he might rely on his fidelity. There was
little need of this assurance, for Somers was never known to break
his word or slight his engagements. The location of Somers' cottage
was very favorable, and in fact essential to the success of the plan,
as no other house near that of Harris could possibly be obtained. His
offer of assistance was therefore gratefully accepted, and he was at
once admitted to the councils of Mary's friends. The progress of our
narrative will develope the means that were employed, and the
consequences that followed.
The policy now to be adopted, required that Walter should no longer
keep up his relations to Miss Lyford, and that he should so far
acquiesce in the public feeling, as to offer no vindication, or even
suggest a wish in her behalf. It was no easy task to pursue this line
of conduct; but as it did not require a positive disavowal of his
engagement, he felt justified in assuming such a degree of
indifference to her fate, as might be necessary for the successful
prosecution of his designs.
Among Mary's friends in Boston, there were very few who did not
follow the fashion of the world, in deserting the unfortunate, and
leaving them to struggle alone in their wretchedness, without
sympathy or consolation. Miss Hallam, Mary's earliest and most
intimate friend, was one of the first to forsake her. In fact, this
young lady was never pleased with the attentions which were so
liberally bestowed on Miss Lyford, and it was more than suspected
that her own attachment to Strale, reconciled her to the impending
fate of her friend. She saw, with scarcely disguised pleasure, that
Walter seemed to regard Mary with little interest, and as he was now
a frequent visiter at her father's, she began to hope his affections
were already enlisted in her behalf. There were some, however,
whose feelings and conduct were far different. Among these, Miss
Elliott was deeply affected at the situation of her friend, and did not
hesitate to condemn the proceedings, as in the highest degree cruel
and unjust. She made repeated visits to Mr. Willard, in the hope that
he might do something in her behalf; and the benevolent clergyman
employed all the power he possessed in her favor. She made the
same application to Cotton Mather, but the stern fanaticism of this
man was proof against all her entreaties. He declared he had no
malice, and nothing but kindness towards Miss Lyford in his heart;
but he solemnly believed in the allegations against her, and that God
and man required the sacrifice. The proof he said was clear, and an
exception in her favor would be cruelty to the community and
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