Slave of the Slaves

I have often heard people say that the African slaves brought across the Atlantic were converted to Christianity through intimidation and violence.

I have always felt that this was not the true story. Experience shows us that when something is forced on people through fear and violence, it is despised by those who it is forced upon, and eventually abandoned when the threat of violence is gone.

Yet the ever-present faith of the African-American people is too real and too important to them for it to have been instilled in them through fear and violence. It seems that such a faith could only have been borne in them through love.

Below is a highly moving and emotional letter which suggests what I am saying. It was written in 1627 by Peter Claver, who called himself the "Slave of the Slaves." It relates the experience of the African slaves as they disembarked from their transatlantic journey. One cannot help but be touched by this man's love for the dignity of the African people and his compassion for their traumatic experience. You will not find this in the history books.

By reading it, I can better understand (make more rational sense) why the faith of the descendants of the African people is today still so strong.

St. Peter Claver
"Slave of the Slaves"

The Letter:

"Yesterday, May 30, 1627, on the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, numerous blacks, brought from the rivers of Africa, disembarked from a large ship. Carrying two baskets of oranges, lemons, sweet biscuits, and I know not what else, we hurried toward them. When we approached their quarters, we thought we were entering another Guinea. We had to force our way through the crowd until we reached the sick. Large numbers of the sick were lying on wet ground or rather in puddles of mud. To prevent excessive dampness, someone had thought of building up a mound with a mixture of tiles and broken pieces of bricks. This, then, was their couch, a very uncomfortable one not only for that reason, but especially because they were naked, without any clothing to protect them.

"The joy in their eyes as they looked at us was something to see."

We laid aside our cloaks, therefore, and brought from a warehouse whatever was handy to build a platform. In that way we covered a space to which we at last transferred the sick, by forcing a passage through bands of slaves. Then we divided the sick into two groups: one group my companion approached with an interpreter, while I addressed the other group. There were two blacks, nearer death than life, already cold, whose pulse could scarcely be detected. With the help of a tile we pulled some live coals together and placed them in the middle near the dying men. Into this fire we tossed aromatics. Of these we had two wallets full, and we used them all up on this occasion. Then, using our own cloaks, for they had nothing of this sort, and to ask the owners for others would have been a waste of words, we provided for them a smoke treatment, by which they seemed to recover their warmth and the breath of life. The joy in their eyes as they looked at us was something to see.

This was how we spoke to them, not with words but with our hands and our actions. And in fact, convinced as they were that they had been brought here to be eaten, any other language would have proved utterly useless. Then we sat, or rather knelt, beside them and bathed their faces and bodies with wine. We made every effort to encourage them with friendly gestures and displayed in their presence the emotions which somehow naturally tend to hearten the sick.
After this we began an elementary instruction about baptism, that is, the wonderful effects of the sacrament on body and soul. When by their answers to our questions they showed that they had sufficiently understood this, we went on to a more extensive instruction, namely, about the one God, who rewards and punishes each one according to his merit, and the rest. We asked them to make an act of contrition and to manifest their detestation of their sins. Finally, when they appeared sufficiently prepared, we declared to them the mysteries of the Trinity, the Incarnation and the Passion. Showing them Christ fastened to the cross, as he is depicted on the baptismal font on which streams of blood flow down from his wounds, we led them in reciting an act of contrition in their own language."





It is said that Peter Claver personally baptized over 300,000 slaves.