Rebecca's Revival Summary

St. Thomas in the 1730s was the home to the emerging black church in the Caribbean. One woman, Rebecca, took on the large role of helping create the church that is the oldest black church in the Americas. Rebecca's Revival: Creating Black Christianity in the Atlantic World by Jon F. Sensbach shares Rebecca's story and the story of the black church's eighteenth-century origins. Rebecca's Revival tells Rebecca's story in the context of the emerging black church. Her story is the portrayal of a social experiment and its limitations. Sensbach makes a few contentions throughout the book that relate to Rebecca's story. Overall, there are three main contentions that flow throughout the book that are supported by minor ones. These contentions flow off of one another. The first contention, which also presents the overarching theme of the book, is that Rebecca steered her way through two worlds: slavery and religion. She dealt with “limited possibilities” (being both a former slave and a woman) and “ambiguous choices” …show more content…
This contention is supported throughout the book with Sensbach using examples of Rebecca as a healer, fixer, and mediator. Sensbach includes an anecdote of Rebecca healing Friedrich Martin's earache while they were imprisoned. The author notes that in slave societies “healers held status and spiritual power,” (118). This anecdote and fact help better explain why Rebecca might have helped Rebecca see herself as an authority figure and visionary. Knowing multiple languages, Rebecca often helped translate Scripture in conversations with those who did not speak Dutch or Creole (118). Her language skills helped further her mission. Rebecca used her authority as an apostle to steer her way through the worlds of slavery and religion. Her skills helped her deal with limited possibilities and ambiguous