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Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: August 17, 2020 at 9:20:18 AM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Early-America]: McIlvenna on Witzig, 'Sanctifying > Slavery and Politics in South Carolina: The Life of the Reverend Alexander > Garden, 1685-1756' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Fred E. Witzig. Sanctifying Slavery and Politics in South Carolina: > The Life of the Reverend Alexander Garden, 1685-1756. Columbia > University of South Carolina Press, 2018. xv + 235 pp. $39.99 > (cloth), ISBN 978-1-61117-846-3. > > Reviewed by Noeleen McIlvenna (Wright State University) > Published on H-Early-America (August, 2020) > Commissioned by Kelly K. Sharp > > McIlvenna on Witzig > > In his biography of Alexander Garden, the minister who presided over > the most powerful parish in the eighteenth-century South, author Fred > Witzig characterizes Garden as a skillful servant of his society. As > the gatekeeper of righteousness, marking the boundaries of behavior > God would approve, "planters preferred that he err on their side when > drawing those lines, so he did" (p. 18). Witzig shows Garden in > context; when George Whitefield challenged southern planters, Garden > successfully defended them. While his slave school is presented as > perhaps a saving grace, there is nothing in that attempt to inculcate > obedience that salvages Garden's reputation. Southern white supremacy > found another pillar in his pulpit. > > We learn that Garden's life in Britain is largely unknown beyond his > Scottish birth and education. He came to Charles Town in 1720 and > died there in 1756, his tenure coinciding with the arrival of John > Wesley and Whitefield into Savannah and the launch of the Great > Awakening. Garden was assigned to Charles Town's St. Philip's parish, > which included the most magnificent church building in the South. As > with the rest of the beautiful architecture in the city, St. Philip's > church masked the corruption of its society. Witzig describes the > culture of colonial Charleston's "polite" society: the gentry class's > etiquette, their balls and horse races, and their discerning > palettes. As Charles Town's elite grew more powerful and more > expansionist, Garden married into this social circle, not only making > friends but also sanctioning the brutal violence of slavery. > "Discipline and Correction must be observed among every parcel of > Slaves, which ... may be, and often is, misrepresented ... as Cruelty > and bad Usage," Garden claimed (p. 55). > > Witzig's chief primary source materials included Garden's published > sermons and letters, many of Whitefield's papers as well as those of > the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the Bishop of London's > papers, and the _South Carolina Gazette. _The heavy dependency on > religious sources helps the nonreligious reader understand > theological divisions and how seemingly minor differences led to > great antagonisms. Witzig does a fine and useful job of clarifying > the theological divide between the Anglican pastor and his evangelist > opponent, which amounted to little but a conception of whether > salvation comes in a shattering moment of revelation or more slowly, > over a lifetime of prayer and devotion. A bigger gap lay between the > styles of Whitefield and Garden; the former was an electrifying > orator, while Charles Town's minister was an "unremarkable but solid > preacher" (p. 97). When Whitefield began to critique the sinfulness > of southern white polite society, especially their drinking and > dancing, Garden defended his parishioners and turned the accusations > back on Whitefield. "Had there appeared to me but half the Danger ... > from such Balls and Assemblies [as from] Mobb-Preachings ... building > up one another in the Conceit of their being righteous," he would > have intervened (p. 116). > > The most serious threat came from Whitefield's 1740 letter against > slaveholders, which was published in the wake of the Stono Rebellion. > Couched in terms that allowed for ownership of people, Whitefield > condemned the hunger and the violence visited upon enslaved people. > And, shortly after Stono, he dared brook the idea of a slave > uprising. "Should such a thing be permitted by providence, all good > men must acknowledge the judgment would be just." Of course, > Whitefield's strongest criticism was that enslaved African Americans > were kept "ignorant of Christianity" (p. 134). To that accusation, > Garden mounted his defense. He opened a slave school, where some > young enslaved men would be taught to read and interpret the Bible > and then would teach others, so that eventually each plantation might > have someone equipped to instruct enslaved children in the Gospel. > > A biography of the man who provided the South's most influential > slaveowners with a moral cushion on which to rest their consciences > is certainly important as we seek to understand the development of > white supremacy. Witzig asks us to consider Garden "in the > eighteenth-century world [he] inhabited, with all of its gritty moral > ambiguity" (p. 186), but few of us see ambiguity in the morality of > slavery. More than the other planters, the man who chooses the role > of pastor chooses the burden of defining for others what is > acceptable and modeling, as best a human can, ethical behavior. When > Garden's life is set alongside his eighteenth-century contemporary, > Benjamin Lay, the Pennsylvania Quaker, there can be no defense. > Marcus Rediker's recent biography of Lay reminds us that some were > brave and unselfish enough to come out loudly for abolition, prepared > to live the life of the humble Christ.[1] What is the measure of a > holy man who condones evil that enriches himself? Garden lived in a > corrupt society. And in taking the pulpit and abusing that power to > bolster slavery, he stands as the most corrupt of his world. > > Note > > [1]. Marcus Rediker, _The Fearless Benjamin Lay: The Quaker Dwarf who > became the First Revolutionary Abolitionist_ (Boston: Beacon Press, > 2017). > > Citation: Noeleen McIlvenna. Review of Witzig, Fred E., _Sanctifying > Slavery and Politics in South Carolina: The Life of the Reverend > Alexander Garden, 1685-1756_. H-Early-America, H-Net Reviews. August, > 2020. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55074 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#497): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/497 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/76244752/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES<br />#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.<br />#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.<br />#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
