Short Essay 2

Religion & Social Class

            During the 17^th and 18^th century, governments in Europe were politically structured to address the needs of a few elite who were ranked at the very top of the social class hierarchy. An important factor is that the political structure involved religion. Religion has always been at the center of conflict – between and within empires. Moreover, religion was a characteristic of social class. Social class is the degree of prestige attached to an individual’s position in society. A high social status meant more power and privilege. The different types of characteristics that can determine one’s social class can include, but not limited to: race, ethnicity, gender, age, skin color, economic class, religious sect, and regional grouping. The connection between Christianity and social status was that Africans who were Christian were sometimes able to get out of slavery and build a community with other Africans who were Christian.

            In Sue Peabody’s 2004 article, discusses how Christianity was linked to social status. She states that slavery was illegal in France although the French people embraced the notion that dark skinned people were inferior to whites. The French expressed some discrimination against anyone who was darker than them. Although slavery was illegal in France, slaves were brought to France for two reasons which were for religious instruction or for training in a particular trade. The religious instruction was to teach the Africans about Christianity and make them a more civilized people. Peabody also explains how a trial for Jean Boucaux, a slave brought from Saint Dominingue, favored in him being freed of slavery. The attorney general argued that Boucaux was a man equal to them and he was a citizen. They considered him French because he was born the subject of their monarch and he was their equal as much by humanity as by the religion which Boucaux professed. Boucaux went from slave status to the status of a free man and one of the reasons that Boucaux was freed was because of his Christian religion.

            In Gretchen Gerzina’s 2002 article, the Christian religion of black men and slaves in Europe brought them together. In the article, Equiano wrote a Christianized tale combining a religious awakening and commercial enterprise. Black seamen identified themselves first as African and Christian and secondarily as seamen. Whether they were enslaved or free, they became perceived as a community through the combined lenses of race, religion and travel. The article explained how seamen both of slave and non slave social statuses were brought together by their Christian religion. In Christopher Brown’s 2008 article, he discusses how the religion of Christianity had made possible the more ambitious commitment to rid the entire societies of long accepted customs and practices that degraded the human race.  The religious leaders of every Protestant denomination and every Catholic order regarded slaveholding among their brethren as unexceptional and unobjectionable. In this article, Christianity forbids anyone of any social status to own slaves because the religion does not allow slaveholding. Pierre H. Bouelle’s article talks about how nonwhites were viewed as exotic in France. If prejudice was expressed against them, it was only because they were not Christians and remained uncivilized. Here in this article, Christianity and social status are not connected because anyone who was not Christian was considered to be uncivilized no matter their status. Nicholas Hudson does not really discuss Christianity and social status because Great Britain was against slavery altogether. You did not have to be Christian to be a free black man in Great Britain as the government did not allow anyone to be of slave status there.

            In conclusion, the connection between Christianity and social status in Europe was that being Christian could help a slave become a free man. The Christian religion also brought free men and slaves together to build a community among them because they had their ethnicity and religion in common. In some places such as Britain where slavery was illegal, the Christian religion did not have much of a connection with the social status because everyone was free there. There were classes of rich and poor but nobody was a slave. Discussed here were the many different reasons of connections between Christianity and social status in Medieval Europe.