James Van Horn Melton. Religion, Community, and Slavery on the Colonial Southern Frontier.
2017; Oxford University Press; Volume: 122; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/ahr/122.1.169
ISSN1937-5239
Autores Tópico(s)Colonialism, slavery, and trade
ResumoJames Van Horn Melton’s Religion, Community, and Slavery on the Colonial Southern Frontier, which tells the story of Ebenezer, Georgia, is the latest contribution to an ever-expanding literature on community and the American South. The questions he asks are familiar ones. Why did a small group of German-speaking immigrants leave their Salzburg homeland in Germany in 1734 for a new life thousands of miles away in a strange land? How did they adapt to the southern frontier and, eventually, to slavery? Also familiar is the author’s interest in the transatlantic world. Like so many other historians in recent years, he wants to understand the Atlantic context and its meaning for people whom he terms “simple folk.” Melton is an authority on Europe and Germany, and his knowledge shines through in the monograph’s impressive opening section on Salzburg, which reconstructs the alpine world that these 247 exiles came from. Melton weaves the stories of these migrants—primarily one miner, Thomas Geschwandel (1693–1761)—with the larger tale of religious wars, economic setbacks, and political expulsions that bedeviled Salzburg and Germany in the early modern period. The details are fascinating, and Melton is at his best here, explaining the complex developments that led these migrants to Georgia. The sources for their transatlantic crossing are especially strong, and Melton is able to describe the journey to the New World in vivid detail.
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