New Herrnhut (Saint Thomas)

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In the 18th century, Neu-Herrnhut was a mission station of the Moravian Brethren on the Caribbean island of Saint Thomas . It had the programmatic title Carefree and was located on the north coast of the island.

location

The Hendrik Bay is a prominent point of the coastline and topography of the island. During the Moravian era it was known as Marienbucht, which was influenced by religion . Barely 200 meters from the beach, the location for the mission building of the “ Sorgenfrei ” colony was chosen. The roughly square square with an edge length of around 50 meters is still clearly recognizable in the area, while the wooden buildings have long since disappeared.

history

The mission station on the island, which at that time belonged to Denmark , was the first mission company of the Pietistic Moravians. The mission in Saint Thomas was probably triggered by the stay of the founder of the Brethren, Nikolaus Ludwig Graf von Zinzendorf , at the court of the Danish King Christian VI. Zinzendorf made the acquaintance of Anton, a " chamber moor " at the court. This was a black slave from the West Indies . Zinzendorf learned from Anton about the inhumane conditions in the Danish overseas colony. Above all, Anton reported that the slaves wanted to get to know God's word, but had not yet had the opportunity to do so.

Despite initial difficulties with the Danish West India Company , the Danish court was not averse to the planned mission and made the crossing possible for the missionaries. The first two missionaries of the Brethren set out for America in August 1732. Their names were David Nitschmann (1695–1772) and Johann Leonhard Dober (1706–1766), who after his return from 1735 to 1741 was temporarily Zinzendorf's deputy in the office of elders.

In December 1732 they arrived on Saint Thomas. This laid the foundation stone for the mission, which was primarily concerned with the slaves on the sugar plantations. The mission preached Christianity to the slaves and encouraged them to convert, but did not fundamentally question slavery. It was relatively successful, even if the Danish plantation operators viewed the Moravian mission with great suspicion. Zinzendorf himself visited the mission in January 1739.

In addition to New Herrnhut on Saint Thomas, the Moravian Brethren founded churches on Saint Croix , Saint John , Jamaica , Antigua , Barbados and Saint Kitts . After a good fifty years of missionary work, the Moravians stopped working on Saint Thomas.

The preserved church of Neu-Herrnhut east of the island's capital Charlotte Amalie on Saint Thomas is worth seeing .

literature

  • Christian Georg Andreas Oldendorp : History of the Caribbean islands Sanct Thomas, Sanct Crux and Sanct Jan, especially the negroes and the mission of the evangelical brothers under the same first part: Annotated edition of the complete manuscript from the archive of the Evangelical Brothers Union in Herrnhut. Berlin 2000. ISBN 3861350998 . (Reprint of the 1758 edition)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jon F. Sensbach: A Separate Canaan. Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1998, ISBN 978-0-807-84698-8 , p. 32 ( limited preview in Google Book Search)

Coordinates: 18 ° 21'56.8 "  N , 64 ° 59'25.9"  W.