Religion, Community, and Slavery on the Colonial Southern Frontier

This book tells the story of Ebenezer, a frontier community in colonial Georgia founded by a community fleeing religious persecution.

James Van Horn Melton (Author)

9781107063280, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 4 June 2015

332 pages, 8 b/w illus. 1 map 3 tables
23.5 x 15.9 x 2.3 cm, 0.61 kg

'Melton's work is impressive, and his use of previously underused archival sources brings important new insights … [he] skillfully sets the experience of Ebenezer within the larger context of the political and social environment of Georgia, showing the non-religious as well as religious factors that shaped the community and its stance toward slavery. His book informs and illuminates interests in several directions at once, the issue of slavery in colonial America, the story of the Salzburger refugees and Ebenezer, and the role of religion.' Russell Kleckley, Lutheran Quarterly

This book tells the story of Ebenezer, a frontier community in colonial Georgia founded by a mountain community fleeing religious persecution in its native Salzburg. This study traces the lives of the settlers from the alpine world they left behind to their struggle for survival on the southern frontier of British America. Exploring their encounters with African and indigenous peoples with whom they had had no previous contact, this book examines their initial opposition to slavery and why they ultimately embraced it. Transatlantic in scope, this study will interest readers of European and American history alike.

Introduction
Part I. From the Old World to the New: 1. The alpine world of Thomas Geschwandel
2. Expulsion
3. From Salzburg to Savannah
Part II. Ebenezer: 4. The making of a Pietist Utopia
5. Governing Ebenezer: the early years
6. Ebenezer and the struggle over slavery
7. After slavery
Epilogue: Ebenezer is no more.

Subject Areas: Colonialism & imperialism [HBTQ], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], History of the Americas [HBJK], European history [HBJD]