Rebecca Protten

Rebecca Freundlich Protten, also Shelly (1718–1780) was a Caribbean Moravian evangelist and pioneer missionary who proselytized the Gospel to enslaved Virgin Islanders of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. A "mulatress" and a former enslaved Antiguan, Antigua and Barbuda, she pioneered Christian missions in the Atlantic World in the 1700s. Scholars have described her as the "Mother of Modern Missions" as her life's work bridged Christianity in the West Indies, in Europe and in West Africa, all geographic regions she lived in.

Biographical sketch Historical synopsis Rebecca Protten was born enslaved in 1718 and gained her freedom as an adolescent. As a free woman of mixed European and African descent who lived on the island of St. Thomas during the 1730s, she joined the movement to convert enslaved Africans to Christianity. She became one of the first ordained Afro-Caribbean women in Western Christianity.

Sources are unclear as to the location or circumstances of Rebecca's birth, but some note that she was originally kidnapped from Antigua. She was then sold to a planter on St. Thomas named Lucas van Beverhout, who put her to work in his house as a servant and taught her the Christianity of the Reformed Church. Shortly after the death of Lucas van Beverhout when she was twelve, the Beverhout family freed Rebecca.

Religion played a central role in Rebecca's life after her enslavement. Even though she was free, opportunities were still minimal for her on St. Thomas. Then Christianity missionaries from the Unity of the Brethren, often called the Moravian Brethren, arrived on St. Thomas in 1732 as part of the Church's mission to convert the nations of the world to Christianity. The beginning of their ministry opened up new possibilities for Rebecca. She became a leader in converting enslaved Africans, whose religious practices were constantly challenged by planters fearful of a united revolt.

In 1742, Rebecca left St. Thomas with several Moravian missionaries, traveling to their home in Herrnhut, Saxony. There, she met and married Christian Protten in 1746. Protten was similarly noted for his mixed African and European descent. Protten, pursuing his life dream, journeyed to Christiansborg, a Danish fort on the Gold Coast, in an attempt to start a school but failed, returning six years later in 1762 to Herrnhut—the town founded by the first Moravian exiles and the headquarters of the movement, in which many of the Brethren lived. The Moravian Brethren's belief that men and women were spiritually equal in the eyes of God paved the path for Protten to become a preacher. She was named a deaconess a few weeks after her wedding.

Early life Rebecca Freundlich Protten was born a slave in 1718 in Antigua on the Caribbean island of Antigua and Barbuda. Shelly was converted to Christianity by her new Dutch Reformed master, baptised by a Roman Catholic priest and given the Christian name, Rebecca.

She became a spiritual mentor to slaves who often came to her for guidance. With nowhere else to go and little point of reference in a faraway land, Rebecca Freundlich was taken by friends to the commune owned by the leader of the Moravian church, Nikolaus Ludwig, Reichsgraf von Zinzendorf und Pottendorf (1700–60), in Germany. While living in Germany, she became a valued member of the Moravian community. She assumed a leadership position in the women's Christian ministry. This development stemmed from constant bickering between Christian Protten and the Bishop of the Moravian Church, Count Zinzendorf. Zinzendorf had accused Christian Protten of being haughty and an alcoholic. The first recorded grammatical treatise in the Ga and Fante languages were written by Protten and published under the title, "En nyttig Grammaticalsk Indledelse til Tvende hidintil gandske ubekiendte Sprog, Fanteisk og Acraisk," in Copenhagen in 1764. In 1750, Christian and Rebecca Protten had a daughter, Anna Maria Protten, who died in infancy in Herrnhut, Dresden in Sachsen, Germany. Historian Jon F. Sensbach wrote a biography on Rebecca Protten, Rebecca's Revival. Sensbach focused on how Protten became the leader of the African Christianity movement. Rebecca Freundlich Protten also received mention in Time Longa' Dan Twine, written in 2009 by Arnold R. Highfield.

Literature Sensbach, Jon F. (2005) Rebecca's Revival: Creating Black Christianity in the Atlantic World. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press