“No Continuing City”: Colonial Black Religion during Marrant's Early Life

This chapter explores John Marrant’s early childhood and reconstructs the religious worlds he encountered in New York City; St. Augustine, Florida; and Savannah, Georgia. In each urban center, Black communities nurtured rich Africana religious cultures. In New York, Afro-Iberian fraternal societies developed to foster unity and provide systematized aid to community members. Additionally, Pinkster celebrations combined African and Dutch Protestant cultural elements. In St. Augustine, African and European cultural sources helped create new societies with complex networks of relationships between Spanish settlers and African slaves. In Savannah, Yamarcraw, a multiracial neighborhood, was home to a substantial free Black community that created market settings similar to their counterparts in West African and Caribbean ports. In each locale, Black communities utilized public gathering to establish cultural traditions and ritual norms. Marrant’s formation in these urban centers of colonial America informed his adoption of Christianity and the development of his ministry.