Two Troubled Souls: An Eighteenth-Century Couple's Spiritual Journey in the Atlantic World

9. Salvation and Success on St. Thomas

147 chapter nine Salvation and Success on St. Thomas But how it was in my Heart, that thou canot well Imagine, after that I had sat 2 whole years in our Barren Surinam, My Lamb knew well that I had need of such a Hearts Quickening, therefore was he graciously pleased to give it me. —Jean-François Reynier to Bishop David Nitschmann, St. Thomas, 22 April 1743 Defeated and depressed by the debacle in Suriname, the Reyniers appeared by accident at the Moravian slave mission on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas in 1743. Here was another hot, humid plantation slave colony with horrible mortality rates because of the disease environment and poor treatment of slaves. The vast majority of slaves were survivors of the Middle Passage, which meant that, like in Suriname, their mistrust of white people (blanken) was high and their African religion, language, and other aspects of their culture that missionaries normally struggled to eliminate were prevalent. Moreover, the planters profited from the system and were committed to protecting their interests, as they were in European plantation colonies everywhere. The difference on St. Thomas was that the Moravian slave mission was actually working. Hundreds of African slaves had joined the Moravians by the time the Reyniers arrived. Ultimately, thousands would join. This success, and the chance the Reyniers had to contribute significantly to it, greatly lifted their spirits. Rewarding hard work, spiritual fulfillment, and marital harmony marked the Reyniers’ time on St. Thomas. This was a new experience for the couple. On 16 December 1742, Johann Wilhelm Zander and Heinrich Georg Meisser accompanied the Reyniers to the wharf in Paramaribo, Suriname, and bid them farewell. Their ship, either the Ligunie captained by Jacob Phoenix or the Mary captained by John Riven, was returning to its home port in New 148 Part Three York City, nearly 3,000 miles away. Jean-François wrote a few months later that many of the Dutch people in Paramaribo had mocked them for leaving in the winter, but the winds were favorable, and after just twelve days they reached the Danish West Indies, at the northwestern end of the Lesser Antilles—about one-third of the distance to their destination. But here trouble began again for the Reyniers.1 Although the ship had experienced no problems since sailing from Paramaribo , the captain announced that they were putting in for repairs at St. John, one of the three island colonies of the Danish West Indies. Jean-François found this news to be most distressing. The Reyniers were anxious to reach New York City and then hurry overland to join the Moravians in Pennsylvania before Count Zinzendorf returned to Europe. Jean-François protested the stopover vigorously, but the captain would not hear it. Moreover, the captain demanded that all of the passengers and crew prepare to swear before the governor that the ship was on its way to Madeira and had made an unexpected landing in order to complete repairs. The ship dropped anchor before a remote beach, probably somewhere in Coral Bay, on the eastern end of the island. The other passengers agreed to repeat the captain’s story, but Jean-François refused and New Granada Venezuela S O U T H A M E R I C A Cuba Florida Bahamas Berbice SurinameFrench Guyana Grenada Puerto Rico Santo Domingo St. Domingue Barbados Martinique Guadeloupe Leeward Islands Saba Danish West Indies St. Vincent Curaçao Jamaica Paramaribo to New York A T L A N T I C O C E A N C a r i b b e a n S e a Tropic of Cancer Danish West Indies Pearl Posaunenberg Cabrita Pt. Red Hook Kabritteborg to St. John Mosquito Bay O s t P a s s a t Krum Bay Charlotte Amalie to St. Croix St. Thomas The Pa t h 0 200 400 miles 0 2 4 miles route of Jean François and Maria Barbara Reynier, 1743 Map 7. The Reyniers’ journey through the Caribbean in 1743 Salvation and Success on St. Thomas 149 continued his quarrel with the captain, who soon began looking for a way to get rid of this troublesome man and his wife. In exchange for leaving the ship, the captain offered to refund the Reyniers half of their fare to New York City. Jean-François agreed, provided that the captain brought them to a...