"Lose your Father(land)" with Peter Arnade

Brown Bag #845 “Lose your Father(land): A former slave turned Calvinist missionary returns to Elmina, Ghana (1742–47)” Peter Arnade, Professor of History and Dean of the College of Arts, Languages & Letters, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, Conflict and Peace Specialist, Hui ʻĀina Pilipili: Native Hawaiian Initiative, the School of Communication & Information, the School of Cinematic Arts, and the Departments of American Studies, Anthropology, English, Ethnic Studies, History, and Political Science Recorded on October 3, 2024 Jacobus Capitein’s life (1717-47) might have been tragically short, but his legacy is long—and vexed. In the cohort of African and Afro-European literary, religious and academic figures of eighteenth-century Europe and North America, Capitein stands out, most notably as a former slave turned Calvinist missionary, and Europe’s first ordained Protestant African minister, one who notoriously penned a Latin treatise at Leiden University defending the compatibility of evangelical freedom with slavery. In this talk, Peter Arnade will compare Capitein against many of his near contemporaries to gauge how he compared and differed from them: Christian Protten, the Afro-European Moravian missionary, Anton Amo, the West African-German philosopher, Philip Quaque, the West African-Anglican missionary, and finally, Phillis Wheatley, the erstwhile African slave and American poet. Above all, Arnade will examine why Capitein’s short five years after his return to Elmina went awry, dislocating him from both his indigenous African formation and his station as a Dutch Calvinist minister from the United Provinces. Peter Arnade is Professor of History and Dean of the College of Arts, Languages and Letters. His specialty is early modern European history.