Rebecca's Revival Summary

From a life of slavery to a life of mission, Rebecca’s Revival follows a Caribbean woman of the island of St. Thomas during the eighteenth century. From conversion to evangelism, slavery to freedom, and marriage to missionary, Rebecca’s extraordinary journey is described by Jon Sensbach with a thoughtful, encompassing and thorough approach. Sensbach also utilizes such historical sources as reports and letters, travel diaries and meeting minutes, to a varied collection of historical and primary sources. Structurally, Sensbach leaves the reader with little in the way of speculation as he organizes his bibliographical entry by both source and place. He also factually presents the surprising, and heretical, views of the Moravian religion and their
Furthermore, Sensbach, through his use of government and church records, gives sight to the underworking of the burgeoning anti-slavery movement that began slowly in the late 1700’s. His argument is further backed by Rebecca’s ordination. While living in Germany within the Moravian fold, Rebecca was ordained a deaconess giving her spiritual weight and influence over all the women there, including white women. Sensbach articulates the importance of this by addressing forthrightly that she, Rebecca, was most likely the first black woman ordained to office within Christianity, giving this moment considerable weight in the spread of black Christianity. The significance of her ever growing status is momentous, and a piece of history that is rarely mentioned or explored, as is the subject of black Christianity altogether. The marriage between Rebecca and her first husband, a white missionary, shows Rebecca as a boundary destroying woman much ahead of her