The Awakening Coast: An Anthology of Moravian Writings from Mosquitia and Eastern Nicaragua, 1849-1899

by Karl Offen, Terry Rugeley

Overview

The indigenous and Creole inhabitants (Mosquitians of African descent) of the Mosquito Reserve in present-day Nicaragua underwent a key transformation when two Moravian missionaries arrived in 1849. Within a few short generations, the new faith became so firmly established there that eastern Nicaragua to this day remains one of the world’s strongest Moravian enclaves.
 The Awakening Coast offers the first comprehensive English-language selection of the writings of the multinational missionaries who established the Moravian faith among the indigenous and Afro-descendant populations through the turbulent years of the Great Awakening of 1881 to 1882, when converts flocked to the church and the mission’s membership more than doubled. The anthology tracks the intersection of religious, political, and economic forces that led to this dynamic religious shift and illustrates how the mission’s first fifty years turned a relatively obscure branch of Protestantism into the most important political and spiritual institution in the region by contextualizing the Great Awakening, Protestant evangelism, and indigenous identity during this time of dramatic social change.
  

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780803254589
Publisher:	Nebraska
Publication date:	06/01/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	456
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Karl Offen is an associate professor of geography at the University of Oklahoma. He is the coeditor of Mapping Latin America: A Cartographic Reader. Terry Rugeley is a professor of history at the University of Oklahoma. He is the author of Rebellion Now and Forever: Mayas, Hispanics, and Caste War Violence in Yucatán, 1800–1880.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vii

Acknowledgments ix

Translator's Note xi

Introduction 1

1 Extract of a Letter from H. G. Pfeiffer, 1849 41

2 Extract from the Diary of Bluefields, 1854 46

3 Establishing a Mission at Rama Key 50

4 Report on a Journey North in 1859 85

5 The Hurricane of October 1865 102

6 A Visit to the Tungla Indians of Walpasiksa River, 1869 110

7 Trade among the Miskito Indians, 1870s 116

8 Mythology of the Miskito Indians 121

9 Sorcery at Kukalaya, 1877 129

10 Trading with the Sumu Indians, 1878 132

11 Life in Tasbapauni (Bethany), 1870s 136

12 An Early Awakening at Karata, 1879 144

13 Bluefields Coup and Kukalaya Awakening, 1881-1882 149

14 The Awakening at Karata, 1883 155

15 Visit to Nicaragnan Territory, 1883 160

16 Kaisa! Travel to Nicaragua, 1883 172

17 Proposing Timber over Gold, 1889 227

18 Pictures Tell the Story, 1891 229

19 Christian Law, 1891 233

20 Visions of the Prophet Wima, 1891 239

21 The Sambo and Tawira Miskito, 1892 248

22 Political Disturbances at Sandy Bay, 1892 257

23 The Indians of Dakura and the Wangki River, 1893-1894 263

24 Nicaraguan Occupation of the Mosquito Reserve, 1894 278

25 Commencing Work along the Wangki River, 1896 294

26 A New Mission at Sandy Bay, 1897 298

27 Sandy Bay and Wasla, 1898 303

28 The Gospel in Miskito Territory, 1881 - 1882 312

29 Changes in Dakura, 1890s 322

30 The Sumu Indians of Prinzapollca River, 1899 334

31 Quamwatla 346

Notes 377

Selected Bibliography 419

Index 423

Editorial Reviews

“The Awakening Coast is of utmost importance because it shows us—firsthand through the lens of the missionaries—how indigenous peoples as late as the nineteenth century could or could not respond ideologically, economically, politically, and socially to the imposed new trends from the ‘outside,’ including their incorporation in 1894 to Nicaragua. How much deeper can one go into finding appropriate sources?”—Christine Hünefeldt, author of Paying the Price of Freedom: Family and Labor among Lima’s Slaves, 1800–1854

Christine Hünefeldt

"The Awakening Coast is essential reading for experts on Mosquitia and a welcomed addition to Latin American cultural-historical geography."—Andrew Hilburn, Journal of Latin American Geography

Journal of Latin American Geography - Andrew Hilburn