To Walk with Slaves: Jesuit Contexts and the Atlantic World in the Cartagena Mission to Enslaved Africans, 1605–1654

The Jesuit mission to enslaved Africans founded in 1605 Cartagena de las Indias is amongst the most extraordinary religious developments of early colonial Latin America. By time Alonso Sandoval, S.J. and Pedro Claver, began their work baptize catechize thousands slaves who passed through Cartagena’s port each year, Society Jesus had already established a global missionary enterprise, including an extensive network communication its missionaries colleges. Amidst this intramissionary context, Sandoval wrote De instauranda Aethiopum salute—a treatise informed largely by these annual letters, personal correspondences, interactions with diverse multitudes people could be encountered cosmopolitan city—aimed at promoting necessity African salvation. From East Asia America, Jesuits followed example apostolic missionary, Francis Xavier, bring Catholic faith non-Christian peoples. Through Church’s collected testimony for sainthood we see how like other time, arose as innovative unique missionaries, adapting context while attempting model spirit. In doing so, article posits, historical-religious modern Atlantic world missions influenced Claver accompany theology.