The West Indies in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1704-1950 - Key Data

The West Indies in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1704–1950 was curated in association with the Bodleian Library. 

This collection contains records compiled by the United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG), a UK-based Anglican missionary organisation that operates globally. From the eighteenth to the early twentieth century, the USPG went by the name of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG). 

This collection contains letters, reports, and supplementary material relating to missionaries in the West Indies during the period 1704–1950. These archival sources track a shift in the SPG’s purpose. Originally, the society owned enslaved people. Yet it subsequently focused on spreading the gospel to the recently emancipated. The collection highlights the injustices generated by this form of evangelism. For example, the society received a charitable gift in the form of Codrington College to educate black children. Yet this funding was instead used as a source of private income and to establish a school that only admitted white children. It took more than a century before black children were educated at the institution.

The West Indies in Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1704–1950 contains a wealth of information, including updates on the progress of the mission, reflections on the declining support for Christian missionaries in the West Indies, correspondence regarding Codrington College, and reports on how monetary grants were spent. The papers provide students and researchers with unique insights into the evolution of the SPG and the wider development of Christianity throughout the West Indies.