Rebecca Protten

Rebecca Protten was a Moravian missionary in St. Thomas sharing the gospel of Jesus among the slaves there. Since she had been a  slave herself, she could understand and relate with them. She taught them about the freedom they had in Jesus despite their place on earth. She also helped teach them to read so they could understand the Bible for themselves and learn the truth of who they were in Jesus, no matter what anyone else said. 

After her time in prison, God opened up the doors for her to continue missionary work, and she became the first African American who journeyed the Atlantic slave trade route but in the opposite direction—from the Caribbean all the way to West Africa—spreading the gospel of Jesus all the way. 

She eventually became a deaconess in the church, which allowed her to teach women and actually lead some ceremonies, something that was very rare for women during this era. 

I Tasted True Sweetness 

In 1738, while twenty-year-old Rebecca Protten was a missionary in St. Thomas, the other missionaries around her thought it better for her to be married. At the time, arranged marriages were  common. One of her leaders, a Moravian minister, suggested she marry Matthaus Freundich. She prayed about it and agreed, feeling God’s hand was in it.  

Matthaus was a fellow missionary in her group, but there was one issue—Matthaus was white, and Rebecca was black. Interracial marriages were almost unheard of. 

She married him anyway, and the Moravian minister who’d arranged it performed the ceremony. Rebecca and Matthaus had one child together and continued their missionary work in St. Thomas together.  

But the plantation owners grew resentful of the message the missionaries were sharing and also that their slaves were learning to read. In St. Thomas, the Dutch Reformed Church was the prominent religion—not Moravian. The owners asserted that any service performed by a Moravian minister, including baptisms, communions, and marriages, was not legal.  

The owners declared that Rebecca and Matthaus were living in sin. They had been married by a Moravian minister, so their marriage wasn’t real. It was invalid.  

They accused the couple of living in fornication. They were so adamant about stopping the couple’s missionary work amongst their slaves that they brought the authorities into the situation. 

And then the authorities threatened the couple. They demanded that Rebecca and Matthaus remarry in the Reformed Church to validate their marriage. They were  also ordered to admit that the message they were sharing with the slaves was blasphemous, even unsafe to be spreading around. If the young couple didn’t submit to these demands, the owners would put a halt to the couple’s missionary work.  

Maybe even throw them in prison. 

Rebecca kept her focus on Jesus. She refused their demands, knowing that if she submitted, it would be publicly doubting their Moravian minister who’d married them and, therefore, doubting their beliefs. In her eyes, it would be like diminishing the truth of God Almighty. 

Both she and her husband were arrested and thrown into prison.  

During her first couple months there, she was placed before the judge and questioned a few times. She was offered the same choice as before—be released from prison if she remarried within the Dutch Reformed Church or remain in prison. 

Rebecca would not agree to be remarried. She focused on Jesus, constantly remembering and meditating on the Scriptures she knew so well. 

For almost four months she was in prison, never giving in to the demands of the judge or the authorities if it meant devaluing her beliefs and faith in Jesus. She knew she was married in God’s eyes, and she clung to that deep in her heart. 

Finally, the judge came down with his final ruling. He claimed the couple’s teaching was “contrary to the commands of God and the King” and that their marriage was not legal. Unless Rebecca and Matthaus were remarried in the Reformed Church, they would receive life sentences and be banished, “as their unchristian and scandalous living on this small island causes great disturbances.” 

She was sent back to prison for one week to contemplate the final choice that lay before her. She could succumb to the judge’s demands and compromise all she believed  and weaken the message of truth she’d so earnestly shared with the slaves she loved. Or she could stand strong in Jesus, come what way. 

Refusing to be remarried, Rebecca stayed true to her commitment to Jesus. 

Both Rebecca and her husband received life sentences. Her husband was ejected from St. Thomas, never to return, and not allowed to enter any other Danish Island. He was fined $100, and if he was unable to pay, he would spend the rest of his life behind bars. Rebecca was excommunicated from the Reformed Brethren and fined for all the money she had. But she had no money, so she would be forced back into slavery. 

In the end, Rebecca stayed true to her faith in Jesus and clung to Him as she let go of her husband, as the consequences meant they would be apart forever. 

Rebecca wrote, “So I will no longer love myself, but give myself willingly to Him, with body and soul, to do His will. I have prayed to Him that if there was one drop of blood in me that did not want to be obedient to Him, for Him to reveal it to me and take it away. . . . We were in prison for fifteen weeks and seven times before the court. But I tasted true sweetness there, and while I was brought before the court so many times, it was very sublime that the sweet Savior wanted to use me for that purpose.”  

“Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12 NIV).