Faith
Anglican Church’s Past and Slavery Explored Onstage
Faith Facts
- A new monologue play highlights the role of the Anglican Church in chattel slavery through a powerful dramatic performance.
- The piece is inspired by a rare 1723 letter from an anonymous Virginian slave pleading for freedom to church leadership.
- The play is written and performed by London-based Caribbean writer Desirée Baptiste, and features performances across the Caribbean and UK.
This play brings long-overlooked Christian history to the forefront, shining a light on faith, freedom, and resilience under grave injustice. Desirée Baptiste’s heartfelt interpretation in Anglican spaces invites honest dialogue about the Church’s historic role, while calling audiences to seek truth and reconciliation grounded in biblical principles.
“In the fiction that I created, inspired by the 1723 letter, the character’s journey takes her from Virginia where the letter was written to Barbados, where she bears witness to the brutality of Caribbean slavery on plantations owned by the very Anglican Church she had been baptised by in Virginia and to whose Head she had appealed in writing, for freedom. She realises, while in the Caribbean, the Church’s deep complicity in chattel slavery.”
This account reminds believers of the scriptural call for justice, mercy, and dignity for all, encouraging reflection under the light of faith for future generations.
To learn more about this transformative play and the story behind it, visit the full article.