Spirit for Sale?: The Mendi Exhibitions (1841)

This paper is an excerpt of a dissertation chapter. I discuss why several Mendi Africans were paid to perform Christianity for multiracial audiences of eager Northerners in 1841. The Mendi had arrived in the United States in 1839 having been kidnapped and trafficked aboard the Spanish ship La Amistad. A two-year legal trial ensued, captivating the religious and racial interests of Northern spectators. During the trial, the Mendi’s abolitionist benefactors—known as the Amistad Committee—crowdfunded financial support for their catechism alongside support for their legal defense. After winning their freedom, the Amistad Committee devised a plan to capitalize the support of Northern Christians by touring  New England  to raise money for the Africans’ repatriation. The Committee told the press (and the Mendi) that the establishment of an American mission in Sierra Leone became a condition of their return. The Mendi’s Christianization  during their American residency transformed American evangelical interest in Africa.