The Topic
In the essay Danger in the Convent, O’Toole aims to analyze how the rumors and accusations circulated around the convent of Saint-Claras reflected the racial hierarchy of the local colonial society. At the beginning of 1674, “troubling rumors began to circulate throughout the city of Trujillo on the northern Peruvian coast. The local nuns of Santa Clara were said to be bewitched by bad spirits or perhaps possessed by demons” (O’Toole, 2006, 1). These messages came from the Santa Clara Monastery itself, as the religious women and their servants swore that they were experiencing demonic visions. In response, the Franciscans staged exorcisms, and the city council sponsored religious processions to exorcise devilry from the provincial town’s only women’s religious institution.
Historiography
The essay is mentioned in the following works: Writing by Caste, Counting the Past: Alphabetic Literacy and Age Consciousness in the Colonial Pátzcuaro Region, 1680-1750 by S. Silva, Pablo Miguel Sierra Silva, P. Miguel; Bodies of Encounter: Health, Illness, and Death in the Early Modern African-Spanish Caribbean by G. Zuluaga, P. Fernando; Urban Slavery in Colonial Mexico: Puebla de Los Ángeles, 1531-1706 A. P. Althouse. The essay complements existing research with a study of the characteristics of colonial society using the example of a society of monks, arguing that this environment becomes a platform for developing and strengthening racial stereotypes. The essay contributes to a little-studied area: the relationship between religiosity, the concept of possession, and the connection with the devil in the context of colonial relations in the slave society.
Organization
The danger in the Convent is written in chronological order, starting from the first rumors of possession in a convent, ending with exorcism and condemning monks. The author’s conclusions and comments are included in the context of the narrative, which facilitates the perception of the text. The author uses a documentary narration style, supporting the arguments with historical excerpts. The organization of the essay makes the text easier to read and helps the author build an evidence base for her conclusions.
Method
One of the most important studies the essay refers to is The Devil in the New World: The Influence of Diabolism on New Spain by Fernando Cervantes. This study helped the author analyze in detail the perception of the devil in a religious environment, which was especially important for analyzing the situation with the monks. The discussion of the devil as a black figure in Rosalva Loreto López La Sensibilidad y el Cuerpo en el Imaginario de las Monjas Poblanas del Siglo XVII gave the author a theoretical basis for further advancement in the topic of racism in a religious environment. On the differences in women’s unorthodox and orthodox religious authority, Jaffary, False helped the author theoretically substantiate the monastic hierarchy. Using a theoretical approach, O’Toole analyzes existing research on a similar topic. The author needs to reveal the theme of the racist approach to the perception and depiction of the devil and the hierarchical structure of colonial society. The author confirms predecessor researchers’ findings and creates a full-fledged work reflecting the connection between religious attitudes and racism.
Argument
The essay’s thesis is as follows: the monks made accusations of sorcery, which marked the boundaries between rural and urban, enslaved and free. The author advances a new theme that the privileged women of Santa Clara created racial hierarchies based on their position as colonizers. The first argument supporting this theory is that the monasteries provided an alternative, independent place for many women and girls by copying and adding colonial hierarchies, discrimination, and stereotypes. “Professed women called on a commonly accepted discourse as ecclesiastical and secular officials accused African, Negra, and mulata women of unorthodox religious practices” (O’Toole, 2006, 20). The second argument in favor of the theory is that the young nuns deliberately blamed people belonging to a certain race for mystical attacks. “In doing so, the young nun called on a baroque sensibility that envisioned the demon as a “dark man” or a “dark-skinned man.” (O’Toole, 2006, 24). Calling a certain demon black, the women positioned themselves as innocent, surrounded by “dangerous” men of color. In doing so, they called for a distinct colonial imagination of Africans and men of African descent. In the conditions of slave-owning America, slave-owners associated the devil with insidious ugliness, often combined with a “mulatto-like figure.” slaveholders associated efficient production with labor control. The bizarre religiosity may be related to the slave owners’ fear of resistance from the enslaved. Thus, all three young monks who saw the Devil of African descent belonged to a class of slave owners who feared resistance from their exploited labor force.
Significance
The importance of the described study lies in the fact that the work makes a serious contribution to the study of the relationship between religious ideas and racist stereotypes. The study examines how privileged women used suspiciousness for their purposes. An unusual view of the problems of colonial society is important: the use of religious ideas as a means to perpetuate slavery and the continued development of stereotypes about blacks as violent and dangerous people. Thus, the rumors about the possession in the nunnery were beneficial to the elite sections of society to suppress the beginning slave uprisings. From that study, historians outside of Latin America can learn about the structure of colonial society, including its hierarchy and existing stereotypes.
Reference
O’Toole, R.S. (2006). Danger in the Convent: Colonial Demons, Idolatrous Indias, and Bewitching Negras in Santa Clara (Trujillo del Peru). Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 7(1).