What's in a name?

The Slave Ship Jesus

         Christ, Yahweh, Lion of Judah, Lamb of God, Prince of Peace, what do these names mean? If you are a Christian they mean Jesus. Jesus the savior. Jesus the teacher. Jesus the healer. Jesus who died so that we may ascend into heaven. Undoubtedly a good thing. In the 17th century, the Puritans believed in iconoclasm, no visible images of Jesus anywhere in the fledgling colonies (unless you were one if the few Catholics).
          However, If you are a West African Slave, captured against your will and sold to the highest bidder, Jesus has a whole different meaning. The Jesus was the first slave ship to arrive in the new colonies. Slaves were chained in its holds, with little ventilation, bad food (if any), rife with disease and misery. Blum states in The Color of Christ "They probably had no idea that the vessel outfitted with guns, chains, and dungeons was named for the prince of peace who had come to set the captives free." The quartermaster, William Sanders would preach, but for the slaves it may have been unintelligible, since they had little to no knowledge of the English language.
           This presents a dichotomy: for the white colonists, Jesus is a savior and a redeemer. For the African slaves, Jesus represents an oppressor-a place of untold misery and pain. The redeeming Jesus of the white settlers wouldn't begin to appear to the slaves until later in the century when itinerant preachers like George Whitefield would preach to them and preach anti-slavery to their masters.