Spiritual Baptist

The Spiritual Baptist faith is a syncretic Afro-Caribbean religion that originated among Afro-Caribbean communities in the plantations of the former British West Indies, particularly in Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tobago, and the Virgin Islands. It blends Christianity with traditional African beliefs and practices. Despite its unique rituals and traditions, followers of the Spiritual Baptist faith identify fully as Christians. The Baptist faith has a different beginning in the nation of Trinidad, as unlike the spiritual baptist tradition in the other countries where the religion developed in the plantations where the enslaved were sent, the religion in Trinidad was brought into the country by the Merikins, former American slaves who were recruited by the British to fight, as the Corps of Colonial Marines, against the Americans during the War of 1812.