Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Indians and Others in North America Records 1752-1948 Guide to the Collection

Table of Contents Collection Summary Historical Sketch Collection Description Acquisition Information Organization Detailed Description of the Collection Preferred Citation Access Terms

Collection Summary

Historical Sketch

The Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Indians and Others in North America was the first Protestant missionary organization of its type in North America. It existed in concept prior to its 1787 charter as a group of Boston individuals sponsoring missionary work in New England.

The Society was officially founded in 1787 by a group of Massachusetts citizens concerned with converting the Indians from their native polytheistic religions to Christianity. Inspired by The Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge, a group of twenty-one prominent Massachusetts citizens petitioned the Massachusetts General Court for a charter. These men shared certain characteristics, among them were political views and educational backgrounds (several were Harvard graduates).

The Society's object was "the dissemination of Christian knowledge, and the means of religious instruction among all those, in their country, who were destitute of them." It was quite a struggle for the missionaries to convert the Indians. Christianity was alien to the Native Americans. The early missionaries, such as John Eliot, Gideon Hawley, the Mayhews, and John Cotton, mastered the Indian language, formed alphabets and grammar books and learned to preach in the native tongue. Conducting sermons and visiting Indian homes were the early ways of propagating the gospel.

Around the first decade of the nineteenth century education in missionary schools became the focus. The outcome of the Civil War and the freeing of the slaves added to the shift toward industrial education, as white society tried to "civilize and Christianize" the blacks as well as the Indians. During the mid-nineteenth century industrial schools for blacks sprung up in the southeast, such as Claflin University, Tuskegee Normal School, and Hampton Institute in Virginia. Inspired by reform groups such as the Temperance Society, white America began to shift the focus of education for Indians and Blacks away from reading and writing and more toward assimilating these two groups with white habits and trades to make them useful in society.

Collection Description

The records of the Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Indians and Others in North America, housed in twenty-three boxes, contain missionary diaries, missionary and Society correspondence, the Society's commission, annual Select Committee reports documenting missionary work, annual accounts of stock and income, auditor's reports, business correspondence, receipts and vouchers, as well as some 1910 photographs of missions.

The contents may be broken down into two large series: a general category and a business category. The General section, the bulk of the collection, is made up of a general correspondence section of missionary and Society member correspondence between 1756 and 1922, primarily written to the Society's secretary and treasurer. Included are letters from New England missionaries such as Elijah Kellogg and Abraham Plumer. There are letters from the presidents of Industrial schools for Indians and blacks beginning around 1850 and 1870, respectively. Of particular note are the letters from Booker T. Washington, president of Tuskegee Normal School. The general section also includes some New England missionary diaries documenting their daily work.

Due to the policy of assimilation of Indians and Blacks through industrial education, which developed toward the second half of the nineteenth century, there is a noticeable change in the style and content of the general correspondence by this period. The letters shift from daily missionary documentaries of their field work, sometimes in diary form to letters to the heads of the industrial schools describing the set-up at their schools.

The diaries of six missionaries all date between 1791-1828, with the exception of George Kenngott's. The diaries reveal missionary thought with an emphasis on family or health problems. They usually have daily entries covering a several month period. The Indian point of view is very under represented in the diaries as well as in the general correspondence. A better account of Indian life may be found in George Kenngott's 1910 report of his travels among the western tribes. Photos are included.

Finally, the General section also includes the historical papers which pertain to the founding of the Society, as well as any material which predates its founding in March, 1787. The collection of letters between Gideon Hawley and Edward Wigglesworth is an example of the work conducted under the Society leadership prior to 1787 which inspired its founding. The Business Section consists of annual Select Committee reports, 1828-1913; annual treasury reports, 1807-1909; auditor's reports, 1921-1947; four bank books, 1841-1850; Select Committee meeting minutes; receipts; vouchers; and some correspondence of a business nature.

It is not unusual to find an overlapping of some materials in the General and Business sections, for example both contain correspondence, albeit of a different content. All of the materials after 1922 are filed in the Business section because the bulk of it is business correspondence concerning the treasurer or the secretary.

There is material missing during certain years throughout the collection. There is a particularly large gap in the General Correspondence between 1863 and 1874. Published annual committee reports, which may be found at MHS, attest to the continued existence of the Society since 1787.

Acquisition Information

Deposited by the Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Indians and Others in North America in 1957.

Organization of the Collection

The collection is organized into the following series:

Detailed Description of the Collection

Preferred Citation

The Society for Propogating the Gospel Among the Indians and Others in North America records, Massachusetts Historical Society.

Access Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons, organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.