Description
Book SynopsisBetween the English Civil War of 1642 and the American Revolution, countless British missionaries announced their intention to spread the gospel among the native North American population. Despite the scope of their endeavors, they converted only a handful of American Indians to Christianity. Their attempts to secure moral and financial support at home proved much more successful.
In The Poor Indians, Laura Stevens delves deeply into the language and ideology British missionaries used to gain support, and she examines their wider cultural significance. Invoking pity and compassion for the poor Indian—a purely fictional construct—British missionaries used the Black Legend of cruelties perpetrated by Spanish conquistadors to contrast their own projects with those of Catholic missionaries, whose methods were often brutal and deceitful. They also tapped into a remarkably effective means of swaying British Christians by connecting the latter''s feelings of religio
Trade Review
"Stevens has written a thoughtful study of British missionary culture. Most important, she reveals how philanthropy shaped the identity of a transatlantic British public and the ways that identity has resonated from the seventeenth century all the way up to our time." * New England Quarterly *
"Eloquent and important. . . . This is a work of careful textual analysis that harbors many riches for historians. Stevens's analysis of the discourse of Christian charity will travel well into other fields and periods of study, particularly those that address Christian missions to Africans and African-Americans." * Literature and History *
Table of Contents
Introduction: "The Common Bowels of Pity to the Miserable"
1. Gold for Glass, Seeds to Fruit: Husbandry and Trade in Missionary Writings
2. "I Have Received Your Christian and Very Loving Letter": Epistolarity and Transatlantic Community
3. "The Reservoir of National Charity": The Role of the Missionary Society
4. Indians, Deists, and the Anglican Quest for Compassion: The Sermons of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts
5. The Sacrifice of Self: Emotional Expenditure and Transatlantic Ties in Brainerd's and Sergeant's Biographies
6. "Like Snow Against the Sun": The Christian Origins of the Vanishing Indian
Conclusion
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
