Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T16:13:51.639Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Education in John Eliot's Indian Utopias, 1646–1675

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Norman Earl Tanis*
Affiliation:
San Fernando Valley State College of Northridge, California

Extract

The early educational efforts of Massachusetts in establishing the publicly supported school are a well-known chapter in the history of American education. Not so well known are the missionary attempts carried on by the Puritan clergy to educate the Indians inhabiting the Massachusetts Bay Colony. One such effort was begun by John Eliot in 1646. Eliot had no narrow vision of quickly converting his copper-colored brethren, when in October 1646, he applied at the entrance to the wigwam of the Indian Waauban. Yet, even he did not envision the huge program which resulted in founding 14 Indian villages, complete with their own unique form of government and educational system. In effect, these villages became centers of adult education, making the Indians as much like their Puritan neighbors as was possible.

Type
Education in Colonial New England II
Copyright
Copyright © 1970 History of Education Quarterly 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. Winthrop, John, Winthrop's Journal, “History of New England,” 1630–1649 ed. Hosmer, James K. (New York: Scribner's, 1908), II, 125.Google Scholar

2. The Day-Breaking, If Not the Sun-Rising of the Gospel with the Indian in New England, Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 3rd Ser., IV, 3.Google Scholar

3. Ibid., p. 4.Google Scholar

4. Ibid., pp. 20–21.Google Scholar

5. Winslow, Edward, The Glorious Progress of the Gospel Amongst the Indians in New England (London: Hannal Allen, 1649), pp. 78.Google Scholar

6. Shepard, Thomas, The Clear Sun-Shine of the Gospel Breaking Forth Upon the Indians in New England Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 3rd Ser., IV, 61.Google Scholar

7. Ibid., p. 45.Google Scholar

8. Whitefield, Henry, The Light Appearing More and More Towards the Perfect Day Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 3rd Ser., IV, 121–22.Google Scholar

9. Gookin, Daniel, Historical Collections of the Indians in New England Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 1st Ser., I, 181–83.Google Scholar

10. Ibid. Google Scholar

11. Strength Out of Weakness or a Glorious Manifestation of the Further Progress of the Gospel Among the Indians in New England, Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 3rd Ser., IV, 171–72.Google Scholar

12. Eliot, John, The Christian Commonwealth (London: Livewell, Chapman, 1659), pp. xiii-xix.Google Scholar

13. Ibid., p. 4.Google Scholar

14. Records of the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England, ed. Nathaniel, B. Shurtleff (Boston: William White, 1854), IV, 5–6.Google Scholar

15. Gookin, , Historical Collections pp. 177–78.Google Scholar

16. Ibid., pp. 180–97.Google Scholar

17. Ibid., p. 183.Google Scholar

18. Ibid., p. 184.Google Scholar

19. Ibid. Google Scholar

20. Winslow, , Glorious Progress p. 17.Google Scholar

21. New England's First Fruits (London: Henry Overton, 1653), pp. 34.Google Scholar

22. Records of Mass. Bay, IV, 198–99.Google Scholar

23. Powicke, Frederick J., Some Unpublished Correspondence of the Reverend Richard Baxter and the Reverend John Eliot, the Apostle of the American Indians, 1656–1682 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1931), p. 62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

24. Eliot, John, A Brief Narrative of the Progress of the Gospel Amongst the Indians in New England in the Year 1670 (London: John Allen, 1671), p. 5.Google Scholar

25. Records of Mass. Bay, III, 106.Google Scholar

26. Gookin, , p. 172.Google Scholar

27. An Act for the Promoting and Propagating of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England (London: Edward Husband, 1649), pp. 407–12.Google Scholar

28. The New England Company of 1649 and John Eliot, Prince Society Publications No. 39 (Boston: Prince Society, 1920), pp. xxiiixxiv.Google Scholar

29. Ibid. Google Scholar

30. Gookin, Daniel, A Historical Account of the Doings and Sufferings of the Christian Indians American Antiquarian Society Transactions, II, 423534.Google Scholar

31. Bronkema, Ralph, The Essence of Puritanism (Holland: Oosterbaan, 1929), pp. 119–22.Google Scholar

32. Hooker, Thomas, The Poor Doubting Christian Driven to Christ (Hartford: Robins and Smith, 1845), p. 209. See also Baxter, Richard, What We Must Do To Be Saved (Edinburgh: Crawford, 1868), pp. 12–13; and Miller, Perry, The New England Mind from Colony to Province (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953), pp. 64–65.Google Scholar