The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
Reflecting a reembracing of spirituality, perhaps in reaction to the rationalism of Enlightenment thought, the Second Great Awakening describes a period in American history from the late 1700s to just before the Civil War when zeal for Protestant religious participation, church membership, and Bible study increased rapidly (Schwarz, 2005, p. 91). Along with this revival of personal piety grew a strong “evangelistic” desire to go throughout “the world and convert nonbelievers to Protestant Christianity” (Everett, 2018). While its genesis was discussions in 1806 among theology students at Williams College in Massachusetts who had a strong desire to go as missionaries, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was formally established in 1810 by participants from the Presbyterian, Congregationalist, and German and Dutch Reformed traditions (Kling, 2003, pp. 792-793). By 1850, the ABCFM was the largest missionary organization in the United States, managing an annual budget of around $300,000 and sponsoring forty percent of all missionary personal in the country (Kling, 2003, p. 808). In addition to sending missionaries to foreign lands, India, Sri Lanka, West Africa, Turkey, China, Japan, Hawai’i (at the time an independent kingdom), and the “Roman-Catholic-dominated areas of Mexico, Spain, and Austria,” the ABCFM devoted particular attention to Native Americans ( Council of American Overseas Research Centers, 1999). Native Americans especially, reports Everett (2018), were “among the targets of ABCFM activity.” Indians’ souls, the ABCFM felt, could be saved by religious conversion and their prosperous futures secured through education. …show more content…
The organization believed that Biblical education, regular church attendance, training in American farming techniques, and domestic work (for women) would teach the Native Americans to become adjusted to Western civilization. Each mission, therefore, was to establish a school for Indian children, clinic, and a church. The third class of missionaries sponsored by ABCFM in 1817 included Cyrus Kingsbury, the first sent to the Native Americans. Kingsbury established a mission at Brainerd Station among the Cherokee (close to present-day Chattanooga, Tennessee). A few years later, he moved to establish the ABCFM’s second Native American mission at Eliot Station among the Choctaw (Everett, 2018). As the removal of Native Americans west of the Mississippi increased, ABCFM found continued success in establishing mission centers. …show more content…
These centers included Union Mission, founded in 1820 by Epaphras Chapman among the Osage; Dwight Mission, founded among the Cherokee in Arkansas also in 1820 by Cephas Washburn and Alfred Finney. In 1829, Dwight mission sent some of its personnel and converts to the Indian Territories (to an areas that is now part of Oklahoma) under the leadership of Dr. Marcus Palmer. Fairfield Mission, also originally built to convert Cherokee in Arkansas, followed later in 1830 in sending groups into the Indian Territories. The mission at Park Hill, also in present day Oklahoma, was later established by Samuel Worcester in 1836 (Everett, 2018). The ABCFM also worked among the Choctaw Nation. Wheelock Mission was established in 1832 by Alfred Wright what is now Millerton, Oklahoma, Stockbridge Mission was founded by Cyrus Byington near what is now Eagletown, Oklahoma; and the mission set up by Cyrus Kingsbury in 1837 grew to become the current town of Pine Ridge, Oklahoma (Everett, 2018). In total, around three hundred missionaries under the ABCFM umbrella would serve in the Indian Territories, growing missions and establishing schools like Spencer Female Academy, Wheelock
Reflecting a reembracing of spirituality, perhaps in reaction to the rationalism of Enlightenment thought, the Second Great Awakening describes a period in American history from the late 1700s to just before the Civil War when zeal for Protestant religious participation, church membership, and Bible study increased rapidly (Schwarz, 2005, p. 91). Along with this revival of personal piety grew a strong “evangelistic” desire to go throughout “the world and convert nonbelievers to Protestant Christianity” (Everett, 2018). While its genesis was discussions in 1806 among theology students at Williams College in Massachusetts who had a strong desire to go as missionaries, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was formally established in 1810 by participants from the Presbyterian, Congregationalist, and German and Dutch Reformed traditions (Kling, 2003, pp. 792-793). By 1850, the ABCFM was the largest missionary organization in the United States, managing an annual budget of around $300,000 and sponsoring forty percent of all missionary personal in the country (Kling, 2003, p. 808). In addition to sending missionaries to foreign lands, India, Sri Lanka, West Africa, Turkey, China, Japan, Hawai’i (at the time an independent kingdom), and the “Roman-Catholic-dominated areas of Mexico, Spain, and Austria,” the ABCFM devoted particular attention to Native Americans ( Council of American Overseas Research Centers, 1999). Native Americans especially, reports Everett (2018), were “among the targets of ABCFM activity.” Indians’ souls, the ABCFM felt, could be saved by religious conversion and their prosperous futures secured through education. …show more content…
The organization believed that Biblical education, regular church attendance, training in American farming techniques, and domestic work (for women) would teach the Native Americans to become adjusted to Western civilization. Each mission, therefore, was to establish a school for Indian children, clinic, and a church. The third class of missionaries sponsored by ABCFM in 1817 included Cyrus Kingsbury, the first sent to the Native Americans. Kingsbury established a mission at Brainerd Station among the Cherokee (close to present-day Chattanooga, Tennessee). A few years later, he moved to establish the ABCFM’s second Native American mission at Eliot Station among the Choctaw (Everett, 2018). As the removal of Native Americans west of the Mississippi increased, ABCFM found continued success in establishing mission centers. …show more content…
These centers included Union Mission, founded in 1820 by Epaphras Chapman among the Osage; Dwight Mission, founded among the Cherokee in Arkansas also in 1820 by Cephas Washburn and Alfred Finney. In 1829, Dwight mission sent some of its personnel and converts to the Indian Territories (to an areas that is now part of Oklahoma) under the leadership of Dr. Marcus Palmer. Fairfield Mission, also originally built to convert Cherokee in Arkansas, followed later in 1830 in sending groups into the Indian Territories. The mission at Park Hill, also in present day Oklahoma, was later established by Samuel Worcester in 1836 (Everett, 2018). The ABCFM also worked among the Choctaw Nation. Wheelock Mission was established in 1832 by Alfred Wright what is now Millerton, Oklahoma, Stockbridge Mission was founded by Cyrus Byington near what is now Eagletown, Oklahoma; and the mission set up by Cyrus Kingsbury in 1837 grew to become the current town of Pine Ridge, Oklahoma (Everett, 2018). In total, around three hundred missionaries under the ABCFM umbrella would serve in the Indian Territories, growing missions and establishing schools like Spencer Female Academy, Wheelock