| | 1. | Title: | David Brainerd Diary (1745) | | | | Dates: | 1745 - 1745 | | | | Extent: | 1 volume
| | | | Locations: | Philadelphia | | | | Abstract: | David Brainerd diary, July 14, 1745 - November 20, 1745 | | | |
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The Brainerd Diary offers a textured account of the missionary work of a Congregationalist in New England and the mid-Atlantic during the mid-eighteenth century (7/17-11/20/1745). While Jonathan Edwards published the journal after Brainerd's death of tuberculosis in 1747, the original volume at the APS differs from the published version in meaningful ways discussed in the Early American History note. Notably, Brainerd's journal offers a real-time account of his activities that researchers may read against the published version to consider how Edwards shaped the narrative. In addition to supporting the research of Brainerd and Edwards scholars, this diary offers a range of insights into colonial America, including the life and views of a missionaries in the eighteenth century and missionary exchanges with indigenous peoples. Reference the Early American History note for a detailed description of the volume. Interested researchers will also discover that the Beinecke has digitized another Brainerd diary: https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Author?author=Brainerd%2C+David%2C+1718-1747 | | | |
| David Brainerd diary, July 14, 1745 - November 20, 1745
The Brainerd Diary offers a textured account of the missionary work of a Congregationalist in New England and the mid-Atlantic during the mid-eighteenth century (7/17-11/20/1745). While Jonathan Edwards published the journal after Brainerd's death of tuberculosis in 1747, the original volume at the APS differs from the published version in meaningful ways discussed in the Early American History note. Notably, Brainerd's journal offers a real-time account of his activities that researchers may read against the published version to consider how Edwards shaped the narrative. In addition to supporting the research of Brainerd and Edwards scholars, this diary offers a range of insights into colonial America, including the life and views of a missionaries in the eighteenth century and missionary exchanges with indigenous peoples. Reference the Early American History note for a detailed description of the volume. Interested researchers will also discover that the Beinecke has digitized another Brainerd diary: https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Author?author=Brainerd%2C+David%2C+1718-1747 View Full Description in New Window | | | | |
Selected Quotations- Preaches to both settlers and indigenous peoples: "Preach'd to the Indians first, then the white people, and in the afternoon the Indians again, divine Truths seemd to make powerful impressions upon several of them" (7/21/1745)
- Uneven success in missionary work: "Visited an Indian town call'd Juneata on an island in Susqahannah: but was discoursed by the tempers & behavior of the Indians there. Altho' they appear'd friendy, when I was with them in the spring, and gave me encouragement, to come & see them again, yet now they seem'd resolved, to retain their pagan notions, and persist in their Idolatrous practices" (9/19/1745)
- Resolves to learn Delaware on account of linguistic barriers: "I'm at time discouraged from any attempts, seeing their languages are so numerous" (11/20/1745)
| | | | Subjects: | Colonial America | Diaries. | Indians of North America--Missions. | Indians of North America--New Jersey. | Indians of North America--Pennsylvania. | Missionaries. | Native America | Religion. | Travel. | | | | Collection: | David Brainerd diary, July 14, 1745 - November 20, 1745
(Mss.B.B74j)
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| 2. | Title: | Halliday Jackson Journal (1798-1799) | | | | Dates: | 1798 - 1799 | | | | Extent: | 1 volume
| | | | Locations: | Allegany | Bedford | Berlin | Buffalo | Fort Erie | Niagara Falls | Pittsburgh | Redstone Township | Shippensburg | Strasburg | Warren | York | | | | Abstract: | In a journal documenting his residence with the Seneca Nation in New York, Pennsylvania Quaker Halliday Jackson offers a detailed, daily account of his missionary life, travels, and Seneca customs at the turn of the nineteenth century (1798-99). Jackson offers numerous accounts of land, cultivation, and development, including early accounts of Pittsburg (p.8-9), a Seneca settlement (19), and Niagara Falls (163-64). Native American studies scholars may gravitate to the volume's descriptions of Seneca food preparation (17), marriage (148-9), alcohol consumption (14, 124-125), land deeds (53-54, 75), Quaker diplomacy (23-24, 32-33), and increasingly strained relations with backcountry settlers (126, 131-133, 146-47, 178-79), many of which are voiced by the Seneca themselves and transcribed by Jackson at council meetings. This volume also features entries that will interest scholars researching the early national period, including the Bank of the United States (75), the yellow fever epidemic (74, 114-15), and the death of George Washington (176). | | | |
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A similar printed version of the journal, edited by Anthony F.C. Wallace, was published in Pennsylvania History in 1952. | | | |
| In a journal documenting his residence with the Seneca Nation in New York, Pennsylvania Quaker Halliday Jackson offers a detailed, daily account of his missionary life, travels, and Seneca customs at the turn of the nineteenth century (1798-99). Jackson offers numerous accounts of land, cultivation, and development, including early accounts of Pittsburg (p.8-9), a Seneca settlement (19), and Niagara Falls (163-64). Native American studies scholars may gravitate to the volume's descriptions of Seneca food preparation (17), marriage (148-9), alcohol consumption (14, 124-125), land deeds (53-54, 75), Quaker diplomacy (23-24, 32-33), and increasingly strained relations with backcountry settlers (126, 131-133, 146-47, 178-79), many of which are voiced by the Seneca themselves and transcribed by Jackson at council meetings. This volume also features entries that will interest scholars researching the early national period, including the Bank of the United States (75), the yellow fever epidemic (74, 114-15), and the death of George Washington (176).
A similar printed version of the journal, edited by Anthony F.C. Wallace, was published in Pennsylvania History in 1952. View Full Description in New Window | | | | |
Selected Quotations- "Your Friends the Quakers have for many years been desirous you should be taught in the ways of good and honest White people, that you, your Wives, and Children might learn to live more comfortably, and be relieved from the distresses and difficulties to which you have been subjected by your old habits and manners of living…some of our young men from an earnest desire to be useful to you, have concluded to leave their usual business here, and comfortable dwellings, and go into your Country for the purpose of instructing you in the cultivation of Lands, raising and managing of Cattle, and to example you in sobriety and industry, for which purpose they expect to remain for a time amongst you" (23-24)
- "About this time and for some time past numbers of White people were clocking down this River with their wives and Families mostly from the west branch of Susquehanna and generally going to settle on the Waters of French Creek...The difficulties they encounter in the journey is very great…They sometimes bring to my remembrance the journeying of the Children of Israel out of Egypt" (146-7)
- "Altho it is sorrowful to behold the extravagance, and incorrigible attachment of these poor people to Splendid and superfluous Ornaments in their Apparel, I cannot but lament their situation when I reflect that these corruptions are principally deriv'd from those who stile themselves Christians--We have much reason to believe that while they natives reign'd as Aboriginal Lords of the Soil, before they had any communication with the White Inhabitants and while they were clothed in the Skins which they procur'd in their Native Forests, they were merely more temperate-free from pride and all other vices than they now are, and lived more in the Harmony one with another-The rich productions of Foreign Countries-and manufactures of Civilized Nations have served only to lead them into extravagance and Pride, and instead of contributing to their comfort has sown the seeds of immorality, intemperance & effeminacy, among them. The White people have taken away their Land, whereon they once lived in ease and plenty, and given them in exchange for ti little more than their Vies--& what little pecuniary aid is afforded them, with what they can yet procure from their Native Forests, the lovers of money more than Lovers of Justice are artfully devising means to obtain from them for that which is of little advantage to them, but to lead them onto pride, and to effect their destruction and Total extinction-and those who settle on the frontiers of their Country, who ought to example them in a life of morality and civilization are too frequently the Outcasts of all nations, and whose conduct in the view of these Natives serve only to disgrace the name of Christianity-Such is the situation of many of the Indian Tribes-How lamentable & yet how true" (178-9)
| | | | Subjects: | Agriculture. | Bank of the United States (1791-1811) | Diaries. | Indians of North America--Missions. | Missionaries. | Native America | Oneida Indians. | Race. | Religion. | Seneca Indians. | Society of Friends--Missions. | Society of Friends. | Temperance. | Travel. | United States--Civilization--1783-1865. | Washington, George, 1732-1799. | Yellow fever. | | | | Collection: | Some account of my journey to the Seneca Nation of Indians, and residence amongst that people, 1798-1799
(Mss.970.3.J25)
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