Foreign Mission School

The Foreign Mission School was an educational institution which existed between 1817 and 1826 in Cornwall, Connecticut. It was established by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to bring Christianity and Western culture to non-White people by educating missionaries of their own culture.

History

The school was called a seminary at the time, "for the purpose of educating youths of Heathen nations, with a view to their being useful in their respective countries" according to Jedidiah Morse.[1] The school was established in the last few months of 1816, and opened in May 1817. The first principal was Edwin Welles Dwight (1789–1841). After the first year, Dwight was replaced by Reverend Herman Daggett (1789–1832) who ran the school for the next six years.[2]

Daggett was nephew of Naphtali Daggett who had been president of Yale College, and Dwight was distant cousin of the Yale president in 1817, Timothy Dwight IV.[3] Approximately one hundred young men from non-European indigenous peoples were trained at the school with the intent of their becoming missionaries, preachers, translators, teachers, and health workers in their native communities. [4]

A sketch of the village by John Warner Barber (1835) shows the buildings used by the Foreign Mission School, to the right of the church at center.

According to Morse,

"there belong to it (the school) a commodious edifice for the School, a good mansion house, with a barn, and other out-buildings, and a garden for the Principal; a house, barn, &. with a few acres of good tillage land for the Steward and Commons; all situated sufficiently near to each other; and eighty acres of excellent wood land, about a mile and a half distant."
"In the constitution there is a provision, that youths of our own country, of acknowledged piety, may be admitted to the school, at their own expense, and at the discretion of the Agents."
"Under the instruction of the able and highly respected Principal, the Rev. Mr. Daggett, and his very capable and faithful assistant, Mr. Prentice, the improvement of the pupils, in general, has been increasing and satisfactory, and in not a few instances, uncommonly good. Besides being taught in various branches of learning, and made practically acquainted with the useful arts of civilized life; they are instructed constantly, and with special care in the doctrines and duties of Christianity. Nor has this instruction been communicated in vain. Of the thirty-one Heathen youths . . . seventeen are thought to have given evidence of a living faith in the Gospel; and several others are very seriously thoughtful on religious concerns." [5]

From its founding, the school rapidly became a symbol of American Christianity's Second Great Awakening, and connected the small farm town of Cornwall in Connecticut's Litchfield Hills to the early 19th century's clash of civilizations, as epitomized by the Trail of Tears, the conversion of Hawaii to Protestantism, and the worldwide Christian missionary movement. Cornwall had been chosen for the school's location due to the devoutness of the residents and their consequent willingness to donate their efforts, money, and property to a devout cause, as well as their reputation as hard-working people of good character.[5]

The Four Hawaiian Youths: Thomas Hoopoo, George Tamoree, William Tenooe and John Honoree by S. F. B. Morse, 1816

Henry Opukahaia, the school's first pupil, was an 18-year-old Native Hawaiian abandoned in New Haven, Connecticut in 1810 by his ship. He traveled widely to promote the school, but died in Cornwall in 1818 at 26 before he could return home. He recruited four more Hawaiians, including one who called himself "George Prince" with a record of fighting in the War of 1812, and the school printed a pamphlet with their stories to raise money.[6] Samuel F. B. Morse, son of Jedidiah, painted their portraits. Other students came from distant countries as well as many Native American tribes,[5] bringing 24 different native languages.[4]

In its first year, the school had twelve students; seven Hawaiians, one Hindu, one Bengali, a Native American, and two Anglo-Americans. By the second year, there were twenty-four; four Cherokee, two Choctaw, one Abenaki, two Chinese, two Malays, one Bengali, one Hindu, six Hawaiians, and two Marquesans, as well as three Anglo-Americans.[5]

The students followed a demanding schedule befitting the devout mission of the school, doing field work in the time unoccupied by their mandatory church attendance, prayer, and 7 hours of daily coursework. The program of study included astronomy, calculus, theology, geography, chemistry, navigation and surveying, French, Greek, and Latin, in addition to practical courses such as blacksmithing and coopering.[4]

In time, as the pendulum of public opinion began to build doubt about the purpose of the school, support began to wane; it never came to a head, however, before the marriages of two Cherokee students to local girls and the potential marriages of other such couples caused negative reactions among both the local residents and the members of the Native American tribes who sent their sons there, and it was closed in 1826 or 1827.[4]

Native American students

Principal Daggett observed in a letter to Morse that, in contrast to the Native American students, three of the students from the Pacific Islands had become ill and "fallen a sacrifice", which he assigned to the climate; he mused that "it is probable, that Divine Providence intends this school to be chiefly useful to the Aborigines of this country." And in fact, sons of some of the most prominent Native American leaders of the time (many of mixed ancestry) received their education at the Foreign Mission School, later becoming distinguished members of their nations. Three Cherokees and a Choctaw came to the school in the fall of 1818. In his report, Morse stated that there were twenty-nine students in the school in 1820, half of whom were Native American boys from the principal families of five or six different tribes.[5] Some of the Native American students include:[5]

The response to these marriages was negative among both the citizens of Cornwall and those of the Native American nations; in addition, some of the southern tribes became concerned that residence in the northern states was harming the health of the students sent there, and support for the school rapidly dwindled, until it was closed in 1826 or 1827.[5]

The school was dramatized in an episode of the American Experience television series in 2009.[7]

In 2014 Alfred A. Knopf published The Heathen School: A Story of Hope and Betrayal in the Age of the Early Republic, a historical narrative with modern perspectives and reporting by Yale historian John Demos.[8] The school's historic Cornwall campus was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2016.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Jedidiah Morse (1822). A report to the Secretary of War of the United States, on Indian affairs. pp. 163, 264–266.
  2. ↑ William Buell Sprague; Timothy Stone (1859). "Herman Daggett". Annals of the American Pulpit: Trinitarian Congregational. 2. Robert Carter and brothers. pp. 291–756.
  3. ↑ Benjamin Woodbridge Dwight (1874). The history of the descendants of John Dwight, of Dedham, Mass. 2. J. F. Trow & son, printers and bookbinders. pp. 754–756.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "The Foreign Mission School, 1817-1826", Cornwall Historical Society
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Carolyn Thomas Foreman (September 1929). "The Foreign Mission School at Cornwall, Connecticut". Chronicles of Oklahoma. Oklahoma Historical Society. 7 (3): 242–259.
  6. ↑ Douglas Warne (2002). "George Prince Kaumualiʻi, the Forgotten Prince". Hawaiian Journal of History. 36. Hawaiian Historical Society. pp. 59–71. hdl:10524/203.
  7. ↑ "We Shall Remain: The Trail of Tears". The American Experience. WGBH-TV. April 27, 2009. Retrieved January 30, 2011.
  8. ↑ What US Learned from Heathen School Wasn't Part of the Lesson Plan, Maureen Corrigan's review of The Heathen School by John Demos, NPR.org, March 18, 2014

External links

Coordinates: 41°50′38″N 73°19′51″W / 41.8439°N 73.3309°W / 41.8439; -73.3309

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