Jonathan Edwards's Defense of Slavery
Author(s): Kenneth P. Minkema
Source: Massachusetts Historical Review, Vol. 4, Race & Slavery (2002), pp. 23-59
Published by: Massachusetts Historical Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25081170 .
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Jonathan Edwards's Defense
KENNETH
P.
of
Slavery
MINKEMA
a table in a southern
four men gathered
around
On June
7, 1731,
a
at
to
some busi
transact
New
tavern,
seaport, possibly
England
ness. Three of them?one
of advanced middle
age, the other two
a decade
suits and having
fashionable
younger, wearing
by them on
on a crossed
the table, or balanced
the look of experi
knee, fine hats?had
at
coats
two
enced sailors. Beneath
the
of
least
of them could be seen what
about
in the low light, have
might,
a
of
pistol.1 The fourth was
thin as to look
been
the glint
an apparently
and impair'd
"emaciated,
suit, and Geneva
off of a sword
fragile man
in his Health."2
hilt or the lock plate
so
in his late twenties,
the wig, black
tabs that he always made
in public. To see this fourth man, with
all the distinguishing
He was
dressed
in
a point of wearing
marks
of a cler
must
as odd, and perhaps
have struck onlookers
company
men
the other three
shared bemused
looks over the serious,
thin
covertly
as
one
a
minister
he
watched
of
his
take
up
lipped
companions
quill, dip it
a
a
a
out
into
bill of sale?a
and fill
Girle
well,
slave, "a Negro
receipt for
named Venus,"
whom
this man of God was buying.
gyman,
in such
scarecrow
whose
belied colonial America's
appearance
Edwards,
Jonathan
most
later
became
the
father of the American
thinker,
prominent
religious
as the minister
In 1734 and 1735,
tradition.
of Northampton,
evangelical
a
his
of
Massachusetts,
spate
up and down
preaching
instigated
awakenings
River Valley,
fame and establish
securing him international
as
him
the major American
for revivalism
the so-called
ing
apologist
during
"Great Awakening"
that began in 1740. Edwards was also a slave owner. Fo
in Edwards's
cusing on two episodes
life, this study identifies
specific charac
the Connecticut
Kenneth
American
P. Minkema
Church
is executive
History
at Yale
editor
of The Works
of Jonathan
Edwards
University.
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and
lecturer
in
THE
ters and
MASSACHUSETTS
circumstances
regarding
REVIEW
HISTORICAL
in early
Very lit
and
attitudes
antislavery
western Massachusetts.
slavery
New
England,
primarily
eighteenth-century
on the specifically
to
tle has been written
of opposition
local development
in
American
the
colonies
before
the
mid
century. Typically,
slavery
eighteenth
scholars
this time have limited their at
antislavery
studying
thought
during
to the
tention
important
In other
Sewall.3
Samuel
of
regions,
slave
of a beleaguered
to recede quickly
into anonymity.4
ery, only
their circumstances,
cannot
plumb
between
connections
possible
larly, Edwards's
I hope
explored.
over
the debate
slavery developed
in that debate.
played
who
owned
Lacking
the motivations
of
detailed
investigations
of these individuals
or
their
during
must
In his childhood
His
and
acts. Simi
seemingly
disparate
in slavery has been acknowledged
involvement
but not fully
to offer an antidote
events
that
illuminate
here, describing
discover
Edwards
we
to the publications
of
emerge here and there to act
a statement
or to make
slav
against
the Quakers
a few figures
on behalf
briefly
how
work
and youth, Edwards
slaves. His first exposure
the colonial
and the role
period
have met with
men
many
of rank
to slavery came in his parents'
home.
of
East
Edwards
Connecticut,
Windsor,
Timothy
a man named Ansars.5
In 1729,
slave during his lifetime,
the Reverend
father,
at least one
owned
when
became
sole pastor of Northampton,
follow
Massachusetts,
Jonathan
his
death
of
Solomon
the
offered
the
Stoddard,
ing
grandfather
community
more
of slaveholding.
While
him
there is no record that Stoddard
examples
self owned
slaves, several prominent
in Northampton,
including
and
Col.
Pomeroy,
Timothy
Dwight,
cers
must
merchants,
Stoddard's
and militia
politicians,
son John,
did.6
Maj.
offi
Ebenezer
these
leads, Edwards
Following
a
for
person of his station to acquire a
ser
of a house
family, and the presence
it right and proper
had a growing
Besides,
vant to work
of his wife,
Sarah Pierpont
would
under the direction
Edwards,
ease
status.
in
mark
her
his
her
burden
and
social
life,
fact, Ed
Through
help
a succession
owned
with Venus.
of slaves, beginning
wards
have
Edwards's
of familiar
Association
called?and
wards
deemed
he now
slave.
had
known
for
place,
some
a slave
in buying
experience
and familial connections?the
first
took
him
out of his
local web
ministers
of the Hampshire
County
as they were
"River Gods,"
and magisterial
and the merchant
or early June of 1731, Ed
In late May
environs.
into unfamiliar
for the seaport
that, even this early in its history, was
departed
in slaves: Newport,
Rhode
Edwards's
decades
later, where
its market
four
Island.
disciple
This
was
Samuel
24
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the very
Hopkins,
Jonathan
By Joseph
Badger,
bequest
Edwards's
Defense
Jonathan
Edwards.
of Slavery
of Yale University Art Gallery,
1937.
of Eugene P. Edwards,
courtesy
*5
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THE
MASSACHUSETTS
HISTORICAL
REVIEW
of slave auctions, would
against
begin his campaign
a large ma
Island was well on its way to controlling
as the
American
trade in African
slaves, with Newport
horrified
by the spectacle
By 1731, Rhode
slavery.
jority of the North
of the individuals
hub.7 Most
that was
for molasses
taken
rum,
land's economy.
Some Africans,
however,
in
the region.8
goes for sale
visit to Newport
Edwards's
may have
in New
York
City
out of the New
and
1722
during
were
from Africa
to produce
used
the
liquor
inNew
landed
him
reminded
1723,
where
in the Caribbean
sold
that drove
Is
Rhode
among
England
car
of his brief
pastorate
time he stepped
ease
he moved
with
for the first
inwhich
culture
Congregational
to individuals
from many
lands and of many
and authority
exposed
saw
more
Edwards
also
faiths. In that center of world
commerce,
slaves, slave
But had he ever
and slave trading than he had seen inNew England.9
owners,
transacted
England
and was
with
business
the
likes of the three men
went
arrangements
day? What
do we know
do not know. Nor
that June
into the purchase
of Edwards's
first slave we
to him and the
if Venus
had been described
if he came to Newport
and, working
beforehand;
her on the spot; or if he bid on her at an auction.
arranged
purchase
an agent,
on
in Newport
bought
through
We have
only a copy of that bill of sale, transferring (for the price of eighty pounds) the
of Venus
ownership
hand?to
and
also
from one Richard
Edwards
to his and
and,
their own
as the bill
to "his heirs
Use
stated,
&c behoof
we
man
Perkins?the
left with
Executors
for Ever."10
The
in
quill
&CAssigns
is
document
proper
and James Martin.11
These
three
John Cranston
by two witnesses,
were
in
who
circulated
the
and
slave
traders
soldiers, privateers,
names
a
the
of hu
world
less familiar with
British
system,
imperial
signed
individuals
larger
manitarian
writers
Hutcheson
than
and Richard
Spener, or Francis
Montesquieu,
Philip
such as William
of buccaneers
Teach,
Kidd, Edward
such
those
as Baron
Barrick.12
inNewport
from
In 1726, Richard
had bought a house
"mariner,"
Perkins,
term
to
a local rum distiller?a
the
between
stay
voyages.13
Although
place
a slave
to seamen of many
"mariner"
referred
ranks, this one commanded
1731,
ship.14 InNovember
to Africa.
other expedition
his human
cargo revolted,
one crew member,
in
who,
self,
ever
since he died
around
Perkins
would
set out at the helm
of a sloop
the African
off
following
April, while
in the deaths of "several"
resulting
The
Africans
on an
coast,
and
a bit of poetic
justice, may have been Perkins him
that time.15 Venus may have been the last slave he
sold.
Facing
page:
Edwards's
receipt
Courtesy
for
"Negro
Girle
of the Beinecke
Yale
named
Venus,'9
June
Rare Book Manuscript
University,
New
26
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Haven,
7,1731.
Library,
Conn.
Jonathan
U<~?,
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rfs*3
Edwards's
&r~*?.
Defense
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s*s
^.y
THE
MASSACHUSETTS
HISTORICAL
REVIEW
Martin
for the witnesses,
and Cranston,
they too were
seafaring men?
a
to
but
and
with
be
adventurers
sure,
swashbuckling
profiteers
gentlemen
even
to
aristocratic
It
is
that
intimidated
the
Edwards.
easy
imagine
they
edge.
As
as a ship
himself
from England,
had established
?migr?
in Rhode
In a few years
and risen rapidly
Island politics.
and privateer
a
than a
become
of the colony,
he would
secretary
post he held for more
Martin,
owner
decade.
a recent
Rhode
Island's
governor
commissioned
his ships, including
the sloop
would
from which Martin
to plunder
vessels,
Revenge,
Spanish merchant
son of the colony's
have realized handsome
returns.16 Lt. Col. John Cranston,
first governor, was a career soldier. Born around
1683, he first served as one
of Newport's
of Vessels
deputies
for Rhode
to the General
Assembly
then as Captain
in which
he com
in 1707
and
Anne's War,
during Queen
on
the interwar years,
that preyed
manded
Spanish
shipping. Through
New England
and eastern
the coasts of southeastern
he battled pirates plying
Fort George
and
he commanded
Island.17 During
King George's War,
Long
Island
a sloop
was
captain
appointed
to "detect any
mission
of the colony's
the
gun sloop, Tartar, with
twenty-four
and take any of the King of Spain's sub
illegal Traders,
jects or Interests."18
of the eighteenth
After the beginning
century, and certainly
by the time Ed
came of age, inhabitants
and other sea and
of Newport,
wards
Northampton,
in New
the de
and more
river towns
became more
affluent
through
England
mer
in the transatlantic
economies
and involvement
of domestic
velopment
a
of
and
affluence
cantile trade.19 This growing
process
encouraged
permitted
as Richard
has called
of the
Bushman
it,20 an emulation
"refinement,"
tastes
country's
social manners?and
mother
teel
ferred
coaches
chased
ample,
to
for the latest
fashions,
slaves, or
owning
So, along with
building
silver tea sets, the new American
them.
and
more
and more
the number
slaves.21
of slaves
fine food, gen
houses,
re
as polite
"servants,"
society
and
homes
acquiring
expensive
In the decade
in New
England
Massachusetts
modern
landed
and monied
and a half
after
class
1700,
pur
for ex
from 400 to
tenfold,
ministers
besides Edwards,
increased
4,000.22
By 1730, several western
Samuel Hop
of Longmeadow
such as Stephen Williams
cousin),
(Edwards's
Brewer
of Spring
and Daniel
kins of West
(his brother-in-law),
Springfield
a
fellow
their
trend
followed
among
field,
clergy by "projecting
growing
a
of Slaves."23 Within
Northampton,
concerning
purchaseing
Something
or
one
two
fe
slaves?a
owned
number
of elites typically
small but growing
was will
Edwards
for fieldwork?and
chores and a male
for domestic
male
a substantial
ing to commit
in
this
select
group.24
ship
his member
part of his annual
salary to establish
a
a
for the
had
become
slave
prerequisite
Owning
28
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4
Courtesy
"Newport, Rhode Island,
of the Newport Historical
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.."'>/^lm?:%:
""
':''M*$0
*;::"-:;?
in 1730."
Society
(01.95
THE
REVIEW
as a source
of rank as much
a symbol
gentry,
HISTORICAL
MASSACHUSETTS
of profit,
insuring that
to places
such as Newport
and merchants
magistrates,
by ministers,
become
less and less novel.
probably by a combination
The long journey back to Northampton,
some
Edwards
and
journeys
would
to become
time
of
ac
gave
horseback,25
sloop,
we know nothing.
As for her name,
Venus.
Of
her
with
appearance
quainted
owners
from antiquity
re-named
slaves after figures
traders and
commonly
ironic associations.
The name con
"Venus" had particularly
and mythology.
coach,
on her physical
in
she may
commented
appearance?although
descendingly
an
even to a European's
Venus
deed have possessed,
eye,
exotic,
prejudiced
on her shared fate with
in her powerlessness
the goddess
like beauty?and
note Edwards
took of Venus's
and in the subservience
of her sons. Whatever
he was
and her appearance,
when
in conversation,
opportunity
name
Venus
passage,
Perkins's
For
this reason,
their slaves as
wards
may
exhorted
ured
heart,
If not,
well
indicates,
satisfaction
law required
prominently.26
and doubly
was
Venus
unsuccessful
not
on one
in any of Edwards's
she may have
ternatively,
slaves to succumb
soned"
in the Atlantic
point
or if she had lived in
from
Aside
evaluating
accustomed
the traditional
duties
and Christianization
Edwards
to a domestic
Venus,
Ed
to?and
per
own
slave.
by his
personal
in
treatment
of servants, which
becoming
attended
in?being
the humane
a minister,
so in regard
of his family. Now
integral part
insure that she would
in engaging
her
skills. If
language
rudimentary
English
as the description
of her as "age Fourteen
and could be taught fairly easily.
still young,
to purchase
New
preferred
England masters
among
instruction;
religious
acculturation
slaveowners
As
her
she was,
among others,
or adolescents.
juveniles
have spent the journey
haps taking some
Massachusetts
cluded
interested
to assess
remained
and phrases.
or thereabout"
years
more
presented,
for any time at another
stopping
such as the West
Indies or a southern
port,
she may have known
for a while,
household
had
words
probably
would
servant
to which
ministers
of their
slaves
have
taken
who
would
this duty
become
fig
to
an
for Venus's
soul, he also had to
responsible
in his home.
he
influence
be a disruptive
Perhaps
or both counts,
of
for there is no further mention
letters,
or church
records. Al
accounts,
personal
for even "sea
since it was not uncommon
died,
to a disease
to a new environment.
when
exposed
or
in fairly short order,
not
her
traded
sold
Edwards
If she did
die,
apparently
to be in his household
for the only slave known
by 1736 was Leah, a woman
named
after the first, unloved wife of the biblical patriarch
Jacob.27
6^
30
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Edwards's
Jonathan
Defense
of Slavery
to a day in the late
in our story, we must move
forward
episode
summer
or early fall of 1741,
to the Edwards
in Northampton.
parsonage
across
Waves
of revivals were
New
in fact,
and beyond;
sweeping
England
since Edwards
had passed
himself preached
the quintessen
only a few weeks
For
the next
tial awakening
sermon, Sinners in the Hands
of an Angry God. Going
at his sprawling
and sat down
study, he passed his "great bookcase"
with manuscripts.
crammed
He
then took
tore," or writing
desk,
into his
"scru
out
his
and began to pick at the ever-growing
hole in the desktop,
the prod
penknife
uct of countless
on
sessions
On
ethics.28
and
writing
theology,
philosophy,
on a topic that, on
this day, however,
Edwards
had to set down his thoughts
the face of it, seemed far removed
from the urgent calls to conversion
and the
that filled the pulpits
and fields in town after town.
"cryings out" of auditors
His subject was slave owning
and the slave trade. As far as we know, he had
never written
like this before, nor did he return to it ever again. The
anything
notes
were
he made
that day on old
letter covers
in his spidery,
of
consisting
fragmentary,
mostly
elliptical
At a later time, if need be, he could flesh
points.29
could
from
verbally?most
preachers
improvise
or
an
sociation meeting
ecclesiastical
council.
Edwards
clergyman.
nearly
illegible hand
and
phrases
undeveloped
out his outline
in prose or
at an as
outlines?perhaps
wrote
to some trouble
that day in response
that beset
a native of Wallingford,
The Reverend
Doolittle,
Benjamin
a fellow
Con
and a 1716 graduate
at the
of Yale College,
had settled inNorthfield,
necticut,
extreme
northern
border of present-day
Massachusetts
along the Connecti
cut River,
a
in 1718. During
came in the
his first decade
and
half there, which
wake
of repeated
Indian
attacks
that had
wide
among his people. Despite
approval
and their Indian allies, the third settlement
twice
the town, he gained
emptied
threats from the French
continuing
stuck,
thanks
in part
to Doolittle's
steady presence.
Trouble
started
as early as 173 6, following
the Connecticut
revivals.
Valley
In A Faithful Narrative
mentioned
of the Surprising Work
of God, Edwards
as among
Northfield
the towns
that experienced
"a very great and general
concern."
time."30
In this
Some
instance,
in Northfield
blamed Doolittle
as he noted,
it lasted
however,
to see the stir among
who wished
only
them
a "short
continue
for snuffing it out. They detected in his preaching and in his
a distinct Arminian
conversation"
a term used
bent. Arminianism,
"private
to tar a broad spectrum
of heterodox
beliefs
freedom
of
the will and
including
a byword
the efficacy of good works,
had become
in Hampshire
in
County
In
the
that
of
at
ordination
Robert
Breck
had been op
1734.
year,
Springfield
posed
by the Hampshire
ministerial
association
on
the basis
31
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of reports
that
THE
MASSACHUSETTS
Breck was
the young
tainted.31
by Faith Alone,
Justification
HISTORICAL
Edwards
which
had
had been
REVIEW
the alarm
sounded
in his sermon
in setting
instrumental
off revival
fervor.
The
about
Calvinists
pro-revival
what
they
wood,
tle ignored
the dissidents'
exorbitant
Doolittle's
and the like to bolster
demands
to remove
their efforts
for a council.
calls
a number
marshaled
of Northfield
felt were
He
of grievances
for salary, fire
For his part, Doolit
also belittled
their charges of
him.
or Arminius
to make Either Calvin
"I am no papist
Arminianism,
declaring,
of faith for me."32
my pope to Determine
my Articles
Thus far, the case differed
little from any number of disputes
between New
and
congregations
England
their ministers.
But
after
several
years
of con
was
very unusual
complaint
lodged against Doolittle?one
sit
of Hampshire
the min
up and take notice:
County
a
we
was
ister owned
Prince.33 This, on top
name,
slave, whose
know,
Abijah
sums that Doolittle
as a doctor, as a proprietor's
of the impressive
made
clerk,
tention,
that made
another,
the ministers
and as a minister,
was ample proof
to the brethren
of how, as Edwards
char
notorous
in
the Northfield
their charge,
"lived
pastor
iniquity and
some masters
in sexual activities
of his lusts."34 Though
indulgence
engaged
a
not
connotation
with
here used "lust"
with
sexual
but
slaves, Edwards
acterized
rather
in the more
tors found
general
avaricious
him
sense of "greed." Doolittle's
detrac
and believed
his sins to be on a par
contemporary
and acquisitive
in
From what we can learn from Edwards's
the
jot
"robbery
high way."
some
to
in
of
the
dissidents
had
the
confront
pastor
private
tings,
approached
him about his slave owning
him
and later "boasted"
that they had "baffled"
with
to the point
that was worth
say nothing
a-saying."35
these
"disaffected
who numbered
brethren,"
identify
among them was eighty-year-old
Capt. Benjamin Wright,
that he "could
we
Remarkably,
about twenty. Chief
famous
throughout
can
as an
had led several
fighter who
the Canadian
border. The others were
the province
Indian
near
expeditions
scalping
leaders of the church: Benjamin's
brother Deacon
older spiritual
prominent
a lieutenant
in Father
War
who
had
served
Rale's
Eliezer
Wright,
gruesome
(1721-1725);
with Doolittle,
ued to agitate
and would
had
Eleazar
Mattoon,
left Northfield
another
veteran,
who,
disgusted
to live in Hadley,
where
he contin
who had been
and Eleazar Holton,
eventually
against his former minister;
at Fort Dummer,
served as the Northfield
stationed
others
Deacon
also
among
close
abandon
the town.
the disaffected,
relatives
had
Three
been
town
clerk
for a decade,
as well
as
of these warrior-saints,
born and raised in Northampton
there.36
32
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or
Jonathan
Edwards's
Defense
of Slavery
so sensitive
an issue
We can only speculate
about what made
slave owning
as to prompt
The dissidents
these objections.
could have been influenced
by a
Euro
small but persistent
of
and
both
literature,
body
indigenous
printed
writ
pean, that excoriated
slavery and the slave trade. Some Massachusetts
ers called for an end to the expensive
habit of keeping African
slaves (in favor
as a remedy
to the colony's
of white
indentured
infla
servitude)
high taxes,
woes
in no
bills of credit.37 These
economic
stemmed
tion, and devalued
recent rumors of invasion by
small part from costly imperials wars. Arguably,
a
wars
in
in
the Spanish,
the midst
of the latest
that had
string of ill-fortuned
on
two
have
anxieties.
More
could
years previous,
begun
popular
played
however, was the so-called New York Slave Revolt, which
played
summer
in shockingly
fashion
the
of
very
1741?the
bloody
during
on
notes
time when Edwards
his
The
"revolt"
and
penned
slavery.
purported
arson
trials spread fears of murder
and
and Indians,
fears
ensuing
by Africans
ominously,
itself out
in a garrison
especially
pronounced
at the front line of an ongoing
racial war.38
at the stake
of convicted
blacks
burned
being
that would
have
Northfield,
Accounts
been
such as Josiah Cotton
to the Salem witchcraft
caused New
search
New
Englanders,
for perpetrators
to cease
Yorkers
of Plymouth,
and
town
such
in New
as
York
to compare
the
to plead with
hysteria
of your Negroes."39
The accumu
incendiarism
could only have exacer
bonfires
"making
of alleged
of
incidents
in 1723, following
For example,
bated the situation.
for which
blacks were
enacted
laws were
blamed,
lated memory
a series of fires
in Boston
any
severely
punishing
in the vicinity
of a fire. Gov. William
Dummer
issued a proclamation
and industriously
kindled
stating that "Fires have been designedly
by some
to anyone
villanous
and desperate Negroes."
He offered fifty pounds
giving
found
and a pardon
and reward
evidence,
In 1738,
the names of accomplices.
fire to a warehouse
during a "night
sued on Nantucket
rumors
the Eng
spread of an Indian plot to destroy
the pleas of individuals
such as Cotton,
the conta
a supposed
in early October
spread northward;
after
lish in the town.40
Despite
in 1741
of paranoia
to burn Charlestown
conspiracy
gion
tion of a black
In addition
alike were
if not North
economic
to any involved who
and gave
confessed
a group of Boston
set
blacks accidentally
frolic," and in that same year a panic en
was
detected,
which
resulted
in the execu
boatswain.41
to such
motivated
of both slavery and the slave trade
fears, opponents
to limit the number
in their vicinity,
of blacks
by a wish
America.
tensions.
This
By
the
impulse,
1720s,
in turn, was
critics
pointed
the product
of racial and
to slaveholding
as chief
33
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THE
among
Such
MASSACHUSETTS
the
Massachusetts
debilitating
the brethren's
why
against
complaint
his greed. An examination
of landholding
of a rivalry
involving
Doolittle
and Ensign
slave owner
landholder
and the only other
have, in part, reflected
ing may
noted
that
areas,
the
occupations
In this light,
economy.44
of self-reliance
of
attack
labor
England,
outside
of
even
have
in rural
the household,
a
class in highly competitive
critics gave voice to an ide
to these
in response
on slave own
historians
vein,
in New
artisan
among the white
it appears
that Doolittle's
that developed
ology
slave
inNorth
led
brethren,
the largest
Field,
Zechariah
In a related
this rivalry.43
of slaves
society.42
Doolittle's
the disaffected
in town. The
number
increasing
the movement
precipitated
threatening
REVIEW
that were
extravagances
tensions
could explain
slave owning
highlighted
field raises the possibility
by the Wrights,
against
HISTORICAL
and other
economic
and in
writers,
argued contemporary
was degraded;
in
dustry of a people.45 The value of hard work,
they warned,
were
dolence
and insensitivity
would
become
called
back
Colonists
epidemic.
to hard work,
and
domestic
virtues
that would
frugality,
economy?Puritan
pressures.
enervated
Slavery,
the virtue
undergird New
England
revolutionary
thought.46
across
into many
Africans
first gained
admittance
the province
churches
of the 1730s and 1740s, a trend that reflected
their in
during the awakenings
as
as
concerns
in
New
well
numbers
among
creasing
England
growing
colonists
for the spiritual well-being
of slaves and free blacks.47
In Some
Thoughts
the Revival,
Concerning
in 1743,
published
Edwards
remarked
the
in
conversions,
religious
who
had been
and
upon
"many of the poor Negroes"
cluding
"wrought
was
at
Edwards
the
first
minister
changed."48
Surprisingly,
Northampton
to baptize
re
In addition,
blacks
and admit
them into full membership.49
variety
of persons
who
vivalist
ministers
and
their messages.
had
experienced
itinerants
Controversial
and George Whitefield
Tennent,
anti-revivalists
such as Charles
found
revivalists
reported
dramatic
slaves
such
many
to
free blacks
responsive
as James Davenport,
Gilbert
in 1741, while
black converts
and
about
black
exhort
complained
ers.5? Though
members
the Northfield
of the laity, including
sup
dissenters,
the
the
of
enslaved
and
free
within
blacks
presence
revivals,
growing
ported
some churches may have aggravated
nativist
attitudes.
on
in passing,
commented,
on
full church membership
Americans
Scholars
African
Chauncy
have
the
implicit
impact of
leveling
these awakenings.51
during
as
status
to blacks and whites
full
accorded
Theoretically,
membership
equal
on revivals,
In his published
treatises
time and
Edwards
fellow Christians.
to black converts who,
he declared,
had been
again pointed
of
the
children
God."52
The
the glorious
of
liberty
"liberty"
34
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"vindicated
he assumed
into
for
Jonathan
blacks was
that
that was
To be sure, both blacks
capacities.
but
of the means
of grace and of salvation,
and his fellow colonists
lived in a
Edwards
innate
of their
were
in need
equally
as far as equality went.
hierarchical
was
that hierarchy
conceived
it, there would
and
world,
racially,
including
as Edwards
even in heaven,
observed;
of glory."53
Whatever
of Slavery
and political
in the extent
than children
and whites
Defense
but a solely
liberty on a par with whites,
a typically
harbored
Edwards
Even ontologically,
paternalistic
as little more
saw black and Indian adults, before conversion,
a social
not
one.
spiritual
outlook
Edwards's
to be
strictly
be "degrees
of causes
the venerable
that motivated
Captain
an
created
of
the
Calvinists,
awakenings
atmosphere
Wright
even apocalyptic,
for
that provided
the catalyst
urgency
moral,
heightened
In
ob
this
the
faction's
of slave owning.54
their indictment
case,
pro-revival
the combination
and his
fellow
otherwise
have kept to
slave owning?objections
they might
a weapon
in their fight against
their pastor
and his op
to the revivals. The debate over slavery could now be counted
among
jections against
themselves?became
position
themany issues that divided New Lights and Old Lights.
must
accusation
that the brethren's
considered
was,
recognize
by
a
act
in
flew
the
face
of
remarkable
that
racial, spiritual,
itself,
long-standing
as well as established
and recent trends in
and social assumptions,
practices
to a
in context,
slave owning.
the indictment
Considered
testified
regional
We
also
vein of antislavery
land society?though
sentiment
how
and wide
the Hampshire
County
life and their aspirations
case,
of
they called
letters,
their worldly
estates.
to prepare
an official
He was
In 1739
discussed
For
and
the
their next
reply to the brethren's
Doolittle
and the dis
given the letters between
his papers
among
today?to
help him draft the re
this role well: he had, for example, written
the Hampshire
knew
defense
therefore,
as he wrote
to improve
Edwards
upon
arguments.
antislavery
affected members?still
sponse.56 He
Association's
deep
ministers
the surface of New
just below
Eng
In
that vein was, we cannot
say.
any
attack upon their way
felt a palpable
had
association,
Edwards,
including
a
to
broker
tried unsuccessfully
peace.55
the ministerial
1740,
case and
Northfield
move,
that bubbled
may
of
its actions
well
have
in opposing
Breck's ordination.57
These
on
on
lain before him
his desk
that day in
on slavery.
1741
a situa
in an awkward
To say the least, Edwards
found himself
situation,
tion that wonderfully
slave
how
illustrates
for strange bedfel
owning made
an alleged advocate
in the position
lows. Here he was, placed
of defending
of
was
so
to root out, against
the very disease he
Arminianism,
actively fighting
fellow
evangelicals,
his notes
some
of whom
were
Northampton
transplants
35
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who
es
THE
MASSACHUSETTS
HISTORICAL
REVIEW
Calvinist
doctrine
and method
of revivalism.
Nevertheless,
poused Edwards's
a range of issues, ecclesiastical,
and
took
Ed
political,
military,
precedence.
a
as
that
wards
of the clergy
"ambassadors
of Christ"
upheld
high concept
a
come
re
to
to
to
in
him
of
the
aid
fellow
order
obliged
besieged
clergyman
to occasional
in
the laity?a
laity excited
sore
a
Ed
surgency
by the awakenings.
point between
Salary had long been
soon come
wards
and his church,
and he, like Doolittle
before him, would
a
In 1744,
and of a "craving
under attack
for being
"lavish"
disposition."
store deference
and respect
among
insisted upon an account
of his parishioners
of his own expenditures,
an action suggesting
the jealousy and resentment
aroused by the family's taste
for jewelry, chocolate,
Boston-made
children's
slaves.58
clothing,
toys?and
number
Edwards
also had
to remain mindful
of his political
included
patent
ton. The
lators
dard.
of the Northfield
influential
land specu
proprietors
Col.
officers
from Northampton,
and military
John Stod
including
of all western
Massa
A son of the former pastor
and commander
Stoddard
chusetts
militia,
case, was
this
inNorthamp
support
thicker
of
land
large parcels
also Northampton-born.
low ministers,
owned
connections
and
seek his removal
In his draft
was
Edwards's
uncle
and
chief
advisor.
in
Blood,
and others
had purchased
the Spirit. Stoddard
were
to prospective
of whom
settlers, many
A number
of these gentry,
like Edwards
and his fel
than
for resale
knew that Doolittle
slaves.59 Finally, Edwards
and religious
the respect of provincial
military
in almost
be unwise
would
every respect.
to the disaffected
members
who
had
criticized
had wide
To
leaders.
Doolittle's
slave
as he so often did with
his opponents,
turned their argu
Edwards,
owning,
ments
While
them
with
them
and
the critics
against
hypocrisy.60
charged
or indirectly
out that they directly
did not own slaves, he pointed
themselves
or
slave-made
slave
consumed
from
and
trading
products.
slavery
profited
as
of
have
their
slaves at
he
were,
may
said, "partakers"
slavery: "They
They
of slaves as those who
definition
defended
the traditional
step." Edwards
were debtors,
for him, the trade in slaves
children of slaves, and war captives;
Edwards's
born inNorth America
remained
argu
Here,
however,
legitimate.
turn. He asserted
slave owning
ment
that condemning
took an unexpected
next
were
taken
thousands
slave trade, by which
the overseas
ignoring
more
was
to
"a
cruel
that
than
far
from
condone
Africa,
slavery
forcibly
in those that have slaves here." Therefore,
he op
which
they object against
while
into Africa
for new slaves, denying
incursions
that "nations
further
posed
to disfranchize
If they
all the nations
of Africa."
have any power or business
on their liberties than even the
"a greater encroachm[en]t
did, this constituted
opposers
of this
trade
thems[elves]
do
suppose
this
trade."61
36
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Characteristi
Edwards's
Jonathan
-^jfmri^ y
********
Defense
/&?*?firv&
of Slavery
***
%
.~.,s+
*
T/?e /zrsi ptfge of the manuscript
of Edwards's defense, c. 1741.
Newton
Andover
the
Franklin
Trask
School,
Courtesy of
Theological
Library,
Newton
Centre,
Mass.
37
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THE
cally, Edwards
MASSACHUSETTS
a stance
crafted
HISTORICAL
that avoided
what
REVIEW
he saw as the excesses
of the
extremes.
was
He
trade.
not
in separating
domestic
slave
slavery and the Atlantic
a growing
the course of the eighteenth
number
of
century
came
nec
to
as
a
inNew
defend American
England,
slavery
alone
people,
Through
not only
essary
institution
the Atlantic
trade as inhuman
and unjust.
criticizing
notes
of this view.
indicate, was as an early exponent
the position
he carved out reflected
and rationalized
his social
while
as his draft
Edwards,
Nonetheless,
situation
and
slave owning.
northern
Often,
apologists
portrayed
slavery as
to the south and elsewhere.
as well
in comparison
But this portrayal,
as the emphasis
on the external
slave trade, obscured
abusive
aspects of New
For
in
servitude.
New England
slave couples
England
example, many married
humane
were
forced
occur.
Slave
such
as when
homes
to
live separately,
families
that did
an owner
they were
In his classic
in which
died.
born
and
rare, did
though
breeding,
live together might
be broken
up at any time,
Black children were
often removed
from the
compulsory
so that masters
could
avoid
the cost
of their
Greene
the atti
study, Lorenzo
starkly described
masters.
"were
he
taken
sometimes
wrote,
Children,
England
as
a
as
one
from their parents
and sold with
little restraint
would
sell
calf, pig,
or colt."
In addition,
New
colonists
and
enslaved
Indians
England
actively
upbringing.
tudes of New
them into slavery in the southern
colonies.62
shipped
As with previous
and later defenders
of slavery, Edwards
and opponents
texts from both the Old and New Testaments
to support
Scripture
gathered
texts undercut
the Northfield
his view. Certain
brethren's
and jus
perspective
tified his own
slave trade.63 For example,
he took ex
critique of the African
a
narrow
to
in
of "neighbor"?as
definition
"Thou
shalt love thy
ception
as
same
to
limited
those
of
the
and in
neighbor
thyself"?as
only
religion
or
as
to
close proximity,
those identified
the new
(and racially)
typologically
"children
wards's
wanted
lievers,
to Ed
of his opponents,
provincial
exceptionalism
to
to
God's people
behave any way
way of thinking,
gave license
they
the moral
towards people of other nations
and abrogated
law that be
to obey.
obliged
especially with the coming of Christ, were universally
of Israel."
The
a "blasphemous
way of talking." God may have given
to "borrow"
to the ancient
as a pun
Israelites
from the Egyptians
permission
into "an established
rule
ishment for Egypt's
sins, but this could not be made
For Edwards,
this was
"A special precept
"is
for a particular
act," Edwards
asserted,
not a rule." Citing
at"
the Apostle
stated that God
"winked
Paul, Edwards
in "those times of darkness,"
of believers
the ignorance
under
the
but,
gospel,
at such things now."64
God
"don't wink
in all cases."
38
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Edwards's
Jonathan
in his notes Edwards
Furthermore,
the church would
enjoy an extended
critics
the Last Judgment.
Doolittle's
Defense
of Slavery
mentioned
period
the "glorious
times" when
and prosperity
before
of peace
claims that the re
repeated
of these glorious
times as an argument
vivals marked
the beginning
that slave
more
had to allow
Edwards,
owning was no longer tolerable.
realistically,
in peace,"
that "things" were not yet "settled
and so the fallen world's
order,
was
in
which
still
All
the
he
for him included
effect.
same,
slavery,
anticipated
apparently
and Indians will be divines,
and ... excel
"many of the Negroes
in Africa,
in Ethiopia,
in Turkey."65
lent books will be published
to
extent
Edwards's
vision
shows the
which
the revivals,
his heart's desire
a
were
most
his
crucial
formative
for his
framework
years,
during
productive
a time when
on
position
contributed
the African
slave trade. The transatlantic
network
evangelical
to this position
re
insofar as it fed his hunger
for news about
him to think about how best to promote
them.66 Through
vivals, compelling
came to know
Protestant
this network,
international
Edwards
pro-revival
from Massachusetts
ranging
figures,
judge
to Gov.
Paul Dudley
Belcher to the Grand Itinerant George Whitefield;
Jonathan
he also learned of John
ex
Some of these men
and August
Francke.67
ambivalence
about slavery. For example, when
the ques
pressed
considering
a slave owner
in Georgia
in 1741, Belcher,
tion of the legalization
of slavery
of Negroes
and of Rum, will finally di
that "the Prohibition
himself, wrote
was
vert 100 ill Consequences."68
torn about
Whitefield
similarly
slavery in
Count
Wesley,
Zinzendorf,
not
Georgia,
and?perhaps
some
perspective?in
leled Edwards's.
of"
under
and
He
and
preached
attack after
justified
surprisingly
respects his views
admitted
his position
could
enjoy, assuming
as for Whitefield,
Belcher
with
an international
slavery and the slave trade paral
was
a "trade not to be approved
slavery
of Christian
for which
he came
freedom,
that
the doctrine
the New
for a revivalist
on
York
"revolt."
Nonetheless,
the religious
by emphasizing
they had conscientious
and
he condoned
that
slavery
slaves
masters.69
For
benefits
charitable
there was
a proper
and an improper
and apologists
such as themselves
as slavery as a whole,
as opportunities
masters
owning;
enlightened
individual
slaves, as well
ian benevolence,
others merely
while
wreaked
brutality
in order
sort of slave
approached
for Christ
to maximize
gain.
Edwards
shared Belcher's
and Whitefield's
attitudes
about
apparently
a
meant
to
master.
and
it
slave
what
be
He
Christian
inscribed
proper
owning
one revealing
on the topic in his biblical
statement
The entry is
commentary.
on
counts:
two
it
is
written
in
unusual
the
and it deals
extremely
first-person
with
the treatment
of
"servants."
Pondering
Job
31:13-14,
39
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Edwards
began
THE
MASSACHUSETTS
the opening
by quoting
the passage:
HISTORICAL
then
but
phrase
REVIEW
subjectively
the rest of
paraphrased
If I despise the cause of my man or maidservant
when they plead with me,
and when they stand before me to be judged by me, what then shall I do
when I come to stand before God to be judged by him? God may justly
do by me as I do by my servant. If I despise my servant's cause, how much
more may God despise my cause? I am God's servant as they are mine,
and much more inferior to God than my servant is to me.7?
Here
laid out a moral
Edwards
in gen
relationship
on himself
as a slave
for the master-slave
code
a personal
reflection
he made
intimately,
that relationship.
that acknowledged
the problem
of justice within
mas
strove to be what he defined as a just and Christian
Edwards
Though
some
not
criticize
slaves
the moral
and physical
abuses that
ter, he did
widely
eral. More
owner
at the hands
suffered
about
them.
monic
material
of cruel masters.
In the actions
But neither
and motives
for describing
of such
the Devil
himself,
could
he keep
slaveholders,
the ultimate
totally silent
he found ser
"cruel master."
In addition,
he portrayed
and oppressed
slaves as types of those in
benighted
not only illustrated
thrall to Satan. Through
these comparisons,
Edwards
the
to law, ig
of the damned
but also indicted
slave owners who,
contrary
misery
he
their slaves'
comfort
and spiritual
nored
Slaves,
improvement.
earthly
out,
pointed
came
which
suffered
tentimes
the
"meanness"
"hardness
and
"without
The
troubles."
from
and "oftentimes
any peace"
service was
"destructive"?destructive
to their families."
destructive
All
dispositions"
ice." Meanwhile,
and kept
clothing"
the
[under] great
to the body
service,"
temporal
and "of
"the
of this, however,
only gratified
"to please his pride, envy and mal
food nor
upon his slaves "neither
of the satanic master,
a cruel owner bestowed
basest
of
he "keeps
them
Worse,
famishing."
and worship
of God, and this at a
the knowledge
from their true happiness,"
on the
time "when they have a glorious
offer of eternal blessedness."
Christ,
of the "good master,"
the kind of owner
the model
other hand, provided
saw
to
be. "The service he re
themselves
and Edwards
Belcher, Whitefield,
declared
quires,"
them
"naked
Edwards,
and
"is noble
and
excellent.
'Tis an easy
and
sweet
service."71
the awakenings
So, during
of other cultures
and
people
message,
moved
that
his views
toward
there
could
on
Samuel
of the early
lands would
the African
Sewall's
"be no great
slave
earlier
1740s,
as Edwards
accept
trade
claim
shifted. Wittingly
for the slave trade
in Gospellizing
progress
how
pondered
the evangelical
Christian
till"
40
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or not, he
as a whole,
it ended.72
Con
Edwards's
Jonathan
trary
thens
and
Defense
of Slavery
to the argument
hea
slave trade introduced
so-called
that the African
to the gospel, Edwards,
(and the Quaker
George Keith
again like Sewall
came
to
it
feel
that
thwarted
Thomas
the Anglican
Bray),
foreign mis
sions.
The
that Edwards
hints
evidence
documentary
at
that
recognized
their religious
duties. At
least
from properly
individuals
fulfilling
slavery prevented
sermons
career inNew York City, he delivered
the very start of his preaching
in terms of personal
servitude
sin with
that equated
slavery and presented
were
in Puritan
these strategies
reformation.73
typical
Although
spiritual
a
center
in
have
Edwards's
may
presence
rhetoric,
given them
slave-trading
new meaning
presented,
ally freeing
for him.
asWilson
slaves
sermon
In one
in particular,
Christian Liberty, Edwards
liter
"the
described
it,
image of aMessiah
no use of
there are no qualifiers,"
abolitionist;
H. Kimnach
as a radical
at
in fact, originally
sentence,
opening
a universal
came "he should proclaim
liberty to
all servants,
per
[or] condemned
slaves, captives,
vassals,
[and] imprisoned
went
the
he
back
sons."74 Before Edwards
delivered
sermon,
and, in
actually
least at first.
metaphors,
the Messiah
stated that when
The
an apparent
tactical withdrawal,
was
the same, the Messiah
deleted
not
All
rived, nor would
very
the word
yet come;
for some time, and until
it likely come
from
"slave"
the time of
then
jubilee
this
had
litany.
not ar
slavery was
sanc
tioned.
Furthermore,
with
Spain?and,
in a sermon
from
more
perhaps
"revolt"?Edwards
in the midst
late February
of war
1741,
at the start of the New
to the point,
York
As scholars have
the image of the Exodus.
to African
this image spoke
Americans,
shown,
intimately
though whether
own
interactions
with
his
slaves
and with en
Edwards
knew this, through his
in his own church and elsewhere,
is a matter
of specu
slaved and free blacks
slave
lation.75 On
God
this occasion
till they were
continued,
Egyptians
Pharaoh's
gone
"proposed
too
(Ex.
proposal
that which
he
invoked
he noted
from
that
their
that the "children
old
they should
But Moses
8:25).
in this matter,
that
of Israel could
taskmasters."
not
serve
Edwards
"Pharaoh,"
to serve the
continue
serve God
and
objected
the serving
against
of God
with
complying
to
and sacrificing
in
the Egyptians
among
continuing
required,
one with
inconsistent
their
that the Egyptians
another;
slavery to them, were
not tol
abhor that service that God required,
and would
taskmasters
would
we must
erate it, but would
kill God's worshipers."76
bear in mind
Though
him
and
their
to
here was primarily
that the analogy
very likely alluded
spiritual, Edwards
masters
New
that
the widespread
their
slaves'
many
charge
England
ignored
and in this way, as he put it, acted as "Egyptians."
His
religious well-being,
41
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THE
MASSACHUSETTS
HISTORICAL
REVIEW
resembles
the rhetoric used later by abolitionists
in their ac
closely
that many
slave owners
the spiritual progress
and agency
impeded
to the tension,
of enslaved Africans.
Edwards
did
however,
Having
pointed
language
cusations
not offer
a resolution
of need.
He
sermon
shift
ual effect
demption.
slave ship
two decades
nearly
times."
to the "glorious
future,
The
could
as in his
reach;
saying that God would
beyond
not reach the conclusion
that
help his servants
future
reformers
he could
earlier,
about
getic
self.
that
implies
notes a decade
is a final
and his
gave
slave-coveting
a legacy and
him
in 1731
chapter
Doolittle
in 1748,
his death
the poet and storyteller
her manumission.
The
he had
no
slaves
into New
Eng
directly or
at Newport
journey to
the African
slave
Edwards's
about
to the Northfield
story?a
surprise
ending.
never
whether
know
Doolittle,
Prince's
military
Lucy Terry, a slave living in Deerfield
to Guilford,
two eventually
moved
fortuitous
way
whether
the attacks
intending
service during
to
silence
however,
to do
his
religious
living in relative
we may well
for Edwards,
Awakening,
remained
Before
both his opponents'
challenged
charges of greed
in
he
the
and
freed
colleagues
clergy:
Abij ah Prince
on in 1756 to marry
Prince went
land in Northfield.77
who
later gained
to land
Vermont,
given them by Samuel Field of Deerfield; Prince died inGuilford
may
to the
look
only
qualms
his mind
show that he had changed
later, however,
an
slaves.
he
remained
Nonetheless,
newly
imported
unapolo
and continued
him
slaves
of slavery as an institution
owning
buying
defender
There
would
in Edwards's
thinking on slavery and the slave trade came as a resid
interest in furthering
of his consuming
the international
work
of re
Given
Venus
that he had purchased
from the captain of an African
in the seaport that brought
the most African
she arrived
that, whether
land, it seems safe to assume
came from Africa.
she originally
Therefore,
indirectly,
Newport
trade. His
in time
there,
prompted
so all along
in 1794. We
to free Prince
Doolittle
in recognition
(possibly
found manumission
War),
King George's
With
detractors.78
contention
ended
the waning
inNorthfield
of
or
of
a
the Great
and the pastor
quiet.79
he
the day in 1741 when
never have to present his views
his notes he secretly hoped he would
penned
on
a
issue. If he did not, perhaps
he had the opportunity
such
delicate
publicly
or in the presence
to discuss
either individually
them privately with Doolittle,
to mention
the responsi
of others. He may also have taken the opportunity
As
bility
he and his wife
had
suspect
assumed
that
from
in late November
1740,
4*
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when
they
co
Edwards's
Jonathan
Defense
of Slavery
or guarantors
of financial
for "Jethro Negro
support,
signed as "sureties,"
and his wife Ruth,"
former slaves of Sarah's late step-mother,
who had man
was
not
in
in
This
them
her
will.80
the
umitted
apparently
only occasion
oversaw
the manumission
which
the Edwardses
of slaves. When
they moved
to Stockbridge in 1751 following Jonathan's bitter dismissal, they brought
with
a
them
slave
She was
Rose.
named
to
married
another
in
slave
owned
named
Hunt,
Jr. Tradition
Joab Binney,
by Jonathan
Northampton
an inveterate
was
so
on ridding
of
has it that Hunt,
intent
opponent
Edwards,
to come
that he "readily
released
of its pastor
his bondman
Northampton
a full
Rose, who
by 1771 was no longer a slave and had become
is not mentioned
in Edwards's
will or in
member
of the Stockbridge
church,
can
of his estate in 1758. We
the inventory
only surmise that, in order to pre
with
him."
the couple
from being split up, Edwards
freed her or that her husband
to Prince
in early 1758, before the Edwardses
her freedom
moved
purchased
as
was
to
he
take
his
duties
the
of
where
The
of New
ton,
up
president
College
vent
Jersey.81
and their charitable
Pierpont's
step-mother
example
the
did not
Edwardses
and
Ruth,
Rose,
presumably
acts
Despite
Jethro,
slave owning.
more
Sarah, who
concerned
as regulator
in the daily
directly
searched
Jonathan,
aggressively
women
could take an active hand
sphere was
of the domestic
oversight
out
of
the
slaves,
potential
in the slave market.
relent
family
which
Contacting
towards
in their
probably
slaves
than
shows
that
a
in 1746
as an intermediary,
Jonathan wrote,
"My wife de
...
to
one
sires that the person you procure
be her maid,
be
that is a good hand
at spinning fine linen." In 1754 Sarah expressed
her
husband's
(via
letter) an
fellow minister
who
acted
in purchasing
Reverend
and
Bellamy's
"Negro woman,"
Joseph
a
in
to
about
she
slave
had
who
1757
again
inquired
buying Harry,
belonged
her deceased
Aaron
Burr. Sarah died in Philadelphia
Reverend
son-in-law,
in October
from dysentery
six
months
after her husband
had suc
1758,
interest
a smallpox
to complications
at Princeton.
Her
inoculation
following
on
no
her
made
for
the
manumission
of
will,
deathbed,
provision
composed
the married
slaves Joseph and Sue but rather divided her estate evenly among
cumbed
In 1759
her children.
the couple
livered"
was
and in open market
"sold, conveyed
executors
of her last will and testament,
by Sarah's designated
son Timothy
and son-in-law
Timothy
Dwight.82
in
had
made
his
will
1753, apparently
Jonathan
and Rose
tioned.
listed
had
become
slaves
of
the Edwards
Nor
de
her
before
Sue, Joab,
Joseph,
so
are
not men
family,
they
of a "Negro
boy named Titus,"
did he provide
for the freedom
estate under
in the inventory
of Jonathan's
"Quick
Stock"
43
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and valued
THE
at ?3o.83
MASSACHUSETTS
is some
There
Binney,
though,
and Sue's child.
through
In either
free or enslaved
blacks
that he was
evidence
a confusion
case, Titus's
son of Joab and Rose
have been Joseph
the young
of names,
he could
how easily
slavery illustrates
be separated
from their chil
as more Christian
than others.84
continued
in New
could
England
even
saw
masters
who
themselves
dren,
by
Our knowledge
of northern
of the evolution
era is uneven
REVIEW
HISTORICAL
at best.85
This
thought before the
aside from the ef
antislavery
is so because,
Revolutionary
we cannot point to any full-fledged
movement
forts of the Quakers,
arising at
on
am
sentiments
this time. Instead, we must
depend
reflecting
identifying
over time. Though
towards
bivalence
Edwards's
po
slavery that accumulated
sition
arose
concerns
largely from evangelical
a
hierarchical
outlook,86
legitimate
per se and the slave trade that would
to
coincidentally,
between
slavery
and
it reflected
served,
a distinction
only become more pronounced
through
Edwards's
the Revolutionary
and antebellum
abolitionist
periods.
disciples,
most
and
remain
would
Samuel
Edwards,
Jr.,
Jonathan
Hopkins
notably
At the same time, they amplified
of "Mentor."87
silent on the slaveholding
to criticize
in ways
Edwards's
he never
and radicalized
intended,
thoughts,
both
and
slavery
Edwards's
the slave
draft
that discussions
notes
bound
inextricably
in which
the antagonists'
Edwards's
reconsideration
and
the
incidents
of and accusations
were
revivalism
trade.88
and
surrounding
slave owning
against
most
in
the
up
complicated
were mixed
motives
and
of the slave
fervor
and
of social
help us to see
the slave trade
circumstances,
their positions
evolving.
in large part by
prompted
trade was
of global
hopes
the Northfield
energized
his millennialist
same millennialist
them
conversion;
dissenters
however,
to promote
this
the
if
slave owning.
step of opposing
Also,
locally by taking
case
we consider
the Doolittle
the
and status,
provides
allegiance
religious
or rationalized
on
for at least three intermediate
outline
between,
positions
the radical
revivals
of slavery and the slave trade and, on
acceptance
unquestioning
On the popular
immediatism.
the other, antislavery
level, we have Captain
out of a curious
of ideology
and ex
and company, who,
convergence
Wright
the one hand,
local reliance upon slavery.
pediency,
opposed
incarnations.
The moderate
distinct
evangelical
overseas
slave
the elite
Edwards
level, we find two
came to oppose
the
but defended
slav
for revivalism
of his support
and did not free his remaining
slaves. Conversely,
trade because
ery as an institution
Light Doolittle
On
opposed the revivals but did free his slave.
44
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the Old
Edwards's
Jonathan
of Slavery
Defense
Appendix
an
of
"Conversion
Woman"
African
is reportedly a description
document
The following
of the conver
sion of Jonathan Edwards's former slave, Rose Binney Salter, writ
successor
at Stockbridge,
ten by Dr. Stephen West, Edwards's
The
Massachusetts.
Jan.-Feb.
of Modern
account
is reprinted
verbatim
the
from
or Synopsis
issue of The Theological
Magazine,
a
on
New
Sentiment
Plan, pp. 191-195}9
Religious
1797
Mr.
Editor,
that the following Narrative
shall be of opinion
of a
you
of the Conversion
If
or
to
be
will
Woman
be
will
your readers, you
entertaining,
useful,
poor African
to publish
it.
pleased
her
had, for some time, been a slave; but had now obtained
was
a
own
was
to
of her
married
and
appar
nation, who
freeman,
freedom,
one
after
their
but
had
another, were
children,
children;
ently pious.90 They
I attended,
soon taken from them by death.91 At the funeral of the last, which
This woman
she appeared
so deeply
were made
impressions
again; but discovered
not but hope
With
this hope,
that I could
afflicted,
her mind.
upon
that some
I soon
unusual
her
visited
affec
of maternal
the strong workings
beyond
nothing
to
see
came
to
be baptized,
and
and
she
after
me,
this,
proposed
long
to join the church. After
impor
conversing
freely with her, upon the nature,
a
I
her
of
with
dismissed
of
and
tance,
religion,
public profession
solemnity
to her proposal;
answer
take op
out giving a decided
but told her, Iwould
tion. Not
I
with her upon the subject. Accordingly
for further conversation
portunity
soon visited her again; and, after conversing
freely, for some time, concluded,
to be bap
were which
induced her to wish
what
the motives
within myself,
tized, and to become
Iwould
tell her what
a member
of the church.
were
same
knew
not?that
be done,
I observed
to her, that
at the
it. She
the God
readily
of heaven
correct
that she
promised
had a controversy
some account
itmust
be that he was angry with her;
not suffer them to live?that
he
would
her children,
yet
come next,
one after another;
evil would
and, what
repeated,
her?that,
though he gave
strokes were
this,
which
time mentioning,
that
must
me; but if I did, she
acknowledge
I then told her, "that she found
would.
with
On
her proposal:
originated
if I did not describe
them justly she must
the motives
on
she felt there
in some way
could
or another,
be no
to heal
for her
living
this awful
so?something
controversy:
45
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and,
for,
the
she
must
that she
THE
HISTORICAL
MASSACHUSETTS
felt a hope that if she should be baptized,
some measure
and
heal the controversy,
son, made
that
I had
REVIEW
in
this might
join the church,
avert future evils; and, for this rea
at
the proposal."
with great frankness,
once, acknowledged,
She,
to her the great evil of a
stated her case truly. On this I represented
the
and
and
wickedness
of
profession,
taking such measures
folly
and
hypocritical
to heal a controversy
the great and holy God, while
she withheld
her
with
to
the divine mercy
those terms, upon which
heart, and refused
comply with
to
I left her.
her.
And
and favour were
offered
She
affected:
freely
appeared
or the beginning
Very soon after this, which was either on the last of August,
to take a journey. On my return, was
I had occasion
of September,
informed
to see me. On the day after I came
that this woman
had been at my house,
to cast my eye at the window,
it being uncommonly
rainy, I happened
She came into the house,
and had
and saw her coming.
dripping with water;
no sooner entered the room where
I sat, than she began with blessing me, and
home,
for not
twenty
times,
(to use her own
nearly
as I," exclaiming
poor creature
words)
telling her join the church:?"Such
as
creature
and
church!
Such
vile
Such poor, vile
I, baptized!
again "join
again
come into church!"
In this manner
half an hour
she spent, perhaps,
wretch,
thanking
me,
she did
which
I conversed,
and agony of her mind,
agitation
Seeing the uncommon
as well as Iwas capable, with her, for some time; rejoicing
in the hope, that di
to her conscience.
vine truth had made
its way
with
me.
visited her, and found, to my own
this I frequently
From this time forward
she was
her convictions
increased.
After
tendant
anguish
November
on the public worship;
and distress
of mind.
in her countenance
carrying
In this state
on a certain
apprehension,
a very constant
the marks
that
at
of deep
time in
she continued,
until some
to visit
Iwent
in
the
week,
day, early
to her house
than she looked up upon
her. No
following;
sooner had
when,
I opened
me with
a serene
and a pleasant
smile. Immediately
apprehend
in the feelings of her mind,
I
have been some alteration
I
You
than
feel better,
her by her name,)
you did,
believe,
the door
countenance
ing that there must
said to her?(calling
said I take your chair, and sit
don't you? "Yes, Sir," she replied. Well,
come,
it is with you. Accordingly
she did, and began
thus:
and tell me how
down,
I
I
can't
I came home
feel
tink
from meeting,
"When
Sabday,
dreadfully?I
as I certain must die, I can't live, den I
creature
live?I
tink such poor, wicked
to
Iwent
go right to destruction.
Just so I feel, all time, till I go to bed. When
bed, I fraid go to sleep: I durst not go to sleep, for my life. I tink if I go sleep,
all night. May
be, most day, I fall sleep
I, certain, wake up in hell. So I lay most
den I wake
it. I sleep little while;
without
up, and see 'twas quite
knowing
I
I tink what's matter
now!
light. I scared: I jump right up in my bed! Den
46
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Jonathan
feel as I did
don't
Edwards's
of Slavery
Defense
I
all gone. Den
Imake
up little fire, but I cou'dn't
I go to pray
So I go 'way by myself
'lone; but when
I cry so. Den I come in, take my pail, and go out milk
last night. Oh, dear! My
and go to de fire. I tink
put on my clothes,
so to pray.
stay, Iwant
cou'dn't
say one word,
cow. Just when
I sat down,
and lean my pail
rise and shine right into my pail. I look! I don't
look
pail
cow,
my
I can't tell what
know,
I don't know what's matter.
I look at the sun!
so! I get up:
to milk
forward,
my
my
certain
conviction
sun
make
Well,
Inebber did see sun shine so allmy life!Den I look at clouds: dey look just so,
I interrupted
I look at trees, dey all look just so too." Here
her, and
sun
never
saw
the
not
shine
I
that
understand
her.?"You
did
her
told
say you
so: you never saw the clouds
look so; and you never saw the trees look so. I
too! Den
you saw in them."
"O I don't know, Sir; only all full of God, ebry where!"
She replied,
a public profession
and conducted
of religion,
Not
long after this she made
as to gain the charity,
and
the
of the
in such a manner
esteem,
affection,
to vital piety. She lived to see a remarkable
of the Holy
friends
outpouring
wish
to tell me
you
upon
Spirit
how
the people
of
the
town;
and
called into the kingdom of Christ. When
was
animated;
greatly
and her heart
it was
and what
they appeared;
a considerable
number
this blessed work
appeared
to be filled with
hopefully
took place, she
joy and rejoic
ing in the Lord. By and by her health failed, and she sensibly declined. Being
at a certain time, that itwas not probable
continue many
she would
informed,
to
I said to her, I
went
in
her
bed.
her
I
and
found
visit
her;
sitting up
days,
I do not know but
think you are better; are you not? "Yes, Sir," she replied.
"I
don't
after
all.
returned
she, "but I shall."
know, Sir,"
you will be raised up,
I then asked
her, what
she thought
about
living;
and, how
she felt about
get
ting well. She replied, "If I do get well, I hope I shall be content; but I had set
my mind
tudder way.
ing get well.
But
I tink
such poor
if I cou'd
creature
I be quite will
do any good in de world,
as I can't do any good
'tall, in 'eworld.
But God know what best: if it be God's will I get well again, I hope I be con
I left her. This was
the last con
and happy
frame of mind
I ever had with her; for on the night following
she expired;
versation
and, as
whose
and grace
I trust, through
of that divine Redeemer,
the merits
power
was
arms of
into
the
received
had been so remarkably
upon her,
displayed
tent."
In this calm
everlasting mercy.
he so often
which
In how many
repeated,
ways
"the first
are those words
shall be last, and
of our Saviour
the last first!"
47
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verified,
THE
MASSACHUSETTS
REVIEW
HISTORICAL
Notes
This article had its origin five years ago in the discovery of a set of manuscript notes
by Edwards on slavery and the slave trade in the collections of Andover Newton
School
Theological
much
the notes,
to research
their
to prepare
Little time then remained
(Newton Centre, Mass.).
less
before
meaning,
batim transcript form) inKenneth P.Minkema,
the Slave Trade," William and Mary Quarterly
were
they
(in ver
published
on Slavery and
and (in edited
"Jonathan Edwards
54 (1997): 823-834,
form) in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 16: Letters and Personal Writings, ed.
George S. Claghorn (New Haven, Conn., 1998), 71-76. (The ongoing multivolume
series The Works of Jonathan Edwards will be cited hereafter as WJE with volume
and page numbers only.) Readers of this piece may want to consult the full text of
Edwards's draft in either of these places. David Brion Davis and Jon Sensbach made
of
helpful comments on a version of this article that was read at the Organization
American
Ava
Historians'
Chamberlain,
I have
the
reconstructed
Missouri,
2000.
April
to
too,
Thanks,
Gerald McDermott,
Bonomi, Christopher
Grasso,
and David Wills for their suggestions.
Stephen J. Stein, Mark Valeri,
1.
St. Louis,
Conference,
Patricia
of
appearances
likely
these
seamen
gentlemen
from
repro
of period portraits in Alexander B. Hawes, Off Soundings: Aspects of the
Maritime History of Rhode Island (Providence, R.I., 1999), and Yale University Por
ductions
trait
Index,
1701-1951
(New
Conn.,
Haven,
1951).
2. Douglas
C. Stenerson, "An Anglican Critique of the Early Phase of the Great Awak
in
New England: A Letter by Timothy Cutler," William and Mary Quarterly 30
ening
(1973)1482.
3. On
the Quakers
ery inAmerica
in the Age
and
see,
slavery,
(New Haven,
of Revolution,
Conn.,
1770-1823
in Colonial New
rall, Quakers
Jean R. Soderlund,
On
Quakers
see Lawrence
Sewall,
for
1950); David
(Ithaca,
E. Drake,
Thomas
example,
N.Y,
B. Davis,
197S),
and
Quakers
Slav
The Problem of Slavery
Arthur
316-321;
J. Wor
123; and
1980), 71-74,
England (Hanover, N.H.,
and Slavery: A Divided Spirit (Princeton, N.J., 1985).
Towner,
"The
Sewall-Saffin
Dialogue
on
Slavery,"
William
and Mary Quarterly 21 (1964): 40-52; David B. Davis, The Problem of Slavery in
and Sidney Kaplan, "'The Selling
Western Culture (Ithaca, N. Y., 1966), 341-348;
of Joseph': Samuel Sewall and the Iniquity of Slavery," in his American Studies in
and White
Black
4.
For
example,
(Amherst,
the
case
Mass.,
of Hartford's
1991),
Capt.
3-18.
Joseph
who
Wadsworth,
in
1702
har
bored a fugitive slave named Abda and assisted him in bringing suit against his mas
ter (Bernard C. Steiner, History of Slavery in Connecticut
[Baltimore, Md.,
1893],
from South
named Thomas Hazard,
about a Quaker
18); or the anecdote
Kingstown, Rhode Island, who in 1742 was surprised to hear aNew London, Con
necticut, deacon exclaim that Quakers "are not Christian People. They hold their
fellow men in slavery!" (Caroline Hazard, Thomas Hazard son ofRobt calVd College
in the XVIIth Century [Boston, Mass.,
Town: A Study of Life inNarragansett
1893],
42-44);
or candlemaker
Nathaniel
Appleton,
Jr.'s pamphlet
Considerations
48
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on Slav
Edwards's
Jonathan
scholarly
in 1767
in Boston
ery, published
of
investigation
of Slavery
"some
but written
antislavery
before."
years
on
sentiment
Samuel Sewall and the small Boston
this
Defense
the
The
community
circle of slavery critics byMark
recent
only
on
is that
level
in
A. Peterson
volume.
5. See John A. Stoughton, Windsor Farmes: A Glimpse of an Old Parish (Hartford,
Ed
Conn., 1883), 91-92; and Timothy Edwards, MS Account Book, 1715-1750,
Yale
wards Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript
Library,
University.
see Baptismal Records and Catalogue of
6. For Africans and Indians inNorthampton,
inMS
Members,
and
chusetts;
Main,
and
Society
Bk. r, First Church
Church Records,
n. 49.
below,
On
class
and
in Colonial
Economy
Connecticut
of Northampton,
in slave
ties
kinship
(Princeton,
Massa
see Jackson
owning,
N.J.,
T
1985).
173os saw a sharp increase in African-bound
voyages from Rhode Island
to
in
from
the
decade
79. Jay Coughtry, The Notori
ports,
previous
only 9 voyages
ous Triangle: Rhode Island and the African Slave Trade, 1700-1807
(Philadelphia,
7. The
26-27.
1981),
Island traders sold slaves in the Caribbean
8. Rhode
they
brought
goes
of
each
slaves,
alone.
Newport
rum.
to make
home
In addition,
of
consisting
usually
The Notorious
Coughtry,
and purchased molasses,
from
i7i4toi739at
20
about
least
Triangle,
or
30
individuals,
ro,
25,
34,
which
car
nine
were
in
sold
167.
On slaveholding
inNew York,
9. On Edwards inNew York, see WJE, 10:261-293.
see Shane White, Somewhat More Independent: The End of Slavery inNew York City,
1770-1810
ro.
(New
(Athens,
Ga.,
Slave
Venus,"
for
"Receipt
Haven,
Conn.,
1990).
in A Jonathan
Edwards
later
Edwards
296-297.
1995),
Reader,
cut
ed.
up
E.
John
the
et al.
Smith
used
and
receipt
the pieces in constructing sermon notebooks. The pieces of the receipt are found in
and in theMS sermons on Ezek. 44:9, dated
Edwards Collection, Box r4, f. n56,
r749,
and
Is. 30:20-21,
dated
March
at the Beinecke
1750,
Library.
11. Perkins, Cranston, and Martin were members of Trinity Church (Church of Eng
land) inNewport. George C. Mason, Annals of Trinity Church, Newport, Rhode Is
land,
12.
1698-1821
and
church
This
is not
R.I.,
(Newport,
61,
1890),
63,
was
65. Martin
clerk
of
the Vestry
warden.
to
imply
that
soldiers
nor
could
be
fervently
pious,
as
seen
in studies
of
of The Ancient and Honor
Army and in the membership
able Artillery Company. Louise Breen, "Religious Radicalism
in the Puritan Officer
the Artillery Company, and Cultural Integration in Seven
Corps: Antinomianism,
teenth-Century Boston," The New England Quarterly 68 (1995): 3-43. See also the
account of pro-revival
soldiers who opposed their Old Light minister, discussed
Cromwell's
New Model
below.
13. Deed, 1726, between Richard Perkins and John Gidley, Newport
Mr. Burt Lippincott of NHS kindly supplied this reference.
14. Ola E. Winslow, Jonathan Edwards (New York, 1940), 362n.
15.
Boston
angle,
Oct.
Newsletter,
151.
Perkins's
10-Nov.
origins
2,
are
1732,
uncertain.
as
cited
He
may
in Coughtry,
have
Historical
The
been
49
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Society.
Tri
Notorious
a member
of
the
THE
MASSACHUSETTS
HISTORICAL
REVIEW
Perkins family of the New London-Norwich
area, or he could have come from Ip
swich or Topsfield, Massachusetts
(where a Richard Perkins was born in 1694). See
New
and Genealogical Register 10 (1858): 213; and James Sav
(Boston,
Dictionary
of the First Settlers of New England
England Historical
age,
Genealogical
1860-1862),
were
officers
ships'
Venus
3:397.
of his
of
a
of
14,
May
New
1733,
legacy to the Church
Perkins's
the communion
for
flagon
On
pay.
that
slaves"?slaves
"privilege
their
"that Captain Richard
the purchase
for
one
been
as part
to keep
entitled
port's Trinity Church voted
be appropriated
have
may
table."
Mason,
An
Shortly
after
nals of Trinity Church, 61.
was
16. Martin
c.
born
in Houston,
1691
Devonshire
County,
England.
inNewport,
inMay 1729, then Elizabeth
he married Philena Coggeshall
in April 1732, and then Esther Lillibridge in 1735. He died in 1746. Vital
arriving
Gardner
Records
of Rhode
Island,
459; James MacSparran,
the Years
1743-1751
jo
1636-18
R.I.,
(Providence,
Ist
1893),
ser-5 v?l-
2.5
4> Pt-
A Letter Book and Abstract of Out Services, Written during
Mass.,
(Boston,
89.
1899),
as
For Martin
a
ship
see
owner,
Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation (Providence, R.I.,
1859), 4:421, 481; and Howard M. Chapin, Rhode Island Privateers in King
War,
George's
17.
for
See,
R.I.,
(Providence,
1739-1748
The
example,
Diary
of Joshua
1926),
178.
(New
Hempstead
Conn.,
London,
1901),
66,
"2 sloops of force belong[ing] to R Island have been seek
entry forMay 10,1717:
... Capt Cranston &cCapt Almy went out inQuest
ing Pirates Come in for harbour
of ye pirates." See also Hawes, Off Soundings, 50, 54, 79.
18. Records
of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 4:17, 57, 568;
Rhode
Island Privateers, 187; Howard M. Chapin, The Tartar: The Armed
Chapin,
Sloop of the Colony of Rhode Island in King George's War (Providence, R.I., 1922),
3. Cranston
in.,
19. On
economic
Pastor:
Edwards,
York,
in 1760.
died
in western
stratification
and
Religion
Patricia
in Eighteenth-Century
Society
Jonathan
Tracy,
(New
Northampton
91-108.
1980),
20. On colonial gentrification
of America:
see
Massachusetts,
Persons,
see Richard Bushman,
during this period,
Cities
Houses,
(New
York,
1992),
The Refinement
61-138.
21. Slaves inHampshire County, 1754: Springfield, 27; Hadley, 18;Westfield,
19; Hat
Mass.
field, 9. Judd MSS, Mass. Series, vol. Ill, 11, Forbes Library, Northampton,
were
in
is
6
this
there
negroes
Northampton,
though
surely an
By 1764,
reportedly
under-estimate.
B.
Dorothy
Porter,
The Negro History Bulletin 24 (i960):
22.
Lorenzo
J. Greene,
Longmeadow,
Diary
New
Merrick
Williams,
(typed transcript),
Mass.
slaves: Ebenezer Devotion
Noah
33.
in Colonial
Negro
in Northampton,"
Movement
England,
1620-1776
(New
York,
173-174.
I942-),
23. Stephen Williams,
brary,
The
"Anti-Slavery
County
Hampshire
of Suffield was
of Wilbraham
in his diary, mentions
had
June 18, 1730, vol. II, 189, Storrs Li
three
Stanford,
ministers
given ?20
(Oronoke,
known
to have
in 1726 to purchase
Scipio, and Luke);
owned
a slave;
Stephen
Saunders, Cato, Tom, Phillis, Scipio, and
5?
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Edwards's
Jonathan
Defense
of Slavery
Bull of Westfield owned Phillis from 1732 to 1741;
Tobiah (bap. 1747); Nehemiah
David Parsons of Amherst owned Pompey, who was married in 1748 and joined the
church in 1758; and Robert Breck of Springfield had Sylvia (1774). Catalog File,
Li
Connecticut Valley Historical Museum
"Slavery," Suffield and Wilbraham,
brary, Springfield, Massachusetts;
Massachusetts,
County,
Black Families
Joseph Carvalho,
Mass.,
(Westfield,
1650-1855
144,
1984),
in Hampden
154-155,
158,
160.
slaveholders who can be identified from church, town, and vital
24. Northampton
records include Col. John Stoddard, Maj. Ebenezer Pomeroy, Capt. Timothy
Edwards, Joseph Bartlett, Benjamin Steb
Dwight, Jonathan Hunt, Jr., Nathaniel
annual
and
Lankton.
Edwards's
bins,
John
salary in 1731 was ?200, out of which
he paid ?80 for Venus. Trumbull, History of Northampton,
2:50.
hatmaker Ebenezer Hunt
took a journey that
25. In August
1732, Northampton
started with a ride to Boston, continued via a sloop to Rhode Island, and concluded
to
overland
Hunt,
Diary,
of
Batches
(Athens,
Besides
in WJE,
Sermons,"
E. Tise,
Larry
Ga.,
1987),
the
"Northampton,"
sermons
wrote
Edwards
Ebenezer
days."
Forbes
I, 26,
from
Library,
to June
May
Dated
17:451.
19-20;
the Defense
of
of Edwards's
in America,
of Slavery
in Colonial
The Negro
Greene,
other
only
twelve
of at least this length. See "Appendix:
A History
Proslavery:
Venus,
of
"in
reported,
vol.
MSS,
number
a "vacancy"
(six) indicates
1731
27.
small
The
Northampton.
26.
in Judd
extracted
he
done,"
Northampton?"all
slaves
New
263.
England,
we
for whom
1701-1840
have
in
purchase
formation are Joseph and Sue, obtained from Hezekiah Griswold ofWindsor, Con
necticut. William Fowler, "The Historical Status of the Negro in Connecticut," His
torical
Magazine,
below,
n. 48.
vol.
ser.,
3d
3
16.
(1874):
On
Leah's
church
see
membership,
desk is in Jonathan Edwards College, Yale University; a photograph of it
is the frontispiece to vol. 13 of WJE and also appears in Jon Butler, Becoming Amer
28. Edwards's
ica: The
29.
I base
Revolution
my
the notes
dating
on
1776
before
of
on
sermons
dated
slavery,
Mass.,
(Cambridge,
the manuscript
ink
and
and
letters,
2000),
132.
handwriting
and
between
comparisons
notebook
all
entries,
found
at
the Beinecke Library. I have also found some content parallels. Entry no. 873 of the
"Miscellanies"
(Edwards's private theological notebooks), written during the sum
mer of 1741 (certainly before October), has language similar to the notes inwhich
mentions
Edwards
cording
MS
that
to the different
a
"precise
times
and
of
example
circumstances
former
of
the
is not
times
church."
...
a rule
In addition,
ac
in the
Sermon on Acts
17:30, dated August 1741, Edwards states that the Jews of
"had
very great and loud calls of the word of God. Before, their igno
Jesus' day
rance
at"
was
the
winked
early
at,"
Christians'
which
echoes
ignorance.
the
Finally,
point
in the
a piece
of
notes
about
circumstantial
God's
"winking
evidence
for
dating is that the deleted notes on one side of one of the sheets used to draft the
notes on slavery pertains to a crisis in his father's church that ended in the summer
of 1741, after which
Edwards may have felt free to use the other side of the sheet.
51
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THE
MASSACHUSETTS
See Roger Wolcott,
"ANarrative
from the Year 1735 to the Year
HISTORICAL
of the Troubles
REVIEW
in the Second Church
1741," Connecticut
Historical
inWindsor,
Society, Hartford,
Conn.
30. WJE,
4:153.
31. WJE,
4:17-18,
12:4-17.
to "Dear Brethren," n.d. [afterMar. 12, 1739], Edwards Col
32. Benjamin Doolittle
Andover
Newton
lection,
School, Newton Centre, Mass.
Theological
had
Doolittle
I am
33.
brought Abijah Prince, born about 1706, from Wallingford.
to
Kevin
grateful
Sweeney of Amherst College and David Proper, former librarian
of Historic Deerfield, for alerting me to the issue of slave owning in the Doolittle
case.
For
Collection,
the
documents
f.
the
enumerating
and
1730-1739.5
f.
1741-5?
charges
Andover
against
see
Doolittle,
Newton
Edwards
School.
Theological
See also George Sheldon, "Negro Slavery inOld Deerfield," New England Magazine
8 (1893): 20; Kevin M. Sweeney, "River Gods and Related Minor Deities: The
Williams
Family and the Connecticut River Valley, 1637-1790"
(Ph.D. diss., Yale
University,
field,
1986); and David R. Proper, Lucy Terry Prince: Singer of History
Mass.,
1997),
(Deer
20.
34. One bill in his papers records receiving the handsome sum of ?230 from the king
for caring for "Canada soldiers." Franklin B. Dexter, Biographical Sketches of the
Graduates of Yale College (New York, 1885)51:151. Also, one of the charges against
in a memorandum
drawn up by Eliezer Wright, protests "the use of the
Doolittle,
a
sum
to
allotted
Doolittle
?100,"
by the church or town. J. H. Temple and George
A
Sheldon,
History of the Town of Northfield, Massachusetts
(Albany, N.Y., 1875),
230.
35. Minkema,
Quarterly
3 6. The
and
names
"Jonathan Edwards
on Slavery and the Slave Trade," William
and Mary
54 (1997): 832.
of
in petitions
the
disaffected
appear
to
presented
in memoranda
the Hampshire
Association,
between
them
now
among
and
Doolittle
Edwards's
School (see n. 33). Benjamin Wright was
papers at Andover Newton Theological
born in 1660 and died in 1743; Holton
died in 1749; Mattoon's
dates are
and
Eliezer
Other
included
1689-1767;
Wright's,
1668-1753.
"opposers"
Jonathan Janes (1696-1776), whose parents and three siblings were killed by Indi
ans at Pascomuck in 1704; Joseph Stebbins (1697-1782),
who came to Northfield
a blacksmith who also came to
in 1726; Deacon
Samuel Smith (1705-1799),
in 1726; Capt. Daniel Shattuck (1692-1760),
Northfield
who settled in 1724 and
built a fort on the outskirts of town; and the family of Theophilus Merriman, who
was killed by Indians in 1723. Temple and Sheldon, A History of the Town of North
field, 460, 475, 492, 534, 536, 541, 568-569; James R. Trumbull, "Northampton
Herbert C. Par
Genealogies,"
typescript, p. 221, Forbes Library, Northampton;
sons, A Puritan Outpost: A History
setts
(New
York,
1937),
in,
of the Town and People of Northfield, Massachu
125.
37. Edwards made arguments similar to those set out by Samuel Sewall in The Selling of
Joseph and The Athenian Oracle and by the writer of "A Letter to the Gentlemen
52.
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Edwards's
Jonathan
in the Guinea
Merchants
or
any
that
stated
few
sent
else
thing
they
. . .
as well
10
Magazine
are
you
314.
(1740):
an Encourager
to drinking
object
This
them.
of Slavery
wine
letter,
Trade,"
some
because
ale merely
to Edwards's
compares
strategy
the Guinea
of
or
The
or Cotton Goods,
that if "you deal in Linnen Checks,
abroad,
might
abuse
people
Gentlemen's
Trade,"
to the objection
in response
Defense
ad absurdum
reductio
"eating and drinking" because they "tend to sin."
regarding abstaining
on Slavery and the Slave Trade," 832. We know
Edwards
Minkema,
"Jonathan
such as
from his "Catalogue of Reading"
(L. 6v.) that Edwards read publications
The London Magazine going back to 1736 (Beinecke Library). On economic turmoil
from
criticisms
and
of
slave
Massachusetts
Bay,"
a contemporary
account
teenth
38.
For
see James
ownership,
The New
of
J. Allegro,
the
England
Quarterly
and
executions,
trials
and
"'Increasing
75
Strength
in Early-Eigh
Movement
and the Antislavery
Law Politics,
ening the Country':
5-11.
(2002):
in which
were
13 Africans
see Daniel
burned at the stake and 16 more, along with 4 Englishmen, hanged,
A Journal of the Proceedings in the Detection of the Conspiracy formed
Horsmanden,
White
Some
People, in Conjunction with Negro and other Slaves, for burning the city
by
in
New-York
America, and Murdering the Inhabitants (New York, 1744). Boston
of
newspapers carried regular updates of the New York trials. See issues of the Boston
Weekly News-Letter from May 7 to Oct. 1 and of the Boston Gazette from May 4 to
24
Aug.
postscript.
letter to Cadwalader
39. See Cotton's
Boston
the
in
News-letter,
was published
Colden, which
"Account
of
Cotton
the
in
anonymously
1727-175
Family,
MS
6,"
(I am indebted to Dou
320-24, Houghton
Library, Harvard University.
AM1165,
glas Winiarski of the University of Richmond for telling me about this letter and for
supplying me with his transcript of it.)
40.
The
Greene,
Bondage
41.
in Colonial
Negro
in the North
Boston
Gazette,
(Syracuse,
28-Oct.
Sept.
aMrs.
New
42.
was
Eliezer
ing
and
with
262,
had the seventh
300
to
land
acres.
For
the
role
of
slaves
Black
McManus,
Edgar
133.
to John
belonging
Garneir,
were accused of setting fire to the home
town.
the
burning
See Greene,
The Negro
(702
Field,
each
totaling
acres);
in regional
less
owning
than
636 acres. Only
the
300
981
acres.
Doolittle
one of his opposers,
were
remainder
owned
however,
economic
13.
taken in 1732 reveals that average
landholders
and Sheldon, A History
named Caesar. Temple
44.
125-127,
boatswain,
the Country,'"
individuals
42
500
of
Strengthening
largest holdings,
had more
Wright,
from
The
intention
of the 62 Northfield
43. A tabulation
acreage
1973),
1741.
161;
155,
161.
England,
"'Increasing
Allegro,
N.Y.,
5,
the
with
Snowden,
in Colonial
England,
to Francis Varambaut,
and Kate, belonging
of
New
middling
sorts,
hav
as
slave
as well
acres,
of the Town of Northfield,
transition
and
resulting
tensions,
a
221,104.
see
Ira
Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery inNorth America
1998), 180; and Joanne R Melish, Disowning Slavery: Gradual
Berlin, Many Thousands
(Cambridge, Mass.,
Emancipation
45.
and
"Race"
in New
England,
"Extract of a letter from a British Planter
1780-1860
...
(Ithaca,
to his Friend
N.Y.,
1998),
19.
still residing on his
53
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE
MASSACHUSETTS
of Antego,"
Island
Majesty's
HISTORICAL
London
Magazine,
REVIEW
Francis
1737;
Apr.
Hutcheson,
Sys
tem of Moral Philosophy (London, 1755): esp. 1:299-300;
Stephen Innes, Creating
the Commonwealth: The Economic Culture of Puritan New England (New York,
10-11.
1995),
See also Wylie
and the 'Classical' Theory of
24 (1939): 263-280. Hutcheson wrote the Moral
Sypher, "Hutcheson
Slavery," Journal of Negro History
Philosophy in 1738.
"The Puritan Ethic and the American
46. Edmund S. Morgan,
and Mary Quarterly 24 (1967): 3-41.
William
Revolution,"
47. Greene, The Negro in Colonial New England, 268; Perry Miller,
"Jonathan Ed
wards's Sociology of the Great Awakening," The New England Quarterly 21 (1948):
One Happy and Holy Society: The Public Theology of
72, 77; Gerald R. McDermott,
Jonathan Edwards (University Park, Penn., 1992), 65, 163-164; Edwards, MS Ser
mon
on Rev.
5:5-6,
L.
1736,
Aug.
Beinecke
4r.,
Library.
48. WJE, 4:330.
from 1735 to 1741, 2 did
49. Of the 11 blacks baptized by Edwards inNorthampton
2
not become full members,
others apparently died in infancy, and 7 went on to be
come full members. Of the 10 admitted to full membership,
1 joined in 1728; 2 in
1729;
6,
another
Leah,
including
of Edwards's
in 1736;
slaves,
and
1 after
1740.
MS Northampton
Church Records, Book 1, First Church, Northampton.
On ad
see
mission
of blacks into churches during the Great Awakening,
D.
William
Piersen, Black Yankees: The Development of an Afro-American Subculture (Amherst,
Mass.,
1988),
as
trend
in other
Churches
69-75.
For
Northampton.
of Massachusetts
parts
the Reading
example,
evidence
church,
the
in 1648,
founded
did
same
not
its first black to membership
until 1736, and from that date until 1744 ad
a
mitted 13, with
significant drop-off thereafter; the Revere Church did not baptize
or admit blacks until 1744-174 5, with no more appearing through the next quar
ter century. "Church Records of the Old Town of Reading,"
typescript, Reading
admit
Public Library; MS,
cal
and
50.
Piersen,
51.
See,
Robert
Movement,
England Histori
68.
Yankees,
for example,
Slavery
1715," New
Mass.
Boston,
Society,
Genealogical
Black
Church-book,
"Rumny-marish
C.
Senior,
1830-1860"
"New
(Ph.D.
England
diss.,
and
Congregationalism
Yale
University,
the Anti
6; Davis,
1954),
The
Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 388; and Catherine A. Brekus, Strangers
and Pilgrims: Female Preaching in America, 1740-1845
1998),
(Chapel Hill, N.C.,
37
52. Edwards, A Faithful Narrative of the Surprizing Work of God, inWJE, 4:159, 330;
and Distinguishing Marks, inWJE, 4:219.
For
(Beinecke Library) preached in
53.
example, in aMS sermon on Matt. 7:13-14
"All mankind of all nations,
the
doctrine
that
Edwards
asserted
January 1751,
or
are
one
in
the other of these paths, either
white and black, young and old,
going
in the way
glory,"
that leads to life or the way
see WJE,
54. If Prince was
13:437-439,
converted
that leads to destruction."
482,
467-468,
during the Connecticut
and
On
"degrees of
19:609-627.
Valley
revivals,
54
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
the moral
urgency
Edwards's
Jonathan
of Slavery
Defense
of his fellow evangelicals to come to his aid would only have been stronger. The fact
that Lucy Terry, Prince's wife, was admitted to the Deerfield church during the
and that Lemuel Haynes delivered her funeral oration suggests
Great Awakening
for the liberal Doolittle?ad
that she and possibly her husband were?ironically
New
herents of the Edwardsean
Divinity. Proper, Lucy Terry Prince, 15, 36.
55. "Minutes of the Hampshire County Association," MS Photocopy, 29, 32, Forbes
Library.
56.
See
n.
33.
to theHampshire Nar
57. See A Letter to the Author of the Pamphlet Called An Answer
in WJE,
rative,
58.
See
Winslow,
Edwards,
Jonathan
59.
60.
n.
See
above,
For
a closer
on
wards
218-219;
Grindall
of Reverend
Rawson,
Pastor,
Edwards,
Jonathan
Tracy,
letter to Gentlemen
and Edwards's
157-158;
1744, inWJE,
12:581,
case
the
the scribe and states that he has "the original papers now by me."
JE was
for which
and
12:91-163,
on
[of the Precinct Committee],
Nov.
16:148.
24.
of key
examination
and
Slavery
Slave
the
see Minkema,
in the draft,
passages
Trade,"
Ed
"Jonathan
826-829.
"Jonathan Edwards on Slavery and the Slave Trade," 831. On Ed
on the Holy
wards's defense of slavery, see his MS "Miscellaneous Observations
Scriptures" (otherwise known as the "Blank Bible" or "Interleaved Bible," in Bei
61. Minkema,
necke
on
Library)
II Peter
which
2:19,
"For
reads,
a man
of whom
is overcome,
of
the same is he brought into bondage." In this verse, Edwards observed, "The Apos
tle alludes to the law of nations, by which 'tis lawful to make slaves of those that
are
overcome
and
in war."
taken
62. Greene, The Negro in Colonial New England, 212; Piersen, Black Yankees, 27. See
also Almon W. Lauber, Indian Slavery in Colonial Times within the Present Limits of
the United States (New York, 1913 ); and Jill Lepore, The Name of War: King Philip's
War and the Origins of American Identity (New York,
63.
See Minkema,
of
sample
the
64. Minkema,
65.
66.
WJE,
this
and
Slavery
150-170.
1998),
the
Slave
Trade,"
827n.,
for
on
and
Slavery
the
Slave
Trade,"
832-834.
9:480.
and SirWilliam
slaves
owned
3 56-366,
or
Edwards's
the hero of Louisburg,
trade.
slave
contacts
primary
Provincial
Belcher,
Jonathan
Pepperrell,
in the
participated
406-414.
Gov.
included
correspondents
Josiah Willard,
See,
for
examples,
in England
were
Secretary
who
WJE,
all either
16:82-84,
Isaac Watts,
John
and in Scotland, John Erskine, James Robe, William Mc
and Thomas Gillespie. Edwards corresponded more with these Scottish di
and Isaac Hollis,
Guyse,
Culloch,
than
with
any
other
Europeans,
and
they
are
equally
silent
on
slavery
until
later in the century. SeeMichael J. Crawford, Seasons of Grace: Colonial New
England's Revival Tradition in Its British Context (New York, 1991); W. R. Ward,
The Protestant Evangelical Awakening
(Cambridge, Eng., 1992); and Frank Lam
much
bert,
a
topic.
Edwards
"Jonathan
Pro-revival
vines
on
literature
on
Edwards
"Jonathan
Inventing
the
"Great
Awakening"
(Princeton,
N.J.,
1999).
55
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THE
67-
On
these
and
other
and
and
late-i7th-
slavery, see Rosalind
Germany to America
the
Protestant
REVIEW
early-18th-century
"The
International,
in debating
involved
figures
J. Beiler, "The Transatlantic
in the Eighteenth Century"
1994); and Peterson,
sylvania,
HISTORICAL
MASSACHUSETTS
of Caspar Wistar: From
(Ph.D. diss., University of Penn
World
Selling of Joseph': Bostonians,
For
1689-1733."
Edwards's
Anti-Slavery,
for
admiration
Francke, see his letter to Josiah Willard, June 1, 1740, and for his negative opinion
of Wesley and Zinzendorf
(whose followers Edwards lumped together as guilty of
the same "follies"), see Edwards to John Erskine, July 5, 1750, inWJE, 16:83, 349
in Jonathan Belcher Letter books,
68. Jonathan Belcher to Lord Egmont, May 14,1741,
Massachusetts
69. Quoted
lantic
Historical
in Frank Lambert,
Revivals,
Society.
"Pedlar inDivinity":
1737-1770
(Princeton,
N.J.,
and the Transat
George Whitefield
204.
1994),
"Blank Bible," Beinecke Library. The entry, judging from
70. Note on Job 31:13-14,
ink and handwriting, was probably written in the early 1730s, around the time he
acquired Venus. See also the following note, on Job 31:15, in which Edwards es
sentially
race,
on
expands
and
[God]
reason why
has
us
given
point,
human
that both have one Maker,
nature,
are made
of
the
more
which
same
human
shows
clearly
the
and abuse his servant. In these two things are
reasons
forceable
"We
adding,
same
the
Job should not despise
the most
contained
same
the
the master's
against
and that their Maker
of his
abuse
servant,
'em alike or with
made
viz.
the same
nature."
71.
Edwards,
MS
Sermon
72.
Kaplan,
"'The
Selling
on
Luke
of Joseph,'"
Beinecke
1742,
Sewall's
13.
Library.
tracts
antislavery
are not mentioned
so any direct influence of Sewall on Edwards
in Edwards's writings,
anywhere
Nov.
15:15-16,
is
unknown.
73. Such as Wicked Men's
Slavery to Sin and Christian Liberty,
in WJE,
10:327-350,
618-631.
74.
621.
10:619,
WJE,
75. See, for example, Theophus H. Smith, Conjuring Culture: Biblical Formation of Black
America
(New
the American
York,
Albert
1994);
J. Raboteau,
Exodus,
"African-Americans,
in the Bones:
in his A Fire
Israel,"
on
Reflections
African-American
and
Re
"Exodus Piety:
1995), 17-36; and David W. Wills,
ligious History (Boston, Mass.,
inMinority Faiths and the
in an Age of Immigration,"
African American Religion
Protestant
American
76. MS
Sermon
77. There
Probate
Mainstream,
on Rev.
7:1-2,
is no mention
Books,
Feb.
of Prince
v. 7,
1745-1752,
ed.
Jonathan
26,
1741,
in Doolittle's
D.
Beinecke
will
Connecticut
182,
Sarna
(Urbana,
111., 1997).
Library.
(Northampton, Mass.,
Valley
Historical
Registry
Museum)
of
or
and he is listed among the proprietors of
inventory of his estate (pp. 231-232),
common
inDeerfield
lands beginning in 1751. Prince lived and worked
Northfield
for some time, until his wife was freed; the two were in Guilford, Vermont, by
1785.
Proper,
Lucy
Terry
Prince,
20,
25.
78. See Proper, Lucy Terry Prince, 20-21. Prince is listed on a Deerfield military roll
from 1748 to 1749. George Sheldon, A History of Deerfield, Massachusetts
(Deer
56
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Edwards's
Jonathan
Mass.,
field,
79. As
in 1743
treatise
80. New
81.
1896),
Haven
An
entitled
vol.
Deeds,
F. Jones,
Electa
1:567.
to reveal his religious
if finally
of Slavery
Defense
11,
Stockbridge,
Doolittle
sentiments,
an anti-revival
published
into Enthusiasm.
Enquiry
222,
Connecticut
State
Past
and
or, Records
Present;
Conn.
Hartford,
Library,
of an Old
Mission
Station
for providing
1854), 238 (I am grateful to Ava Chamberlain
"Records of the Church of Christ in Stockbridge, from June
left by Dr. Stephen
1819, taken primarily from manuscripts
(Springfield, Mass.,
this reference). MS
1759 until August
West," p. 18, Stockbridge Library Association,
Stockbridge, Mass., and An Histor
ical Sketch of the Congregational Church in Stockbridge (Stockbridge, Mass.,
1874),
26, list "Rose, wife of Joab Binney, col[ored]," as having joined the church in 1771.
She outlived
man
Dr.
Salter.
an account
Stephen
successor
Edwards's
West,
time to a
published
of what
as
evidence
contradictory
to the year
of her
death:
in the
Mass.,
Stockbridge,
Church
Congregational
never
who
West,
name of his subject, states that she died before his published
deaths
a second
at Stockbridge,
is reputed to be Rose's spiritual experience in The Theological
of 1797, which is reproduced in the Appendix,
above. There is, however,
Magazine
some
died c. 1783, and apparently married
Joab, who
named
account,
gives
vol.
Records,
the
but the list of
1, p.
177,
Salter as dying in 1822 at the age of 78. Barbara Allen of the Stock
assisted me in finding information about Joab, Rose,
bridge Library Association
and Titus. Emilie S. Piper of the Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield, shared her exten
records Rose
sive research on African Americans
supplied me with
82.
On
6,
Sarah's
1746,
for
searches
MS
in colonial western Massachusetts
and kindly
copies of original documents.
Sermon
see Jonathan
slaves,
on
I Cor.
Beinecke
11:3,
to Robert
Edwards
and
Library,
Mar.
Abercrombie,
WJE,
16:622,
731.
Status of the Negro in Connecticut,"
Fowler, "The Historical
16, reprints the Aug.
4,1759, deed of conveyance for the sale of Joseph and Sue, "lately the proper goods
of said Jonathan Edwards, deceased," to John Owen of Simsbury, Conn., for ?23.
Sarah Pierpont Edwards's will is in Vol. 1747-63, p. 1273, City Hall Records, L,
101, Philadelphia.
83. Edwards to Joseph Bellamy, Feb. 28, 1754, inWJE, 16:622; Edwards to Esther Ed
wards
Burr,
Nov.
20,
in WJE,
1757,
16:731;
Inventory of His Estate," Bibliotheca
84. William
Allen,
An
Address
Delivered
Edwards's
"Jonathan
at Northampton,
Mass.,
1855),
52,
states
that
Titus
and
. . . in Commemoration
of the Close of the Second Century Since the Settlement of the Town
Mass.,
Last Will,
Sacra 33 (1876): 446.
was
Joab
and
Rose's
son,
though
(Northampton,
he
also
incor
rectly states that Rose was Edwards's first slave. Titus, later freed by the Edwards's
oldest son Timothy, served in the Revolution
in 1780, purchased land in Lenox in
1772 and 1784 and in Pittsfield in 1806, and may have been given land by Timothy
Edwards inTioga County, New York, around 1800. Allen, An Address, 52; Grantee
Index, 1761-1830, Middle District, Berkshire Athenaeum,
Pittsfield, Mass.; Free
Black Heads
troit, Mich.,
of Households
1981),
264;
in the New
Knurow
York State Federal Census,
Collection,
v.
33,
p.
341,
Berkshire
57
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1790-1830
Athenaeum.
(De
THE
MASSACHUSETTS
HISTORICAL
He
apparently died in 1822 in Pittsfield
Church Records, Berkshire Athenaeum.
these
REVIEW
the ages of 65 and 70. Pittsfield
S. Piper researched and provided
between
Emilie
references.
85. See, for example, Dwight L. Dumond, Antislavery Origins of the Civil War in the
United States (Ann Arbor, Mich.,
1961), 16-25; Duncan J.MacLeod,
Slavery, Race,
and the American Revolution
(London, 1974), 14-61; and Davis, The Problem of
in the Age
Slavery
of Revolution,
1982),
ch.
255-342.
The Ruling Race: A History
86. See James Oakes,
of American Slaveholders
(New York,
7.
87. I have found no instance inwhich New Divinity figures who espoused immediate
emancipation publicly raised the issue that Edwards had owned slaves. A likely,
apologetic allusion can be found in Jonathan Edwards, Jr.'s 1791 address, Injustice
he asserts that slavery was a
and Impolity of the Slave Trade, and of Slavery, inwhich
greater
crime
than
or
theft
"fornication,
reflect badly] on the characters of our pious
it ignorantly and in unbelief of the truth_As
in a time
of
which
ignorance
God
which
robbery,"
winked
at;
to bear
"seems
[i.e.
hardly
fathers, who held slaves. But they did
to domestic slavery our fathers lived
but
now
he
all men
commandeth
every
to repent of this wickedness,
and to break off this sin by righteousness, and this
iniquity by shewing mercy to the poor, if itmay be a lengthening out of their tranquil
ity." The Works of Jonathan Edwards, D.D. (1842; New York, 1987), 2:91.
where
see David S.
connections
between Edwards and Edwardsean
abolitionism,
Love joy, "Samuel Hopkins: Religion, Slavery, and the Revolution,"
The New Eng
land Quarterly 40 (1967): 227-243; David E. Swift, "Samuel Hopkins: Calvinist
New England," Journal of Presbyterian His
Social Concern in Eighteenth-Century
tory 47 (1969): 31-54; Joseph A. Conforti, Samuel Hopkins and the New Divinity
88. On
Movement:
tween
the Congregational
Calvinism,
the Great
(Grand
Awakenings
and
Ministry,
Rapids,
Mich.,
The New
1775-1805,"
England
1981),
The New
68
Quarterly
England
John
125-58;
of Black Theology,
and John Saillant,
"Lemuel Haynes and the Revolutionary
Origins
Religion and American Culture 2 (i992):79~io2;
in New England Calvinism:
Divine Providence
Protest,
in New
Reform
Divinity
be
Saillant,
1776-1801,"
"Slavery and
and a Black
584-608.
(1995):
for
89. In Stockbridge, Past and Present, Electa F. Jones provided the only background
the document: "After the death of President Edwards, if not before, Joab and his
wife settled in the South part of the town, where he labored as a blacksmith. He was
a man of good sense and steady, Christian deportment.
several
infants,
came
Rose
to request
to Dr. West
After
admission
the birth and death of
to the
church,
thinking
in anger, because of her neglect of this duty. The in
the subject, not only led her to see her unfitness for
that God had slain her children
structions
of Dr. West
church membership,
to her
conversion.
upon
but the real alienation
She
united
with
the
of her heart from God,
church,
and
ever
after
and were blessed
her
adorned
profes
sion. After her death, Dr. West published an account of her Christian life and expe
rience in the 'Theological Magazine'"
(238). Rose was admitted to the Stockbridge
church
in 1771,
so West's
account
was
more
than
two
decades
5?
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old
by
the
time
he
Edwards's
Jonathan
published
90.
who
a
made
living
name appears on the Stockbridge
ed.,
of Slavery
it.
Binney,
Joab
Defense
Massachusetts
Tax
Valuation
as
either
a tanner
or
as
a blacksmith,
and
tax lists for 1771 and 1778. Betty Hobbs
List
of
1771
(Boston,
Mass.,
1978),
40;
whose
Pruitt,
Stock
bridge Assessor's List, 1778, Town Papers, Stockbridge Library Association.
91. From c. 1761 to 1771, Rose and Joab Binney had five daughters baptised at Stock
bridge, all of whom but one, Tamar, died in infancy. "Records of the Church of
Christ in Stockbridge," 68. A sixth daughter, Clamira, is recorded as having been
baptised in 1782. [Stephen West], MS, "Records of the Church in Stockbridge from
Both Tamar and Clamira,
1776 until 1819," p. 6, Stockbridge Library Assocation.
as well
as
their
Local History
mother
Rose,
Department,
are mentioned
in Joab's
Berkshire Athenaeum,
will,
dated
Nov.
10,
1783.
copy courtesy of Emilie S. Piper.
59
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