Cherokees and Missionaries, 1789-1839

Cherokees and Missionaries, 1789-1839 by McLoughlin, William G.. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780806127231.

In 1789 Washingtons administration announced that American Indians would receive equal citizenship as soon as they were "civilized and Christianized." William McLoughlin describes the crucial role missionaries played in the acculturation and "Americanization" of the Cherokee Indians from 1789 to 1839. He compares the methods, successes, and failures of the Moravians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, and Methodists among the Cherokees. Each denomination offered its own vision of "civilization": Southern missionaries taught the divine ordination of slavery, but northern missionaries taught that God opposed it. Some counseled the Cherokees to "obey the powers that be"; others showed them how civil disobedience might defeat Andrew Jacksons plan to remove the Indians to the West.