The Diary of Samuel Sewall, 1674-1729. 2 volumes [Hardcover]

Halsey M. Thomas (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1973

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1879. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... * Midweek, April 14.1714. Between 6 and 71 went on board the Sloop Success, John Davis Master, burdened about 42 Tuns, Loaden * of biography, and of local descriptions, and sketches of missionary effort for the Indians, which give evidence alike of the conscientious attempts, at much cost of patience, money, and hard labor, in their behalf, and of the duoooragemeuts and failure which shadowed and saddened the results. Primers, catechisms, tracts, and Bibles, were printed in their own languages. Schools were established for Indian children. Tools and implements for agriculture, and for household thrift, were generously furnished. Guardians and overseers were sent into the bounds reserved for the Indians to teach them agriculture and profitable industry. About the time of SewalTs visit to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, there were a score of graduates from Harvard who, as preachers, were capable of conducting religious services in the language and dialect of the natives, while eight of the red men had been trained and ordained to the work of the ministry to their own people. But contact and intimacy with the white man and with civilization, in almost every case, demoralized the Indians, robbing them of such wild manhood as they might have had in their savage condition and in their forest life, and making them degraded and humiliated in the presence of a superior race. No community of Indians, in New England at least, has ever advanced much beyond a stage of semi-civilization, and it is very rarely that a single one is now to be seen among us of pure, unmixed, native blood: while in the vast regions of oar western and northwestern territory it is estimated that a very large proportion of the Indian tribes are half-breeds, chiefly of a French mixture; and while suc...

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1312 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition edition (January 1, 1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374139520
• ISBN-13: 978-0374139520
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.8 x 3.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,476,324 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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