PROPAGATING THE GOSPEL AMONG THE INDIANS, AND OTHERS, IN NORTH AMERICA

PROPAGATING THE GOSPEL AMONG THE INDIANS, AND OTHERS, IN NORTH AMERICA

(Massachusetts – Native Americans) Frisbie, Levi Reverend. A DISCOURSE BEFORE THE SOCIETY FOR PROPAGATING THE GOSPEL AMONG THE INDIANS, AND OTHERS, IN NORTH AMERICA DELIVERED ON THE 1ST OF NOVEMBER, 1804. Printed by Samuel Etheridge. 1st. 38 pgs. Original plain blue wrappers. Pgs 33-38 are notes with the names of Officers of the Society and members plus a FORM OF A BEQUEST, OR LEGACY to be given to the Society for Propagating the gospel among the Indians and others in North America.

Levi Frisbie (1748-1806) aka Philo Musae, was born in Branford, Connecticut to Elisha Frisbie (1716-1784) and Rachel Levi. His education consisted of Moor’s Indian Charity School (1767-1768), Yale (1768-1770) and graduating from the first Dartmouth class in 1771. He studied theology under Rev. Eleazar Wheelock at Hanover and was ordained in 1772. Over the following 4 years he was involved in missionary work among the Delaware Indians and Indians in Maine. On February 7, 1776 he became the tenth minister at the First Church in Ipswich where upon his death he was buried in the Old Burying Ground at Ipswich.

The first First Church of Ipswich was only a meeting house when first gathered in 1636. The church Rev. Frisbie was pastor of would have been the fourth building to serve as the First Church of Ipswich being built in 1749. It is from this church that Rev. Frisbie read aloud to his congregation in July of 1776, a broadside printing of The Declaration of Independence by Ezekiel Russell of Salem – the colony’s authorized edition.

“The Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Indians and Others in North America was a Congregationalist organization founded in Massachusetts in 1787. Its primary goal was to "civilize" Native Americans and newly emancipated Black people by converting them to Christianity and teaching them American cultural norms through activities like building schools, distributing instructional books, and encouraging land cultivation. The society worked throughout the 19th century, supporting missionary efforts and partnering with other organizations.” 

“The Society's object was "the dissemination of Christian knowledge, and the means of religious instruction among all those, in their country, who were destitute of them." It was difficult for the missionaries to convert the Native Americans, to whom Christianity was unknown. The early missionaries, such as John Eliot, Gideon Hawley, the Mayhews, and John Cotton, mastered Indigenous languages, formed alphabets and grammar books, and learned to preach in these languages. Conducting sermons and visiting Native American homes were early ways of propagating the gospel. “

Sources: Field 570; Sabin 25979; Massachusetts Historical Society; Wikipedia.

Scattered foxing, moderate, overall in vg cond.