August 1752

Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. Last week we were in August of 1751 and leaning in and looking over Edward’s shoulder as he was preaching a sermon at a signing of a treaty with the Mohawks. Well, we are now going to look at the next year, August of 1752, and I guess we could classify this under things have gone from bad to worse. As Edwards first got to Stockbridge, got into the school that was there and what was happening there, he began to realize that all was not as seems, and he was letting some of that be revealed in August of 1751. But he’s learned that things are even worse there. These Native Americans, and most of these were Mohawk children. They were sent to this school. They were sent there to learn to read and write, and of course, they would be taught in Scripture and be taught the gospel and be trained up and catechized and trained in both Scripture and theology.

But what was happening instead was, basically, it was to have them put to labor. And so they were put to work in the fields, and they were put to work building buildings, and the school was sort of pushed to the margins. Well, complicating all of this is that the Williams family, and they were ubiquitous across the colony of Massachusetts, largely controlled both the town of Stockbridge and the school. At the top of the clan was Colonel Ephraim Williams. He was one of the original settlers of Stockbridge. He was one of the most prominent Englishmen in the Massachusetts colony, especially central and western Mass. His relatives were all over and holding political position, military position, educational positions at Yale, Harvard, and so the Williams were everywhere. It was actually a daughter of Ephraim Williams, Abigail Williams, who was married to John Sergeant. Now John Sergeant was the first minister there at Stockbridge, pastored the church that had ministered to a few of the English families, but primarily ministered to the two hundred fifty or so Native Americans that lived there on the plains of Stockbridge. And he also was the head of the school. And as I mentioned, he was married to Abigail.

Now, just a little piece of history here, John Sergeant, before he married Abigail, was actually engaged, and he was engaged to one of Jonathan Edwards’s sisters. So things get a little complicated. Well, John Sergeant died, and after he died, it was Edwards who stepped in to replace him as the pastor of the church and, theoretically, the head of the school. Shortly after Sergeant died, Abigail married again, and she married a Dwight. So, she was Abigail Dwight, and her father, Colonel Ephraim, still pulling the strings, made sure that Abigail was appointed the head mistress of the school. So things are very political, very connected. And there’s also Williams’ nephew, the Colonel Elisha Williams, who was put in charge of the school by Ephraim, even though technically Edwards was supposed to be—I hope you’re following all of this. It certainly is complicated—and it seems like Elisha Williams had written a letter to Edwards but didn’t want to give it to him.

One of those letters he was sort of putting his ideas on paper, but apparently, he lost it in the streets of Stockbridge. And one of the Mohawks found it, saw that it was addressed to Jonathan Edwards on the outside, and delivered it to Edwards. Edwards mentioned that he reluctantly even opened the letter. He says, in fact, “A Mohawk, lately, picked up a letter in the street directed to me, not knowing who it was. However, it came into my hands, and I had some doubt whether I had any right to it, coming into it in the way that I had. However, I saw it was inscribed to me, and I opened it.” Well, all it did was go into, again, politics, accusing Edwards of mis-running the school, which wasn’t true, and deflecting the blame and the focus away from the Williams family. And now Edwards needs to vindicate himself. Well, all that to say, we think of these church history figures, and we see their portraits, we sometimes forget that they’re actually people, and they had to deal with challenges too. And so here’s Edwards in the month of August and 1752, trying to make the best of this difficult and challenging situation. Well, that’s Edwards. And I’m Steve Nichols, and thanks for joining us for 5 Minutes in Church History.