2.31 America: a.d. 1701 to 1800  (Page 6/20)

At the beginning of the century Anglicans redoubled their efforts to send missionaries among the Indians to learn their languages and establish schools. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) was founded for that purpose in 1701. The Archbishop of Canterbury was a founder and colonial governors and commissaries were members, as were laymen on both sides of the Atlantic. Inevitably there developed a close association between SPG and English imperialism. There was little distinction between extending the flag and spreading the faith. A search was made to find a lingua franca which could be comprehended by most southern Indians. An Algonquian tongue spoken by the Savannahs (Shawnees) was considered, but the Muskhogean Yamasee was better as it could be understood throughout much of the south as a second, if not a first language. Schools were established, including one in connection with William and Mary College, but there were never many in attendance and little was really accomplished. In the long run the SPG was most successful with Mohawks in upper New York, where missionaries did conduct services in the Mohawk language. We have mentioned the Yamasee rebellion in the latter half of the century, after which those Indians were implacable enemies of the British as long as any of them survived. The SPG was shocked. (Ref. 267 )

After 1715 the two largest Indian tribes adjacent to South Carolina were the Creeks and Cherokees and there was some attempt to Christianize them. A German, Christian Priber, a versatile scholar and lawyer conversant in several languages, went to live among them, dressed as a native, learned their language and tried to establish a socialist community on the frontier. He educated the Indians, explaining how traders' scales, weights and measures worked so that the British colonists assumed he was a French agent trying to turn the natives against them. They sought him out and imprisoned him.

Except for the Floridas, which Britain acquired in 1763 and held for 20 years, Georgia was the last southern colony, founded in 1733, more than 60 years after the birth of Charleston. After 10 years of Trustee rule, Georgia's white population was at most 3,000, but on the eve of the Revolution, Georgia contained 18,000 free whites and almost as many slaves. The original trustees did have ideals,- however, including the prohibition of drinking, the outlawing of Negro slavery and some restriction on the size of land holdings. This did not keep the Georgians from using Indian slaves, however, and by 1750 the trustees legalized all types of slavery. James Oglethorpe was the only trustee who actually went to Georgia and he appointed Charles Wesley his secretary for Indian affairs and John Wesley as an ordained missionary of the SPG. John decided to go into the Chickasaw country to learn their language and customs, but various complications kept him from accomplishing that and his ministry was not successful. Oglethorpe persuaded the Yamacraw chief, his wife, nephew and a handful of others to return with him to England in 1734, where the Reverend Samuel Smith instructed them in the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Commandments. This was about the extent of the Georgia conversion.