The Heathen School: A Story of Hope and Betrayal in the Age of the Early Republic - Paperback

by John Demos (Author)

Award-winning historian John Demos tells the astonishing and moving story of a unique missionary project, which probes the very roots of American identity.

Near the start of the nineteenth century, as the United States looked outward to the wider world, a group of eminent Protestant ministers devised a grand scheme for gathering the rest of mankind into the redemptive fold of Christianity and "civiization." Its core element was a special school for "heathen youth" drawn from all parts of the earth, and, especially, the native nations of North America. If all went well, graduates would return to join similiar projects in their respective homelands.

For some years, the school prospered, indeed became quite famous. However, when two Cherokee students courted and married local women public resolve and fundamental ideals were put to a severe test.

Author Biography

John Demos is the Samuel Knight Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University. His previous books includeThe Unredeemed Captive, which won the Francis Parkman Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award, and Entertaining Satan, which won the Bancroft Prize. He lives in Tyringham, MA.