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A Story of Hope and Betrayal in the Age of the Early Republic
Knopf
March 2014
On Sale: March 18, 2014
352 pages
ISBN: 0679455108
EAN: 9780679455103
Kindle: B00FDS79B2
Hardcover / e-Book
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Fiction
The astonishing story of a unique missionary project—and the
America it embodied—from award-winning historian John Demos. Near the start of the nineteenth century, as the newly
established United States looked outward toward the wider
world, a group of eminent Protestant ministers formed a
grand scheme for gathering the rest of mankind into the
redemptive fold of Christianity and “civilization.” Its core
element was a special school for “heathen youth” drawn from
all parts of the earth, including the Pacific Islands,
China, India, and, increasingly, the native nations of North
America. If all went well, graduates would return to join
similar 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. The Heathen School follows the progress, and the demise, of
this first true melting pot through the lives of individual
students: among them, Henry Obookiah, a young Hawaiian who
ran away from home and worked as a seaman in the China Trade
before ending up in New England; John Ridge, son of a
powerful Cherokee chief and subsequently a leader in the
process of Indian “removal”; and Elias Boudinot, editor of
the first newspaper published by and for Native Americans.
From its birth as a beacon of hope for universal
“salvation,” the heathen school descends into bitter
controversy, as American racial attitudes harden and
intensify. Instead of encouraging reconciliation, the school
exposes the limits of tolerance and sets off a chain of
events that will culminate tragically in the Trail of Tears. In The Heathen School, John Demos marshals his deep empathy
and feel for the textures of history to tell a moving story
of families and communities—and to probe the very roots of
American identity.
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