"Champions of the Cherokees" is the story of two extraordinary Northern Baptist missionaries, father and son, who lived with the Cherokee Indians from 1821 to 1876. Told largely in the words of these outspoken and compassionate men, this is also a narrative of the Cherokees' sufferings at the hands of the United States government and white frontier dwellers. In addition, it is an analysis of the complexity of interracial relations in the United States, for the Cherokees adopted the white man's custom of black chattel slavery. This fascinating biography reveals the unusual extent to which Evan and John B. Jones challenged prevailing federal Indian policies: unlike most other missionaries, they supported the Indians' right to retain their own identity and national autonomy. William McLoughlin vividly describes the "trail of tears" over which the Cherokees and Evan Jones traveled eight hundred miles through the dead of winter--from Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina to a new home in Oklahoma. He examines the difficulties that Jones encountered when, alone among all the missionaries, he expelled Cherokee slaveholders from his mission churches. This book depicts the Joneses' experiences during the Civil War, including their chaplaincy of two Cherokee regiments who fought with the Northern side. Finally, McLoughlin tells how these "champions of the Cherokees" were adopted into the Cherokee nation and helped them fight detribalization.

Originally published in 1990.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The Cherokees, the most important tribe in the formative years of the American Republic, became the test case for the Founding Fathers' determination to Christianize and "civilize" all Indians and to incorporate them into the republic as full citizens. From the standpoint of the Cherokees, rather than from that of the white policymakers, William McLoughlin tells the dramatic success story of the "renascence" of the tribe. He goes on to give a full account of how the Cherokees eventually fell before the expansionism of white America and the zeal of Andrew Jackson.

Champions of the Cherokees is the story of two extraordinary Northern Baptist missionaries, father and son, who lived with the Cherokee Indians from 1821 to 1876. Told largely in the words of these outspoken and compassionate men, this is also a narrative of the Cherokees' sufferings at the hands of the United States government and white frontier dwellers. In addition, it is an analysis of the complexity of interracial relations in the United States, for the Cherokees adopted the white man's custom of black chattel slavery. This fascinating biography reveals the unusual extent to which Evan and John B. Jones challenged prevailing federal Indian policies: unlike most other missionaries, they supported the Indians' right to retain their own identity and national autonomy. William McLoughlin vividly describes the "trail of tears" over which the Cherokees and Evan Jones traveled eight hundred miles through the dead of winter--from Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina to a new home in Oklahoma. He examines the difficulties that Jones encountered when, alone among all the missionaries, he expelled Cherokee slaveholders from his mission churches. This book depicts the Joneses' experiences during the Civil War, including their chaplaincy of two Cherokee regiments who fought with the Northern side. Finally, McLoughlin tells how these "champions of the Cherokees" were adopted into the Cherokee nation and helped them fight detribalization. Originally published in 1990. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

In "The Cherokees and Christianity," William G. McLoughlin examines how the process of religious acculturation worked within the Cherokee Nation during the nineteenth century. More concerned with Cherokee "Christianization" than Cherokee "civilization," these eleven essays cover the various stages of cultural confrontation with Christian imperialism.

The first section of the book explores the reactions of the Cherokee to the inevitable clash between Christian missionaries and their own religious leaders, as well as their many and varied responses to slavery. In part two, McLoughlin explores the crucial problem of racism that divided the southern part of North America into red, white and black long before 1776 and considers the ways in which the Cherokees either adapted Christianity to their own needs or rejected it as inimical to their identity.

This powerful narrative traces the social, cultural, and political history of the Cherokee Nation during the forty-year period after its members were forcibly removed from the southern Appalachians and resettled in what is now Oklahoma. In this master work, completed just before his death, William McLoughlin not only explains how the Cherokees rebuilt their lives and society, but also recounts their fight to govern themselves as a separate nation within the borders of the United States. Long regarded by whites as one of the 'civilized' tribes, the Cherokees had their own constitution (modeled after that of the United States), elected officials, and legal system. Once re-settled, they attempted to reestablish these institutions and continued their long struggle for self-government under their own laws--an idea that met with bitter opposition from frontier politicians, settlers, ranchers, and business leaders. After an extremely divisive fight within their own nation during the Civil War, Cherokees faced internal political conflicts as well as the destructive impact of an influx of new settlers and the expansion of the railroad. McLoughlin brings the story up to 1880, when the nation's fight for the right to govern itself ended in defeat at the hands of Congress.

In Revivals, Awakenings, and Reform, McLoughlin draws on psychohistory, sociology, and anthropology to examine the relationship between America's five great religious awakenings and their influence on five great movements for social reform in the United States. He finds that awakenings (and the revivals that are part of them) are periods of revitalization born in times of cultural stress and eventuating in drastic social reform. Awakenings are thus the means by which a people or nation creates and sustains its identity in a changing world.
This book is sensitive, thought-provoking and stimulating. It is 'must' reading for those interested in awakenings, and even though some may not revise their views as a result of McLoughlin's suggestive outline, none can remain unmoved by the insights he has provided on the subject.--Christian Century
This is one of the best books I have read all year. Professor McLoughlin has again given us a profound analysis of our culture in the midst of revivalistic trends.--Review and Expositor