HIST 112: American History, 1500-1877 (HC)

A journal from 1798-1800 covering Swayne’s trip, under the auspices of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, to the Seneca Nation.

Simmons’s journals chronicle his missionary work with Native Americans, including the Iroquois and his “Western journey of exploration.” Simmons was on the same trip to the Seneca documented by Joel Swayne above.

Beginning in 1756, this organization has sent delegates to various Native American tribes, done advocacy work with Native Americans, and run schools. Materials include minutes, financial papers, account books, correspondence, addresses, reports, journals, scrapbooks, legal, land and legislative related papers, and maps. (MC 1250)

Letchworth was a traveling Quaker minister who visited Native Americans in New York state, and also travelled to Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. The collection includes his letters and journals. (MC 1198)

Includes an account of a conference during this visit.

The substance of the conference was to establish an understanding between the Native Americans and the philosophical descendants of William Penn who wished to abide by the peace principle. (MC 950)

Journal of William Allinson describing a visit he made in 1809 with John Brown to the Native Americans at Tunessasa and Cattaraugus in New York State. 3 volumes. (MC 968, box 11)

Includes observations of Native Americans. (MC 852)

Many of the letters to and from Israel Pemberton discuss the “Friendly Association for the Regaining and Preserving Peace with the Indians by Pacific Measures.” (MC 1036)

The "Friendly Association" grew out of the violence of the French-Indian War and was active as a formal organization from ca. 1756-1764. It was a private initiative, without the official sanction of PYM, but it quickly assumed a prominent role in many of the most important controversies of the day. Israel Pemberton and the other leaders of the Association sought to represent the interests of the Delaware in their ongoing dispute with the Pennsylvania government over the so-called “walking purchase.” They monitored and participated in a series of treaty negotiations in the late 1750s and early 1760s. The papers contain hundreds of unique and detailed accounts of behind-the-scenes treaty negotiations; historical documents related to Native American affairs; the correspondence of Pemberton and others relating to fund-raising and the exigencies of Pennsylvania politics; and missives from tribe leaders, transcribed by a network of Native American “go-betweens.

Prior to the establishment of the PYM Indian Committee in 1795, discussion of Native American affairs may be found within the minutes of the PYM Meeting for Sufferings, established in 1756. Its primary duties included oversight of Quaker publications, recording annual accounts of sufferings (primarily as a result of the Peace Testimony) and assistance to any affected individuals, collecting memorials concerning deceased Friends, and correspondence with the Meeting for Sufferings in London.

The Indian Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYMIC) began in 1795 and continues at the present time. Major topics discussed in the records include Friends' 18th and 19th century visits to Native Americans at various locations (Oneida, Genesanguhta, Stockbridge, etc.), the settlement at Tunesassa and later boarding school (Friends Indian School), the Ogden Land Company, Buffalo Treaty fraud of 1838 and resulting land problems, Kansas land claims, leasing of Native land, temperance, legislation impacting on Native Americans, the "Salamanca Commission" (Joseph Scattergood), the Kinzua Dam project (Allegheny Reservoir, N.Y.) and efforts to stop it, civil rights issues and the 1972 shooting by police of Leroy Shenandoah in Philadelphia. See also the Hicksite records of PYMIC at Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College.

Includes records of BYM Committee on Indian Concern (minutes, correspondence, reports, and miscellaneous papers). The first Indian Committee of Baltimore Yearly Meeting was appointed in 1795 to promote "welfare, Religious Instruction, knowledge of agriculture and useful Mechanic Arts" among Native Americans.

Ms. Coll. 1003: The Associated Executive Committee of Friends on Indian Affairs originated in 1869 in answer to President Grant's Peace Policy, officially giving management of the Natives in the Central Superintendency (Kansas and the Indian Territory) to the Orthodox branch of the Society of Friends. The election of President Hayes ended the essentially friendly relationship between the Quakers and the administration as it became evident that some officials distrusted the work and integrity of Friends. As a result, Friends withdrew from government sponsored work in 1879 and directed their efforts towards missionary work and the establishment of Meetings among the different Native American tribes. Edward M. Wistar was chairman of the Committee from 1895-1919.

Ms. Coll. 999: The Emlen Institution for the Benefit of Children of African and Indian descent was the result of a bequest from Samuel Emlen, Jr., a Burlington, N.J. Friend who died in 1837. Emlen left money ($20,000) for the "education, maintenance and instruction in school learning and in agriculture and mechanical trades or arts, of free male orphan children of African or Indian descent..." Includes business correspondence (chiefly on financial matters), treasurer's accounts and reports, receipts, bills, inventories, trustees minutes. Also a printed copy of will of Samuel Emlen and deed to land in Warminster, Bucks Co., 1765 (recorded 17[8]7).

Letters to and from Philip Garrett, Eliza W. Jones, Amelia S. Quinton, Florence Redman, and Charles Rhoads, discussing petition to abolish Indian Bureau, dated, 1899-1900. Also Association tracts urging reform, dated 1898, 1899.

This collection contains two copies of the Constitution for the New Jersey Association for Helping Indians, 1757. One copy has signatures of subscribers who gave money for the cause, including John Woolman. The other copy was found among records at Haddonfield Monthly Meeting, Haddonfield, New Jersey.