“Sermon preached to 1st Congregational Society in Deerfield, Mass. and in the Hearing of Several Indians of Both Sexes Supposed”

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From the collections of PVMA • Digital image © Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Assoc. • Image use information


About this item

The Reverend John Fessenden (1804-1881), pastor of the Deerfield, Massachusetts church, delivered this sermon in 1835 before, among others, a party of St. Francis Abenakis. The Native people who “attended divine service on Sunday in a divine and orderly manner” claimed to be descendants of Eunice Williams and were on a visit to the graves of her mother and father, the Reverend and Mrs. Williams. Eunice had been captured and taken to Canada during a 1704 raid on Deerfield by French soldiers and their Indigenous allies.  She married an Indigenous man and raised a family in Kahnawake, Quebec, Canada, and never returned to live in Deerfield.  The thesis of the sermon – that all people are of one blood descended from Adam and Eve – underscored the connection between the Williamses of Deerfield and their “cousins” in Canada, the descendants of Eunice and her husband, Arosen.

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Details

Item typeBooklet – Sermon
AuthorFessenden, Reverend John
PublisherPhelps and Ingersoll [editors]
Date1837-08-27
PlaceDeerfield, Massachusetts
TopicReligion, Church, Meetings & Revivals
EraColonial settlement, 1620–1762
National Expansion and Reform, 1816–1860
EventDeerfield Raid. February 29, 1704
MaterialPaper
Process/FormatPrinting
Dimension detailsProcess Material: printed paper, ink Height: 9.25 in Width: 4.50 in
Catalog #L98.027
View this item in our curatorial database →
Fessenden, Reverend John. Sermon preached to 1st Congregational Society in Deerfield, Mass. and in the Hearing of Several Indians of Both Sexes Supposed. Phelps and Ingersoll [editors], August 27, 1837. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/l98-027/. Accessed on October 4, 2024.

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