John Demos (1) (1937–)

Where I got the book: review copy provided by publisher. This review first appeared on the Historical Novel Society website.

The intersection of the idealism, religious fervor, and experimentation of the early American republic with 19th-century racism provides the context for this account of the Connecticut-based Foreign Mission School, known locally as the Heathen School. Its core population was made up of Hawaiian men brought to America by the China trade and of Native American youths; its purpose was to educate and ‘civilize’ them so they could return to their point of origin as missionaries.

The hopes of the school’s founders were gradually eroded by the difficulties of assimilating its students into a white society ill-prepared to ascribe full manhood or citizenship to them. The culminating scandals concerned the marriages of Cherokees John Ridge and Elias Boudinot to white women, leading to a shift toward taking missionary endeavors into the field.

The Heathen School provides a good account of the evolution of thought from early American willingness to intermarry with and assimilate native populations to the outright fear and prejudice of the mid-19th century. Its quirky presentation—with travelogues and extensive chapters on background matters and later developments—and its overuse of quotation marks and parentheses hinder the story, but there are many points of interest.… (mehr)