The Wesleys and the Anglican Mission to Georgia, 1735–1738

"So Glorious an Undertaking"

John Thomas Scott

• Publisher: Lehigh University Press
• Year: 2020
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781611463118
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

The Wesleys and the Anglican Mission to Georgia, 1735-1738 considers the fascinating early history of a small group of men commissioned by trustees in England to spread Protestantism both to new settlers and indigenous people living in Georgia. Four minister-missionaries arrived in 1736, but after only two years these men detached themselves from the colonial enterprise, and the Mission effectively ended in 1738. Tracing the rise and fall of this endeavor, Scott's study focuses on key figures in the history of the Mission including the layman, Charles Delamotte, and the ministers, John and Charles Wesley, Benjamin Ingham, and George Whitefield. In Scott's innovative historical approach, neglected archival sources generate a detailed narrative account that reveals how these men's personal experiences and personal networks had a significant impact on the inner-workings and trajectory of the Mission. The original group of missionaries who traveled to Georgia was composed of men already bound together by family relations, friendships, and shared lines of mentorship. Once in the colony, the missionaries' prospects altered as they developed close ties with other missionaries (including a group of Moravians) and other settlers (John Wesley returned to England after his romantic relationship with Sophy Hopkey soured). Structures of imperialism, class, and race underlying colonial ideology informed the Anglican Mission in the era of trustee Georgia. The Wesleys and the Anglican Mission to Georgia enriches this historical picture by illuminating how a different set of intricacies, rooted in personal dynamics, was also integral to the events of this period. In Scott's study, the history of the expansive eighteenth-century Atlantic world emerges as a riveting account of life unfolding on a local and individual level.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Abbreviations and Correspondent Surnames used in Citations
• List of Figures
• The Anglican Mission as Part of the Georgia Experiment, 1720s–1734
• The Call and the Voyage, November 1734 to Late Winter 1736
• First Experiences, Late Winter to Early Spring 1736
• Back and Forth, Late Spring to Early Summer 1736
• In Different Directions, Summer 1736
• A Stability of Sorts, Fall 1736 to Winter 1737
• Changes and Challenges, Late Winter to Spring 1737
• Institutional and Relational Problems, Mid-Spring to Mid-Summer 1737
• Rupture and Departure, Late Summer to Early Winter 1737
• Mission End, 1738
• Assessment of the Anglican Mission to Georgia, 1730s to the Twenty-First Century
• Narrative Postscript
• The Anglican Mission to Georgia—Essay on Sources and Bibliography
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author