Archives
Meta
Category Archives: American History
The Great Commission and the Discovery of America
Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Americans and Europeans, after they had come to know the variety of indigenous tribes of North America, were perplexed by the question of their origins. The seventeenth-century Puritan clergyman Roger Williams argued that the Indians had remarkable … Continue reading
Posted in American History, Christianity, Great Commission
Tagged christopher-columbus, columbus, Great Commission, history, Missionaries, spain, travel, vikings
Leave a comment
Captain John Smith’s New England
If anyone in American history has the honor of being called the discoverer of New England, it is Captain John Smith. That’s right—John Smith, one of the founders of Jamestown, the savior of the infant colony of the Virginia Company, … Continue reading
Posted in American History, Biography, books
Tagged books, genealogy, history, pilgrims, travel
Leave a comment
American Catholics
Understand the role, impact, and lasting legacy that Catholicism has had in North America from European contact to today. Beginning with North America’s contact with three imperialist powers (Spain, France, and England), this narrative account tells the story of how … Continue reading
Posted in American History, books, Christianity, God's Providence, Great Commission
Tagged Christianity, Franciscans, Jesuits, Missionaries, Roman Catholics
Leave a comment
The Southern Hill Country Mentality
Reflections on the people of the American South after the Civil War into the 20th and 21st centuries as they confronted the perils of modernization. The Southern hill country personality type is a reticence towards others, even a reticence toward … Continue reading
Jean Baptiste Lamy (1814-1888), Missionary Bishop on Horseback
Visitors to downtown Santa Fe are drawn to two majestic buildings, the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi and the Chapel of the Loretto Sisters. Little would one suspect today that the founder of these two buildings, indeed the father … Continue reading
Posted in American History, Biography, Christianity, Great Commission
Tagged bible, Biography, Christianity, faith, Great Commission, Jesus, missionary, Southwest, travel
Leave a comment
Missionary John Thayer
John Thayer (1755-1815) was a New England convert, educated at Yale where he was taught that all things Roman Catholic were despicable. Then he went to Europe and underwent a conversion—a most unexpected religious change. He wrote a book about … Continue reading
Posted in American History, Christianity, Great Commission
Tagged bible, Christianity, church-history, Great Commission, history, missionary, Religion
Leave a comment
Louis Hennepin (1626-1704), Missionary of Hope
When a person thinks back to the colonial American past imagining what the first Catholic missionaries who braved the elements, journeyed into the forests, and canoed down American rivers, must have been like, they are thinking of such a person … Continue reading
Posted in American History, Biography, Christianity, God's Providence, Great Commission
Tagged history, louisiana, missionary, Religion, saints, travel
Leave a comment
Martyr for Christ: Jean de Brébeuf (1593-1649)
The images of the great martyrs of the past, those disciples and followers of Christ who committed their all—body and soul—to the Great Commission, to spread the word to all creatures worldwide, inspired Jean de Brébeuf as a young man … Continue reading
Posted in American History, Biography, Christianity, Great Commission
Tagged bible, Christianity, faith, french-missionaries, god, Great Commission, Jesus, martyr, new-france, roman-catholicism
Leave a comment
The Sorrels Family Orchestra
Ephraim Deals (Deal) Sorrels, Arkansas farmer and woodcutter, was a singer and perhaps a fiddler–at least it is clear he had a musical bent. And Van, his son, took after his father. Whether or not Van was a singer is … Continue reading
Posted in American History, Biography
Tagged arkansas-history, family-orchestra, fiddlers, genealogy
Leave a comment
Van Sorrels, the Woodcutting Musician
As the woodcutter sawed and chopped and hewed oak, hickory, maple, and pine, he sang songs to the past, to the land, and to the Lord. His name was Van. He was a simple man. He could read and write … Continue reading
Posted in American History, Biography
Tagged arkansas-history, fiddlers, genealogy, history, rural-arkansas, wood-hewers
Leave a comment
