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Indians, Quakers, and the Negotiation of American Imperialism, 1754-1846

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Indians, Quakers, and the Negotiation of American Imperialism, 1754-1846 University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2016 Cultivating Empire: Indians, Quakers, and the Negotiation of American Imperialism, 1754-1846 Lori J. Daggar University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Daggar, Lori J., "Cultivating Empire: Indians, Quakers, and the Negotiation of American Imperialism, 1754-1846" (2016). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1675. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1675 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1675 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Cultivating Empire: Indians, Quakers, and the Negotiation of American Imperialism, 1754-1846 Abstract This dissertation examines the ways in which indigenous peoples and missionaries, specifically Quakers (Society of Friends), contributed to the development of the American empire in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The U.S. civilization plan, in which Friends were central participants, offered agricultural education to American Indian men and, for women, instruction in the “domestic arts” as part of a broader mission complex. Far from being simply a means to “assimilate the Indians,” the mission complex was central to U.S. imperial and economic development, and its methods, endurance, and character grew out of a particular historical moment and as the result of a negotiation of Indians’ and Euroamericans’ goals and motivations. In order to investigate that negotiation, “Cultivating Empire” follows the evolution of diplomacy and agricultural mission work in the Ohio Country as a case study, and it draws upon individuals’ journals, family papers, account books and receipts, as well as missionary correspondences, meeting minutes from the Society of Friends, and various papers of federal, state, and territorial governments. Reading Euroamerican-produced sources against the grain in conjunction with sources such as Hendrick Aupaumut’s (Mohican) invaluable journals, moreover, offers means to bring indigenous politics to bear on this history, and it offers a top-down and bottom-up glimpse of the making of American empire. Such work reveals that the Society of Friends and its members, and their cooperation with the U.S. federal government, in many ways established the paradigm for the United States’ model of “philanthropic” empire beginning in the late eighteenth century. It also demonstrates that the society’s work was foundational for the development of the federal government’s relationship with non- governmental organizations and imperial policies abroad. Quaker diplomacy and agricultural missions also, however, offered Native peoples a powerful discourse and innovative means to continue to negotiate for power into the twenty-first century. U.S. state officials, Quaker missionaries, Euroamerican immigrants, and indigenous peoples together, then, produced the paradigms of U.S. empire in North America and the world in ways that had lasting consequences. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group History First Advisor Daniel K. Richter Keywords Economic Development, Indian policy, Missionaries, Native Americans, Ohio Country, US empire Subject Categories History This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1675 CULTIVATING EMPIRE: QUAKERS, INDIANS, AND THE NEGOTIATION OF AMERICAN IMPERIALISM, 1754-1846 © 2016 Lori J. Daggar ! iii Acknowledgments! I have accumulated many debts. Thanks are due to the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, and the University of Pennsylvania for the generous financial support that made the researching and writing of this project possible. I am also grateful to the many archivists, researchers, and staff members at the Clements Library, the National Archives in Washington, D.C., Haverford College, Swarthmore College, the Ohio History Center, Indiana State Library, Glen Black Laboratory for Archaeology at Indiana University, Newberry Library, Cornell University, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the Library Company of Philadelphia who offered their expertise and kindness and made my archival research a joy. Christopher Densmore at Swarthmore College deserves special thanks for offering this project his seemingly limitless knowledge of Quaker-Native relations early on, while Wayne Huxhold at Indiana University's Ethnohistory Archive merits a hearty "thank you" for making that archive feel like home. For their suggestions and willingness to read various portions of the dissertation, my thanks go to Gregory Ablavsky, Andrew Cayton, Jamie Forde, James Hill, Samantha Seeley, Timothy Shannon, and David Silverman. Each made this project better. Special thanks to Drew Cayton who encouraged me to stick with my big claims, even as he pushed me to refine my ideas. With his passing, the field has lost one of its kindest giants. Thanks, too, to my wonderful writing group members. Abigail Cooper, Elizabeth Della iv Zazzera, Danielle Holtz, Noria Litaker, and Emma Teitleman, thanks for reading and for sharing your expertise and smarts with me. Tom Lappas, Tim Thibodeau, and Neven Fisher at Nazareth College have supported my academic career since the beginning. Their enthusiasm and willingness to field questions and chat over coffee throughout my graduate career went far above and beyond the call of duty. These three are true exemplars of the best in the profession, and they are a large part of why I ended up in graduate school and why I so look forward to working with my own students. At the University of Pennsylvania, Kathy Brown proved that her mentorship skills matched the level of excellence so observable in her scholarship. Robert St. George, meanwhile, never failed to push my thinking in creative directions. I could not have asked for a more well-rounded committee. My advisor and the fearless leader of my dissertation committee, Dan Richter, knows better than anyone the bumps, bruises, and triumphs that marked this project's path. I am incapable of articulating the debt I owe him for his enthusiasm, guidance, and unflagging support. I'll never forget when, upon asking him to submit a five-minute online recommendation form, he responded with a characteristically-Dan, "I'd even fill out the fifteen-minute version!" Thanks, Dan, for always putting in the extra ten minutes. To the many friends (and excellent colleagues) who endured and enjoyed graduate school with me at Penn and at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies over the years and who made Philadelphia home: thank you. Abby Cooper, Demetri Debe, Sean Dempsey, Elizabeth Della Zazzera, Jack Dwiggins, Anne Fleming, Alex Hazanov, Emma Hazanov, Brenna Holland, Dani Holtz, Jessica Linker, Noria Litaker, v Hope McGrath, Emily Merrill, Alexandra Montgomery, Jennifer Rodgers, Kelsey Salvesen: you are all complicit in the completion of this dissertation. A special thank you to Jamie Forde who offered steadfast support as my graduate career came to a close. Lastly, my Rochester friends and family gave me an excuse to stock up on Wegmans groceries and, more importantly, kept me grounded throughout this journey. Kelli and Winston, thanks for the absurd and the serious. Jackie, Jenn, and Jesse, thank you for your generous patience. Alexander, Mackenzie, and Andrew, thanks for distracting me at all the right moments. Mom, thanks for listening; Dad, thanks for talking about capitalism with me for far too long and on far too many occasions; to both of you, thanks for your love and support through it all. vi ABSTRACT CULTIVATING EMPIRE: INDIANS, QUAKERS, AND THE NEGOTIATION OF AMERICAN IMPERIALISM, 1754-1846 Lori J. Daggar Daniel K. Richter This dissertation examines the ways in which indigenous peoples and missionaries, specifically Quakers (Society of Friends), contributed to the development of the American empire in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The U.S. civilization plan, in which Friends were central participants, offered agricultural education to American Indian men and, for women, instruction in the “domestic arts” as part of a broader mission complex. Far from being simply a means to “assimilate the Indians,” the mission complex was central to U.S. imperial and economic development, and its methods, endurance, and character grew out of a particular historical moment and as the result of a negotiation of Indians’ and Euroamericans’ goals and motivations. In order to investigate that negotiation, “Cultivating Empire” follows the evolution of diplomacy and agricultural mission work in the Ohio Country as a case study, and it draws upon individuals’ journals, family papers, account books and receipts, as well as missionary correspondences, meeting minutes from the Society of Friends, and various papers of federal, state, and territorial governments. Reading Euroamerican-produced sources against the grain in conjunction with sources such as Hendrick Aupaumut’s (Mohican) invaluable journals, moreover, offers means to bring indigenous politics to bear on this vii history, and it offers a top-down and bottom-up glimpse of the making of American empire. Such work reveals that the Society of Friends and its members, and their cooperation with the U.S. federal government, in many ways established
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