The World of Ellen G. White
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The World of Ellen G. White Ellen G. White Copyright © 2018 Ellen G. White Estate, Inc. Information about this Book Overview This eBook is provided by the Ellen G. White Estate. It is included in the larger free Online Books collection on the Ellen G. White Estate Web site. About the Author Ellen G. White (1827-1915) is considered the most widely translated American author, her works having been published in more than 160 languages. She wrote more than 100,000 pages on a wide variety of spiritual and practical topics. Guided by the Holy Spirit, she exalted Jesus and pointed to the Scriptures as the basis of one’s faith. Further Links A Brief Biography of Ellen G. White About the Ellen G. White Estate End User License Agreement The viewing, printing or downloading of this book grants you only a limited, nonexclusive and nontransferable license for use solely by you for your own personal use. This license does not permit republication, distribution, assignment, sublicense, sale, preparation of derivative works, or other use. Any unauthorized use of this book terminates the license granted hereby. Further Information For more information about the author, publishers, or how you can support this service, please contact the Ellen G. White Estate at [email protected]. We are thankful for your interest and feedback and wish you God’s blessing as you read. i Contents Information about this Book . .i Contributors . .v Preface . vii Chapter 1—Ellen White’s Hometown: Portland, Maine, 1827-1846 . ix Frederick Hoyt . ix Bibliographical Note . xxvii Chapter 2—Michigan and the Civil War. xxviii Gerald G. Herdman . xxviii Bibliographical Note . xl Chapter 3—Tension Between the Races . xli Norman K. Miles . xli Bibliographical Note . liv Chapter 4—Overland by Rail, 1869-1890 . lv Randall R. Butler II . lv Bibliographical Note . lxviii Chapter 5—The Rise of Urban-Industrial America . lxix Carlos A. Schwantes . lxix Bibliographical Note . lxxxiv Chapter 6—When America Was “Christian” . lxxxv Jonathan Butler . lxxxv Bibliographical Note . xcviii Chapter 7—The Sunday Law Movement . xcix Dennis Pettibone . xcix Bibliographical Note . cxiv Chapter 8—The Crusade Against Alcohol . cxv Jerome L. Clark . cxv Bibliographical Note . cxxv Chapter 9—Health and Health Care . cxxvi Rennie B. Schoepflin . cxxvi Bibliographical Note . cxli Chapter 10—The Transformation of Education . cxlii George R. Knight . cxlii Bibliographical Note . clvi ii Contents iii Chapter 11—Amusing the Masses . clvii Benjamin McArthur . clvii Bibliographical Note . clxx Chapter 12—Literature for the Nation . clxxii Delmer Davis . clxxii Bibliographical Note . clxxxvi Chapter 13—Ideas and Society . clxxxvii Gary Land . clxxxvii Bibliographical Note . ccii Chapter 14—The Australian 1890s . cciv Alwyn Fraser . cciv Bibliographical Note . ccxx iv The World of Ellen G. White Gary Land Editor Contributors Jonathan Butler, Randall R. Butler II, Jerome L. Clark, Delmer Davis, Alwyn Fraser, Gerald G. Herdman, Fred- erick Hoyt, George R. Knight, Gary Land, Benjamin McArthur, Norman K. Miles, Dennis Pettibone, Rennie B. Schoepflin, Carlos A. Schwantes. Contributors [7] Jonathan Butler has served in the Religion Department and the History Department at Union College and Loma Linda University. He is currently pursuing research in Seventh-day Adventist history under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Randall G. Butler has taught history at Andrews University; he is currently an archivist at Loma Linda University. Jerome L. Clark taught for many years in the History Depart- ment at Southern College of Seventh-day Adventists; he is presently pursuing a degree in library science. He is the author of the three- volume 1844 (Southern Publishing Association). Delmer Davis teaches English at Andrews University, where he serves as chairman of the department. Alwyn Fraser serves as chairman of the History Department at Atlantic Union College. Gerald G. Herdman is chairman of the History Department at Andrews University. Frederick Hoyt is professor of history at Loma Linda Univer- sity; he has served as chairman of the History Department. George R. Knight has taught in the School of Education at An- drews University and currently is in the Church History Department of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary. He recently wrote Myths in Adventism (Review and Herald Publishing Associa- tion). Gary Land teaches in the History Department of Andrews Uni- [8] versity and serves as an editor of Adventist Heritage. He recently edited Adventism in America (William B. Eerdmans). Benjamin McArthur teaches in the History Department of Southern College. He wrote Actors and American Culture, 1880- 1920 (Temple University Press). Norman Miles teaches in the Church History Department and the Christian Ministry Department of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University. v vi The World of Ellen G. White Dennis Pettibone is a teacher in a junior academy in Colorado; he wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on the history of the Sunday law movement. Rennie B. Schoepflin teaches in the History Department of Loma Linda University. Carlos Schwantes taught for several years in the History De- partment at Walla Walla College; he is now at the University of Idaho. His most recent book is Coxey’s Army: An American Odyssey (University of Nebraska Press). Preface [9] More than 70 years have passed since Ellen White died. The world of the late twentieth century is very different from her nine- teenth- and early twentieth-century milieu. Even so, America proba- bly changed in more fundamental ways between the time she was born (in 1827) and the time of her death (in 1915) than it has since. Because of the differences between our own time and hers and those during her own age, we often have little knowledge or understanding of the society within which she lived and wrote. This volume of short, descriptive essays attempts to provide the essential historical background for understanding Ellen White’s writings. Although a general history of the United States during Mrs. White’s lifetime would have provided some of this information, we have chosen to explore selected elements of the past that were either of significance to this shaper of Adventism or place her concerns within the context of the larger society. Thus the writers respectively address such subjects as eating and drinking habits, travel condi- tions, and entertainment, among other things. One chapter looks at Australia during the period that Ellen White lived there. It is hoped that the themes of her work will take on increased meaning as this social background is sketched in. For those who are interested, the authors have suggested readings in both Ellen White’s writings and standard historical accounts. Finally, a word about what this book is not. First, Ellen White is not the subject of this volume; hence, she appears only occasionally in these pages. Second, these essays do not address the critical inter- pretive questions regarding Ellen White’s relationship to her milieu. [10] Instead, they have the more limited task of simply establishing the nature of the milieu itself. Third, with some notable exceptions—the chapters on Portland; Michigan during the Civil War; the Sunday law movement; and, to a lesser extent, the overland railroad—the authors do not provide vii viii The World of Ellen G. White information new to the scholarly world. Rather, they attempt to synthesize present historical scholarship for a more general audience. It is the belief of the writers of these essays that historical knowl- edge is essential to understanding the present. Thus, awareness of our denomination’s history is necessary to anyone seeking to un- derstand its current situation. The church and Ellen White did not develop in a vacuum. In the next several pages you will discover what the world of early Seventh-day Adventism, particularly that of its prophet Ellen G. White, was like. Chapter 1—Ellen White’s Hometown: Portland, [11] Maine, 1827-1846 [12] [13] Frederick Hoyt In March 1840, William Miller visited Portland, Maine, and gave a course of lectures on the second coming of Christ. These lectures produced a great sensation, and the Chris- tian church on Casco Street, where the discourses were given, was crowded day and night.... In company with my friends, I attended these meetings. —Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 20. Portland, Maine, where Ellen Harmon lived during her childhood and youth, is a beautifully situated city today; it must have been even more striking in the early decades of the last century, before the onset of urban sprawl. “This city is regularly laid out,” an article in the London Illustrated News declared in 1859, “and handsomely built; its streets are broad, and most of them are lined with elms and other shade trees, which in the summer season give it the appearance of a city amid a forest.” “In many particulars your charming city stands unrivaled,” a visitor to Portland (who identified himself only as T.H.P.) declared in a letter to the Portland Eastern Argus in May 1846. He was particularly impressed by its “airy and elevated position, the width and cleanliness of its streets,” its “architectural beauty,” and the many attractive “yards, small gardens, and ornamental trees.” Portland’s “safe, excellent, and capacious harbour ... studded with numerous pleasant islands” merited his praise. His commendatory comments were also extended to the residents of Portland. They “gave evidence of order, dignity, and civility in the males, and of propriety of dress and manner, and ladylike deportment, in the females.” He saw only a few “dandies and loafers,” and no “street beggars” or “cases of intoxication.” ix x The World of Ellen G. White [14] This visitor believed that the “health and salubrity of [Portland’s] climate” would “compare with any other in the Union.” Had his visit occurred during the winter, he might well have had less generous praise for her climate, which could then be extremely harsh.