New England's First Fruits
{{Short description|1643 book}}
File:New Englands First Fruits 1643.jpg
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New England's First Fruits was a book published in London in 1643 about the early evangelization efforts by the Puritans in colonial New England in defense of criticisms from England that little evangelism was being pursued in New England.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5QsTAAAAYAAJ|title=New England's First Fruits: With Divers Other Special Matters Concerning that Country|date=May 23, 1865|publisher=Reprinted for J. Sabin|accessdate=May 23, 2019|via=Google Books}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.americanantiquarian.org/EnglishtoAlgonquian/items/show/39|title=Nevv Englands First Fruits|first=John|last=Eliot|date=May 23, 1643|website=www.americanantiquarian.org|accessdate=May 23, 2019}} It was the first publication to mention Harvard College.{{Cite web |last=Harmon |first=Elise |date=2014-11-18 |title=Harvard's 1st Mention in Print: Beware of Men Who 'Lead an Unfit, and Dissolute Life' |url=https://www.americaninno.com/boston/harvard-university-was-first-mentioned-in-a-1643-pamphlet/ |website=www.americaninno.com}}
Content
The book describes various evangelization efforts and results, including the conversion experience of Wequash Cooke (d.1642) as allegedly the first Native American conversion to Protestant Christianity in New England.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vUF3AAAAMAAJ|title=Winthrop's Journal, "History of New England," 1630-1649|first=John|last=Winthrop|date=May 23, 1908|publisher=C. Scribner's sons|accessdate=May 23, 2019|via=Google Books}} The book also describes the conversion of Dorcas ye blackmore, an early African slave to Israel Stoughton, who joined the First Parish Church of Dorchester in 1641 and evangelized her fellow Native American servants and eventually attempted to gained her freedom with the help of the local church.{{Cite web|url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/dorcas-blackmore-ca-1620/|title=Dorcas the blackmore (ca. 1620- ?) • BlackPast|date=Feb 10, 2011|accessdate=May 23, 2019}}Winthrop's Journal, "History of New England," 1630-1649Deborah Colleen McNally, "To Secure her Freedom: “Dorcas ye blackmore,” Race, Redemption, and the Dorchester First Church" The New England Quarterly, Volume 89 | Issue 4 | December 2016, p.533-555
Response
Roger Williams' A Key Into the Language of America was written partially to contradict the book's claims about successful evangelization in New England, particularly the alleged conversion of Wequash.* [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_wOfpAPRxlVYC A key into the language of America] by Roger Williams (Providence, 1936)
"To the Reader" (introduction)
References
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External links
- [https://books.google.com/books/about/New_England_s_First_Fruits.html?id=5QsTAAAAYAAJ New England's First Fruits: With Divers Other Special Matters Concerning that Country (1865) ]
Category:17th-century Christian texts