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II. "Go Ye into All the World . . " W illiam and Amanda Ferry and their associates came to Mackinac Island to transform the spiritual and temporal lives of people. The missionaries believed that the Holy Spirit had called them to God's service, and that God had directed them to Mackinac. Most of the missionaries were lay people with minimal theological training, but they brought their skills and abilities to the mission convinced that God would use them to achieve his will among the "heathen ." The Mackinac missionaries were part ofan American phenomenon in which men and women motivated by spiritual concerns spread the teachings of evangelical Protestant Christianity across the country and the world. Inspired by the revivals of the Second Great Awakening, evangelicals formed missionary societies confident that they could conquer sin and degradation everywhere. Because the Ferrys were part of the westward advance of American settlement and institutions , they brought more than the word of Christ with them. Whether they recognized it or not, they were agents of the American republic. In their minds theyjoined Protestant Christianity and the expansionistic and optimistic attitudes held by Americans, who believed that they could create a better society.! The Mackinac missionaries became agents of Americanization in the western Great Lakes region along with thousands of other Americans who moved west during the first half of the nineteenth century. While the missionaries' motives for coming to Mackinac always remained primarily spiritual, developments in the eastern United States directed them to Mackinac. The Ferrys' intention to convert people living in the Old Northwest to evangelical Protestant Christianity merged with basic premises held by both evangelical and non-evangelical Americans migrating west of the Appalachian Mountains. Among these underlying assumptions was the expectation that Americans would settle Indian-occupied lands. Thousands of men, women, and children moved west to re-establish themselves in places that either were or would become new states. American immigrants to the West took advantage of opportunities to open new farms and start commercial enterprises within the economic and political structure of the United States.2 27 BATTLE FOR THE SOUL The work of the missionaries at Mackinac coincided with the effort by the United States government, its agents, and its citizens to incorporate what remained of the Northwest Territory into the United States. Through the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the national government created the political mechanism to bring new territories into the union as states equal in status to the original thirteen. Consequently, the government sent administrative officials, judges, and soldiers to establish American sovereignty over people living throughout the Old Northwest .3 (By 1818, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois had already achieved statehood, and Michigan and Wisconsin followed in 1837 and 1848, respectively.) The structure of American government at Mackinac included the garrison at Fort Mackinac, the Customs Office, the Indian Agency, justices of the peace, and locally elected borough officials. American businessmen followed their political counterparts. They invested capital and employed both traditional members of the fur-trade society and settlers arriving from the East.4 William Ferry worked closely with the American Fur Company even though John Jacob Astor himself seemed to have little interest in the spiritual objectives of the Mackinaw Mission. But Astors lieutenant, Robert Stuart, supported the mission even before he converted to evangelical teachings in 1829, believing that its work benefited his company. American religion and capital worked together to incorporate the fur-trade society into the fast-growing national and international market which, like evangelical Protestantism , shaped large segments of the developing cultural landscape of the United States.5 Missionaries contributed to the Americanization of the fur-trade society by extending to Mackinac and its surrounding region the national evangelical Protestant movement, which was fueled by revivals in the East.6 The precepts of evangelicalism profoundly influenced American politics and life.7 Common people, energized by evangelical teachings, reshaped Christianity and extended its authority westward.8 Evangelicalism served as a central force in American society when William and Amanda Ferry lived at Mackinac. Some of the Mackinac missionaries had been affected by revivals in western New York or spiritual renewals that occurred in New England.9 When the Ferrys and their associates introduced their religion to the fur-trade society, they attempted to connect Indians, Metis, and French Canadians, to American evangelicals living throughout the United States. Churches in New England and New York State dispatched their sons and daughters to Mackinac to carry the evangelical gospel to people of the fur...

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