to William Smith Shaw

Adams, John, 1735-1826 to William Smith Shaw

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GLC#
GLC04880
Type
Letters
Date
21 June 1821
Author/Creator
Adams, John, 1735-1826
Title
to William Smith Shaw
Place Written
Quincy, Massachusetts
Pagination
2 p. : Height: 25.5 cm, Width: 20 cm
Primary time period
National Expansion and Reform, 1815-1860
Sub-Era
The First Age of Reform

Discusses his interest in Native American religion and his difficulties in learning about it because of Indians reluctance to speak on the topic. Describes his attempts to learn about Native American religion from a Mr. Alexander McGillivray, the son of a "Scotchman by an Indian queen." Adams closely questioned the man concerning Indian beliefs including their ideas about an afterlife, but the man was not forthcoming, and Adams finally concluded "that his father was one of those wandering Scottish epicurean philosophers who had taught him to seek for pleasure and not to disquiet himself with fears of an hereafter." Written at "Montezillo."

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