Kate Morgan 

AMCULT 373 Final

Narcissa Whitman

     Depending on her audience, Narcissa Whitman is either viewed as a determined and resilient missionary, or insolent and intolerant pioneer woman.  As the first white woman to cross the Rocky Mountains, Narcissa Whitman encountered many difficulties, especially as a missionary trying to convert the local Native American tribe, the Cayuse, to Protestantism.  The letters she wrote to her family back in Prattsburgh, New York, give an account of her dealings with - and opinions of - the Cayuse as an antebellum era woman swept up with the fervor of the Second Great Awakening and the intrigue of the native tribes in supposed 'need of conversion' in the West.  

     REWORK!! Narcissa Whitman’s lack of understanding and respect for the cultural differences of the Cayuse may have resulted from her strict protestant and antebellum society upbringing; however, her intolerance may have been one of the causes of her zero-conversion success rate, and her unfortunate and violent demise.

Narcissa Whitman's Youth

Born in Prattsburg, New York, on March 14, 1808, Narcissa Whitman (maiden name Prentiss) stemmed from a serious and religious family.  Her father, Stephen Prentiss, who was one of the first settlers in Prattsburg, operated the towns’ sawmill and gristmill, worked as a local carpenter, and also served as county judge.  Her mother, Clarissa Ward Prentiss, lead the religious life of the family after being converted in a revival before Narcissa Whitman’s birth.  She organized the Female Home Missionary Society of Prattsburg and enrolled her children in the Youth Missionary Society, spurring Narcissa Whitman’s piousness at an early age.

Narcissa Whitman was also greatly influenced by the fervor of the Second Great Awakening.  Prattsburg, a region in what became known as the “Burned-Over District, was classified as such because of the waves of evangelistic fervor that swept over it in the early nineteenth century – like forest fires it was said, burning everything in their path[1].  During this time, religious leaders, such as church ministers, started using various techniques to better encourage religious involvement.  “Prattsburg’s Congregational ministers used a variety of techniques to pressure sinner and move them towards repentance and conversation, some of which were old-fashioned, others of which were new, like allowing women to pray in public.”[2] The new techniques gave women more opportunities and power within religion, as they “…assumed important responsibilities in the revivals’ work of conversion.”[3]  

            Narcissa, excited and convinced of her religious purpose, joined her church at age eleven, and read the Missionary Herald, a religious newsletter, with fascinating stories about the myriads of Native Americans who were thought to be writhing in sin and needing conversion.  As argued by Julie Roy Jeffrey in her article “Narcissa Whitman The Significance of a Missionary’s Life”, “[t]he paper portrayed the missionary life as an exotic adventure when it featured excerpts from reports of ABCFM missionaries who were posted in faraway places like the Holy Land, Ceylon, and Arkansas.”[4]

            After obtaining an education at the Franklin Academy, a church-affiliated secondary school, and after many years of teaching kindergarten, Narcissa Whitman applied for a missionary position with the ABCFM, American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.  “Like many other young women of her time, Narcissa Whitman’s evangelical religion provided here with a purpose and a new role in her community.”[5]   

Narcissa Whitman, the ABCFM, and Marcus Whitman

[1] Tate, . HistoryLink.org, "Whitman, Narcissa Prentiss (1808-1847)." Last modified April 12, 2012. Accessed December 12, 2013. http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=10088.

[2] Jeffrey, Julie Roy. "Narcissa Whitman The Significance of a Missionar'ys Life." Montana: The Magazine of Western History. no. 2 (1991): 2-15. http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.umich.edu/stable/4519377 (accessed December 12, 2013), pg 6.

[3] Jeffrey, Julie Roy. "Narcissa Whitman The Significance of a Missionar'ys Life." Montana: The Magazine of Western History. no. 2 (1991): 2-15. http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.umich.edu/stable/4519377 (accessed December 12, 2013), pg 6.

[4] Jeffrey, Julie Roy. "Narcissa Whitman The Significance of a Missionar'ys Life." Montana: The Magazine of Western History. no. 2 (1991): 2-15. http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.umich.edu/stable/4519377 (accessed December 12, 2013), pg 8

[5] Jeffrey, Julie Roy. "Narcissa Whitman The Significance of a Missionar'ys Life." Montana: The Magazine of Western History. no. 2 (1991): 2-15. http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.umich.edu/stable/4519377 (accessed December 12, 2013), pg 7.