American Missionary Association Manuscripts, 1839 - 1882

The American Missionary Association was established in 1846 as an interdenominational missionary society devoted to abolitionist principles. The Association grew directly from the committee organized in 1839 to defend the blacks who had revolted and seized the Spanish slave ship L'Amistad. From its beginning the major support for the Association came from Congregationalists, but it also received support from Wesleyan Methodists, Free Presbyterians, and Free Will Baptists. In 1865 it became the official agency of the Congregational churches for conducting educational work among the Freedmen. Support from other denominations gradually declined until the Association became exclusively a Congregational organization.