Welcome to the first guest article of my 2024 Women's History Month celebration! I am pleased to welcome Leslie Simmons here today. You might remember her from my January What I'm Reading feature of Red Clay, Running Waters. Christian missionaries played an important role in the Cherokee Nation in the 19th century, and I thank Leslie for shining a spotlight on one of them for us today. You've never heard of Sophia Sawyer? Well, read on. You're in for a treat!
~ Samantha
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Woman on a Mission: Sophia Sawyer
Guest Post by Leslie Simmons
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| Fayetteville, Arkansas Female Seminary - 1850 |
Roles in society are most often dictated by the times we live in. In America, woman coming of age in the first half of the 19th Century had opportunities to define themselves in ways denied to many previous generations. Dominant social trends in Antebellum America exerted a powerful and lasting influence over what a woman should or could be and what was acceptable, leaving a paradoxical legacy that women today are still burdened by.
While their Revolutionary mothers and sister paved the way, the social norms of the early 1800’s - such as the democratization of education, the impact of the Second Great Awakening, and the concept of separate spheres of influence for men and women - brought about opportunities for the development of expanded roles for women, while at the same time continuing to narrow what was acceptable, and constraining women’s voices within sharply defined parameters. Concerned with its own progress toward ‘civilization’ along with its new role in the world as a beacon of enlightenment principles, the new American Republic also watched the rise of moral dilemmas at odds with the perfection implied in the countries founding.
America’s perception of itself as a righteous, Christian nation, combined with an increasing educated and worldly female population, gave rise to an expansion of women’s engagement in the spread of Christianity, benevolent societies, charitable activities, and occupations leveraging what was believed to be women’s power to influence on the character of the nation through children. Few women were ‘allowed’ to step outside of these norms. Increasingly, to gain more independence (of a sort) women took up positions as teachers, missionaries and authors during this time period.
For unmarried women, the role of the missionary teacher proved to be an option outside the support of their families or a husband, combining religious, intellectual, and the ‘female’ virtues of emotional care with their desire for independence, while also participating in shaping the world. Missions overseas were common, but a growing desire to ‘civilize’ America’s Native Americans brought a heightened interested in ‘Christianizing the heathen’, inspiring other women like Sophia Sawyer, the missionary teacher in Red Clay, Running Waters, to seek positions as teacher to the Cherokee.
Sophia was ‘a woman of indomitable energy and perseverance’ with strong unconventional views about education, as well as about Cherokee and female capabilities, often unsettling her fellow missionaries with her opinions and actions. Her ‘unpredictable and unconventional’ mood swings put her at odds with many of the male missionaries who oversaw the mission stations. Nevertheless, she was well-loved and respected by her students and their families.
While teaching among the Cherokee she championed her own rights as well as those of the Cherokee by defying the State of Georgia for teaching African-American enslaved children, owned by Cherokee individuals who had sent them for instruction at her schools. Asserting to the Georgia Officer attempting to arrest her for instructing Black children (against the law in Georgia) that Georgia had no jurisdiction over who she taught within what remained, at the time, the Cherokee Nation. She remained teaching there until the Cherokee were ultimately forcibly removed from their homeland. Later, faithful to the Cherokee, she chose to join them in their exile in the West and was supported in her efforts by the family of John and Sarah Ridge, the family at the center of Red Clay, Running Waters, who were leading advocates for education.
When tragedy struck the Ridge family, Sophia accompanied Sarah Ridge and her children to the neighboring frontier town of Fayetteville, Arkansas, just outside of Indian Territory, where she quickly gained support for her efforts to establish a school for young ladies, primarily Cherokee females at first, than later taking daughters of local residents.
Her Fayetteville Female Seminary (shown in the engraving) would become one of the first institutions of higher learning in the newly formed State. While the school) was a victim to the ravages of the Civil War, Sophia Sawyer’s Seminary established the foundations for the town’s reputation for higher education excellence that ultimately led to the establishment of the University of Arkansas in the same Northwest Arkansas town.
Sophia would not live to see the ultimate impact of her dedication and work in Fayetteville, Arkansas, or with the Cherokee, but she left behind a legacy of commitment to education that informs the culture of the Northwest Arkansas and Cherokee communities to this day. Her reputation for fearless commitment to her principles, and her belief in the equality of the races was unflappable. While on her deathbed she lamented for what lay ahead, her life demonstrated that the actions of one individual, even a woman confined to her ‘sphere’ could indeed positively affect the lives of many.
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