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Reference Shelf: A Bibliography of Sources about Northampton History
Jonathan Edwards
Marsden, George M. Jonathan Edwards, A Life Yale University Press, 2003. 615 pages. Comprehensive bibliography. index.  The current standard in Edwards scholarship.

Abelove, Henry. "Jonathan Edwards's Letter of Invitation to George Whitefield." William and Mary Quarterly 3d ser. 29 (1972): 487-489. Edwards wrote 12 Feb. 1739/40 inviting Whitefield to preach at Northampton, hoping he would stop the decline of piety in Edwards's congregation. (UM)

Conforti, Joseph. Jonathan Edwards, Religious Tradition and American Culture. Chapel Hill, N.C., 1995.  Edwards' influence on the second Great Awakening and on the Colonial Revival in America.

Dodds, Elisabeth D. Marriage to a Difficult Man: The Uncommon Union of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards. Philadelphia, 1971. Semi-fiction: a thinly documented biography of Sarah Pierrepont Edwards, using largely secondary sources. No notes or index.(FL, HN)

Edwards, Jonathan. A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton and the Neighboring Villages of New-Hampshire in New England.In a Letter to the Reverend Dr. Benjamin Colman of Boston. Written by the Reverend Mr. Edwards, Minister of Northampton, on Nov.6 1736. And published, with a Large Preface, by Dr. Watts and Dr. Guyse. Edinburgh, 1738. Edwards explains how he awakened the souls of parishioners who had slid backwards during the last years of Stoddard's ministry.(FL,SC)

Gura, Philip F. "Sowing for the Harvest:William Williams and the Great Awakening." Journal of Presbyterian History 56(1978):326-341. Rev. William Williams of Hatfield, although of an evangelical bent, sided with his nephew Jonathan Edwards in several theological controversies. Footnotes. (UM)

Ellison, Julie. "The Sociology of 'Holy Indifference': Sarah Edwards' Narrative." American Literature 56 (1984):479-495. Examines the second religious conversion of Jonathan Edwards's wife Sarah in 1742. Finds discrepancies in Jonathan's and Sarah's stories and concludes her conversion rose "out of a struggle to subdue her own ambition and the ambivalence, fear and envy aroused by her social situation." Footnotes.(UM)

Gillett, E.H. "Jonathan Edwards, and the Occasion and Result of His Dismission from Northampton." Historical Magazine 2nd ser.1 (1867):333-338. On the second thoughts of Joseph Hawley and other elders in dismissing Jonathan Edwards. Date of this essay is an indicator of how long historians have been discussing this issue. Footnotes.(UM)

Grant, Leonard T. "A Preface to Jonathan Edwards' Financial Difficulties." Journal of Presbyterian History 45 (1967): 27-32. Edwards's financial problems during the 1740s were precipitated by an extravagant life style and the needs of a growing family. Author discovered a loan note in Edwards's handwriting. Footnotes.(UM)

Johnson, Thomas H. "Jonathan Edwards and the 'Young Folk' Bible." New England Quarterly 5 (1932):37-54. Provides documentation in the "immoral book" controversy of 1764, identifying the book as Aristotle's Legacy, not Fielding's Pamela as Trumbull suggested. Lists the 22 culprits, witnesses and one adult named by Edwards. Footnotes. (UM)

Main, Gloria. "The Good Shepherd and His Wandering Flock." Reviews in American History 9 (1981):464-468. A critical review of Patricia Tracy's Jonathan Edwards. (UM)

Miller, Perry. Jonathan Edwards. New York, 1949. Miller interprets Edwards's intellectual and religious ideology, as well as the personalities and internal conflict of his Northampton congregation. Note on sources. Index.(FL,UM)

Sponseller, Edwin. Northampton and Jonathan Edwards. Faculty Monograph Series VI, No.1. Shippensburg, Pa., 1966. A clergyman's lecture, portraying Edwards in the traditional way.(FL)

Stein, Stephen. "'For Their Spiritual Good': The Northampton, Massachusetts Prayer Bids of the 1730s and 1740s." William and Mary Quarterly 3d ser.37(1980):261-285. Petitions for prayers, written by Northampton parisioners are preserved in Edwards's papers. They tell much of the attitudes toward death, illness and religious practice of individuals who may otherwise have left no written record of their existence. Footnotes.(UM)

Tracy, Patricia J. "Jonathan Edwards, Pastor: Minister and Congregation in the Eighteenth-Century Connecticut Valley." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1977. Close examination of Edwards's Northampton ministry, explains his relationship with his parisioners and how he battled them over money, discipline and admission. Footnotes and bibliography.(UM)

Tracy, Patricia J. Jonathan Edwards:Religion and Society in Eighteenth-Century Northampton. New York, 1980. Unfortunately for Edwards, his congregation measured him against his grandfather Stoddard. Based on her Ph.D. dissertation, the author examines why Edwards took a path his congregation refused to follow and examines the demography and attitudes of his flock. List of manuscript sources, footnotes, index.(UM,SC,FL)

Wallace, Ethel. "A Colonial Parson's Wife: Sarah Pierrepont Edwards, 1710-1758." Review and Expositor 47(1950):41-56. Abstract in Writings in American History. On her married life with Jonathan Edwards in Northampton, Stockbridge and Princeton. (May not be available locally)

Westbrook, Robert. "Social Criticism and the Heavenly City of Jonathan Edwards." Soundings 59 (1976). Edwards tried to make his congregation a prototype for his social vision of a post-millenial "beautiful world." (UM)

Winslow, Ola E. Jonathan Edwards, 1703-1758: A Biography. New York, 1941. A straightforward biography, with considerable detail on Edwards's ministry in Northampton. Notes, a good bibliography up to 1941 and an index. (FL,UM)

HISTORIC
​NORTHAMPTON
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​Massachusetts 01060
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Current Exhibit:
​Slavery and Freedom in Northampton, 1654 to 1783


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  • About
    • About Historic Northampton
    • What's On View
    • Hours and Directions
    • Volunteer
    • Board-Staff
    • Legal/Financial
  • PROGRAMS
    • Slavery and Freedom in Northampton 1654 to 1783 Exhibit
    • Upcoming Programs
    • Past Events at Historic Northampton >
      • Past Programs 2025
      • Past Programs 2024
      • Mill River Flood 150 Commemoration >
        • Mill River Flood 150 Commemoration Events
        • Mill River Flood Introduction
        • Mill River Flood Lives Lost
        • Mill River Flood Commemoration Markers >
          • \\\\\\\\Williamsburg Mill River Flood Markers
          • Skinnerville Mill River Flood Markers
          • Haydenville Mill River Flood Markers
          • Leeds Mill River Markers
          • Florence Mill River Markers
          • Northampton Mill River Markers
        • Mill River Flood Who Was Responsible
        • Mill River Flood Guided Walks to the Dam Ruins
        • Mill River Flood Memorial Tree Project
      • Past Programs 2023
      • Past Programs 2022
      • Past Programs 2021
      • Past Programs 2020
      • Past Programs 2019
    • MCC Card to Culture at Historic Northampton
    • Help I am not receiving email announcements
  • Explore
    • Collections & Research
    • History at Home >
      • Videos
      • Interactive Witch Trial
      • Paper Dolls
      • Hidden Histories
      • Scavenger Hunts
      • Coloring Pages
      • Brain Teasers
      • Peg Doll Hunts
      • Jonathan Edwards Prayer Requests
    • Properties >
      • Parsons House
      • Damon House
      • Shepherd House
      • Shepherd Barn 2020
      • The Bridge Street School Sprouts
    • Educational Websites
    • Historic Highlights
    • COVID-19 Stories >
      • Vaccination Photos
      • Submit Your COVID Story
      • Children React
      • Family and Neighborhood Fun
      • It's a New World
      • Hope and Togetherness
      • Images
      • How Illness Feels
      • Brings Forth Memory
      • Blessings and the New Busy
      • Fear and Worry
  • Indigenous Native History
    • Native Histories in Nonotuck
    • Nonotuck Histories Essay by Margaret M. Bruchac
    • Recovering Nonotuck Histories Photo Essay
    • Profiles of Native People
    • Extended Biographies of Native People
    • Nonotuck to Northampton Maps
    • Native LIves Bibliography
  • History of Slavery
    • Exhibiit Slavery and Freedom in Northampton 1654 to 1783
    • About the Slavery Research Project
    • Black Enslaved People
    • Free Black People
    • Native Enslaved People
    • Enslavers of People
    • Relationship Map >
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      • Relationship Map Enslavement
      • Relationship Map Indenture
      • Relationship Map Legal
      • Relationship Map Commerce
      • Relationship Map Foster or Guardian
      • Relationship Map Social Connections
    • Timeline of Slavery in Northampton
  • DONATE
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