468

 AMERICAN ZION?: THE SPIRITUAL CURRENTS OF
THE AGRICULTURAL SETTLEMENT AT JAFFA, 1850-1858

July 2022
Placing the colony founded by Clorinda S.Minor, the American agricultural
initiative in the Holy Land, at the center, this thesis meticulously traces answers to three
questions: What prompted these Americans to settle in the Holy Land? How did an
American millennialist group led by Minor, a former zealous member of the Millerite
sect, challenge the realities of 19th-century Ottoman Palestine? Why did they have to
leave the region in 1858? The second chapter discusses the 19th-century American
religious milieu, in which "Millennialism" swept the United States. It strives to portray
the historical baggage that settlers carried to the region with them. The third chapter
focuses on the journey of the American group in the Holy Land. Gleaning information
from the archival materials, the chapter tries to shed light on how the settlers interacted
with the local population. The fourth chapter elucidates the event known as "Outrages at
Jaffa", which paved the way for the destruction of the colony and which also created a
small-scale international crisis between Ottoman, American, British and Prussian
consulates.
Keywords: Millennialism, the Second Coming of Christ, the Ottoman Palestine,
American Agricultural Colony

Clorinda S.Minor tarafından Kutsal Topraklar‟da kurulan koloniyi merkezine alan bu
çalıĢma üç sorunun cevabını arıyor: Amerikalılar‟ı Kutsal Topraklar‟da yerleĢmeye iten
ne oldu? Eski bir Millerite olan Clorinda Minor tarafından yönetilen bu grup 19.yy
Osmanlı Filistini‟nin gerçekleriyle nasıl mücadele etti? 1858 yılında neden bölgeyi terk
etmek zorunda kaldılar? Bu tezin ikinci bölümü 19. yy‟da Millennialism‟in etkisi altında
kalan Amerika dini atmosferini tartıĢıyor ve kolonistlerin beraberinde getirdikleri
tarihsel arka planı gözler önüne sermeye çalıĢıyor. YayınlanmıĢ arĢiv malzemelerinden,
günlüklerden, mektuplardan ve kolonistlerin hatıratlarından faydalanan üçüncü bölüm
ise American grubunun Kutsal Topraklar‟daki yolculuğuna odaklanıyor ve grubun yerel
halkla nasıl iliĢkiler içinde bulunduğuna dair ıĢık tutmaya çalıĢıyor. Dördüncü bölüm ise
“Yafa‟daki Öfke” olarak bilinen ve kolonistlerin bölgeyi terk etmesine sebep olan
olayın nasıl bir küçük çaplı uluslararası diplomatik krize dönüĢtüğünü ele alıyor.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Milenyumculuk, Ġsa‟nın Ġkinci GeliĢi, Osmanlı Filistini, Amerikan
Tarım Kolonisi
v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Three years have passed since I started my MA in history. To mention the debts I have
accrued at Bilkent for scholarly advice and moral support is to feel not only an
obligation but also pride. I owe a debt of gratitude to many people who touched my life
more than they realized while writing this thesis.
When I had an interview for History MA at Bilkent, my adviser, Asst. Prof. Kenneth
Weisbrode accepted me as his Master's student and encouraged me to pursue my goals.
Though I failed several times before his eyes, "Perseverance is the key to success" was
his maxim. The critical acumen of the executive members of this thesis, Asst. Prof.
Owen Miller and Assoc. Prof. Selim Tezcan, has contributed enormously to this project.
Without their guidance, this work would be an inchoate idea.
At an early stage of my MA years, Prof. Özer Ergenç, the doyen of Ottoman studies,
befriended and encouraged a young scholar. His humbleness and benevolence, for which
he is renowned, have been of priceless value to me. I will never forget the twinkle in his
vi
eyes and the excitement in his voice when he heard the good news about me. Assoc.
Prof. Hakan Kırımlı, dean of the Crimean studies, rekindled my passion for history
during my undergraduate years and reminded me of how respectful a profession I am
intended to pursue as a career. I express my gratitude to Instructor Nil Tekgül and Asst.
Prof. Berrak Burçak, both of whom kindly shared their time with me and gave their
valuable feed-backs regarding my several drafts. Throughout my time at Bilkent,
whenever I want some peace and quiet, I take sanctuary in Instructor Abdürrahim Özer's
room. I am so grateful to him for all he has done for me. He has the patience of a saint!
My research was made both productive and pleasant by the librarian of Bilkent
University, who helped me to gain access to essential materials. I thank notably ILL
Librarian Füsun Yurdakul for her endeavor to provide all the books I demanded.
Several special thanks must be acknowledged, even if they cannot be paid. My friends
AyĢe Sıla Önder, Harun Çelik, Osman Alp Çıbıklı, Turan Bayram, ġimal Büyükeren,
Ege BarıĢ Kanık, Mehmet Emin YoldaĢ,and Mehmet Halit Sezgin never cease to
provide me support and guidance as I was stuggering. They relieved the burden of the
pressure I felt during my MA years. Finally, I am deeply indebted to my family: My
parents, Kamuran and Ayhan, and my brother Hakan. They weathered years of research
and writing with patience. Without their support, I would not have ventured into such an
arduous task.
vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................................... iii
ÖZET ............................................................................................................................................... iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................... v
TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................................... vii
CHAPTER I....................................................................................................................................... 1
INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. 1
1.1.Literature Review ............................................................................................................. 5
1.2. The Outline of the Thesis ................................................................................................ 8
CHAPTER II ................................................................................................................................... 11
THE DAWN OF MILLENIUM .......................................................................................................... 11
2. RELIGIOUS FERVOR IN ANTEBELLUM AMERICA................................................................... 14
2.1. The Definition of Millennialism and Its Variations ........................................................ 14
2.2.Millennial Anxieties During The Colonial Period and the Revolutionary Era ................. 16
2.3.Millennial Fervor in the Jacksonian America ................................................................. 19
2.4. Millennial Colonies in the United States ....................................................................... 25
2.5. THE MILLERITES ............................................................................................................. 29
CHAPTER III .................................................................................................................................. 34
THE PROMISED LANDS ................................................................................................................. 34
3.1. The Realities of 19th Century Ottoman Palestine .............................................................. 36
3.2. The Pilgrimage and The Sojourn at Artas .......................................................................... 41
3.3. Meshullam! Or Tidings from Jerusalem ............................................................................ 44
3.4. To the Promised Land ....................................................................................................... 48
3.5. The Mount Hope ............................................................................................................... 54
3.6. The Decline of the Colony ................................................................................................. 57
CHAPTER IV .................................................................................................................................. 66
OUTRAGES AT JAFFA .................................................................................................................... 66
4.1. The Crime .......................................................................................................................... 66
viii
4.2. The Trial ............................................................................................................................ 68
4.3. The Settlement .................................................................................................................. 76
CHAPTER V ................................................................................................................................... 78
CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................ 78
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................. 82
APPENDICES ................................................................................................................................. 86
Appendix A ............................................................................................................................... 86
Karte der Umgebung von Jafa ( Map of Jaffa’s Surroundings, 1878-79) ............................. 86
by Theodor Sandel ............................................................................................................... 86
Appendix B ............................................................................................................................... 87
Jaffa & vicinity surveyed & drawn by Lieut. C. F. Skyring R.E. 27th Feby. 1842 engraved by
B.R. Davies ............................................................................................................................ 87
Appendix C ............................................................................................................................... 88
The decree ordered by the Sublime Porte to the governor of Beirut ................................. 88
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
On December 6, 2017, in a speech given in the White House's Diplomatic
Reception Room, then-U.S. President Donald Trump made it known " I have
determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. While
previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver.
Today, I am delivering. I've judged this course of action to be in the best interests of the
United States of America and the pursuit of peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
This is a long-overdue step to advance the peace process and to work towards a lasting
agreement."1 With this statement, he ordered the relocation of Israel's US Embassy from
Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Criticized by UN Security Council, European Union, and the
Vatican, the announcement of the President shocked the political leaders. Even Trump's
own national security team did not approve of his decision. Though Trump underlined in
his speech that it was in the best interests of the United States and the disputed parties in
the region, the Middle East experts were confused about why President was so eager to
set the wheels in motion on such a controversial topic. Until then, traditional US foreign
policy towards the official position of Jerusalem was conciliatory in that the US had
1 “Read the full text of Trump’s speech recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital”, Vox, accessed June 19,
2022, https://www.vox.com/2017/12/6/16742640/trump-jerusalem-israel-speech-full-text
2
supported the negotiations that could pave the way for the peace talks as to the city's
future, thereby avoiding any action that might impinge on the dispute settlement.
Though in 1995, the Senate and House of Representatives approved the Jerusalem
Embassy Act, which mentions, "Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of the
State of Israel and the United States Embassy in Israel should be established in
Jerusalem no later than May 31, 1999."2, each US President, from Bill Clinton to Barack
Obama, exercised the powers vested in their offices to waive the congressional mandate.
So, what changed in 2017? Why did Trump venture into a widely divergent political
path in such a tumultuous time for the region? Even if his own national security team
was not on his side, why did he take the bold step in foreign relations at the cost of
inciting unrest in the Middle East?
Inasmuch as the day chosen for the re-opening of the United States Embassy in
Jerusalem, the 70th anniversary of the Israeli Declaration of Independence, highlights
the close ties between the United States and Israel, the prayer and benediction given by
two Evangelical pastors during the ceremony are also the tangible evidence of the
Evangelical Christian support for Trump's resolution. On that day, an ecstatic
Evangelical crowd who had gathered in Jerusalem greeted the decision of the President
in the opening. The Evangelicals in the United States were caught up in the euphoria of
the moment as well. They hailed the relocation of their embassy and perceived it as a
fulfillment of Biblical prophecies. The Evangelical lobby had long been striving for this
political act, and finally, they achieved what they had dreamed of. Trump, who had been
constantly in close touch with the prominent Evangelical leaders in the White House,
2 “Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995”.
3
fulfilled his campaign promise. While suffering from scandals related to his private life
that broke then, Trump was desperately in need of popular support to enhance his
personal charisma yet again. So he decided to cement his Evangelical voter base by
giving his assent to their proposal. According to a survey conducted by the Public
Religion Research Institute (PRRI), Trump supporters among the Evangelicals were at
an all-time high at that time, with three in four supporting the policies of the President. 3
Even three years later, Trump himself would acknowledge that his main motive behind
ordering the relocation was to please the Evangelicals. In August 2020, on his campaign
tour for reelection, he admitted this by saying, " And we moved the capital of Israel to
Jerusalem... That's for the Evangelicals...You know, It is amazing with that:
Evangelicals are more excited about that than Jewish people."4 In a nutshell, Trump
consolidated his political base with a single act, assuring a floor below which his vote
cannot drop.
So, here another question arises, though. Why are Evangelical Christians so
interested in the relocation of the United States embassy in Israel? What makes
Evangelicals so zealous supporters of Israel that even Trump had to emphasize that their
excitement exceeded that of Jews'? The overwhelming urge to support Jews lies behind
their staunch belief at the end of times. Though evangelicalism is an amalgamation of
several denominations and includes people who attach themselves to the community just
culturally, a subset of the movement believes in crystal clear tenets, such as
3 “Pastors at embassy opening highlight evangelicals’ deal with The Donald”, The Guardian, accessed
June 17,2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/15/donald-trump-evangelicalschristian-
right-jerusalem
4 “Trump said he ‘moved the capital’ of Israel to Jerusalem for evangelical Christians, who are ‘more
excited’ about it than Jews”, Insider, accessed June 17,2022, https://www.insider.com/trump-moved-usembassy-
jerusalem-for-evangelicals-2020-8
4
millennialism. Broadly speaking, Christian millennialism espoused by the evangelical
Christians is a theology in which the biblical prophecies hint at a millennium during
which human society will be in decay. Then the Antichrist will emerge, reigning over
the world. This time called Tribulation will be the epitome of terror directed against the
believers of Christ. When the Second Coming of Christ occurs, the Antichrist and its
army will be defeated in the Battle of Armageddon by Christ and his believers. Having
witnessed the destruction of the Antichrist and the vindication of the biblical prophecies,
the Mosaic covenant, notably Jews, will convert. The battle will help usher in a
millennium. So, the role of the Jews in this prophecy is conspicuous. That the Jews in
exile have to gather in the Holy Land is a prerequisite for the fulfillment of the
millennium. Therefore, who controls Jerusalem, the biblical capital, is a vital question
for the Evangelicals.
Just as the Evangelical support for Israel is decisive for the Trump
administration's foreign policy in the Middle East during his presidency, so did the
Evangelical milieu of the 19th century turn the spotlight on the region. The roots of
active American Evangelical support for the restoration of Jews to the Holy Land can be
traced to antebellum America, notably in the first half of the 19th century. Similar to
today's Evangelicals, during the 19th century, American religious groups, unable to
resign themselves to a passive acceptance of the conditions of the Holy Land, took the
first step, becoming American pioneers in the region. In the 1820s, some missionaries
were sent to Palestine by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions,
though unsuccessful. Protestant presence in the area was conspicuous thanks to Great
Britain and Prussia initiatives, but American missionaries could not hold on there.
5
Similar to missionary activities, the United States also lagged behind others in
diplomacy. There was no official American consulate in Jerusalem until 1857, and the
American travelers, merchants, and missionaries were under the auspices of the British
consulate.5 Although the missionaries sent to the Ottoman Palestine had withdrawn their
base at Beirut after their unsuccessful attempt, and their country was sluggish to open
even a consulate in the Holy Land, some Americans were drawn to the Ottoman
Palestine like a moth to a flame.
So, this is the story of an American agricultural colony founded in Jaffa by a
former Millerite woman named Clorinda S.Minor who aimed to fulfill the biblical
prophecy, the restoration of the Jews to the Ottoman Palestine.
1.1.Literature Review
The millennial groups in Ottoman Palestine garner scholarly attention. Alex
Carmel, Ruth Kark, and Jacob Eisler have spent more than a half-century pondering
American and German millennial settlements in the Holy Land. Their magnum opuses,
such as Carmel's book Die Siedlungen der württembergischen Templer in
Palastina,1868-1918, Kark's article Millenarism and agricultural settlement in the Holy
Land in the nineteenth century, or Jakob Eisler's book Der deutsche Beitrag zum
Aufstieg Jaffas, 1850-1914, and discovery of many personal accounts of the settlers are
praiseworthy and inspiring. Though a pioneer in millennial colonies of the 19th century,
the American Agricultural colony, founded by Clorinda S. Minor, is a comparatively
less-studied topic of millennialism literature. Briefly mentioned in some prominent
5 Barbara Kreiger and Shalom Goldman, Divine Expectations: An American Woman in 19th-Century
Palestine, (Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1999), 1-3.
6
books related to the American interest in the Mediterranean, such as James
A.Field's America and the Mediterranean World,1776-1882 or Lester Vogel's To See A
Promised Land, the American Agricultural Colony has been specifically examined only
by the book written by Barbara Krieger and Shalom Goldman Divine Expectations: An
American Woman in 19th-Century Palestine and Yaron Perry's article John Steinbeck's
Roots in Nineteenth-Century Palestine. The contributions of these two research are
commendable and filled a gap in the literature. In their books, Krieger and Goldman
prefer zooming in on the story of the founder, Clorinda Minor. Since there is a scarcity
of sources regarding the previous life of Mrs. Minor, the writers devote their book to her
venture into the Holy Land. Similar to Krieger and Goldman's approach, Yaron Perry is
also prone to put the colony at the center of his narrative, but this time focusing his
attention on the other residents of the settlement: the journey of the German
Großsteinbeck family in the Ottoman Palestine. If contemplated together, these two
studies complement each other, displaying a much clear depiction of what Americans
and German experienced in Jaffa. However, the only book and article devoted to this
colony do not elucidate the primary motivation that prompted the settlers to leave their
home countries at that time. The religious climate of the 19th century is the missing
piece of the puzzle in their research. So, one of the main objectives of this thesis is to
shed light on the tie between the 19th-century religious milieu of the United States that
had exerted its influence over the settler before they came to the Holy Land and its
ripple effects on the colonist's daily lives in the region.
As for the millennial history of the United States, the literature is brimful of
books, articles, and dissertations approaching the topic from various perspectives. Of
these studies, Ernest R.Sandeen's The Roots of Fundamentalism: British and American
7
Millenarianism, 1800-1930 is a landmark study in the history of American
millennialism. Apart from being a pioneer in literature, Sandeen's book also changed
how scholars should perceive the millenarian movements. Tracing the roots of
fundamentalism in the 19th century, Sandeen unearths the close relationship between
British millennialism and American millennialism, thereby challenging the parochial
understanding of American millennialism.
Just like how Sandeen transformed the approach to the theme, the book edited by
Edwin S.Gaustad, The Rise of Adventism: Religion and Society in Mid-Nineteenth-
Century America, exerted a similar influence on students of the topic. Consisted of then
chapters that deal with several important themes, such as Spiritualism, Revivalism, or
Millerism, the book produced many influential articles on the religious ferment of 19th
century America.
Incidentally, though chronologically different from the timespan of this thesis,
Timothy P. Weber's Living in the Shadow of the Second Coming: American
Premillennialism,1875-1982 also covers the history of premillennialism in the first half
of the nineteenth century. How Weber tackles the issue in his book clarifies how the
premillennialism of the first half of the nineteenth century reverberated and shaped the
20th century United States.
As for the Millerites, to whom the founder of the American colony had attached
herself for a while before her arrival in the Holy Land, the scholars should be more
diligent in reviewing the literature. The reason for this claim lies behind the very nature
of Millerism. From the beginning of the movement, it had to endure the scoffs of its
critics, prompting the apologists of the movement to produce their own history. During
the 20th century, notably in the second half of it, Advent Christians and Seventh-day
8
Adventists contributed to the Millerite literature. To erase the negative image created by
the movement's critics, Francis D. Nichol tried to enhance the popularity of the
Millerites in The Midnight Cry: A Defense of the Character and Conduct of William
Miller and the Millerites, in the Year 1844. Due to his apparent biased approach to the
topic, his study is not referred to throughout this thesis. Still, its existence is essential to
show how the Millerite movement had been studied in the literature. Of the books
dedicated to the Millerites, The Disappointed: Millerism and Millenarianism in the
Nineteenth Century, edited by Ronald L. Numbers and Jonathan M. Butler, is worth
special attention. Comprising of the seminal articles, the book tries to give answers to
vital questions, such as who were the Millerites?, Were they insane or normal? What
were the tenets of the movement?, How did William Miller gather such a population
around him?, What was the relationship between Evangelicalism and Millerism? Some
of these questions are also the ones that this thesis is inspired by. Who was Clorinda
Minor? Was she really insane, just like the critics dubbed them? Or was she a zealous
religious person swept by the millennial fervor of her era? What changed for her after
the event called the Great Disappointment by the Adventist historians?
1.2. The Outline of the Thesis
Chapter 2 analyzes the antebellum American religious milieu in which the
American agricultural colony settlers at Jaffa grew up. To understand why there was an
American agricultural colony at Jaffa in the middle of the 19th century, one should look
at the 19th century United States. Since these settlers were not lunatics, as some critics
of the millennialist derided at that time, the urge that prompted them to leave their
9
country without their families requires special attention from the historians of the topic.
So, the reason why this chapter is devoted to the millennial history of the United States
is the fact that instead of being outcasts or insane people, these settlers were the
offsprings of their era. For this aim, the chapter sheds light on the main tenents of
different millennial theologies, such as pre-millennialism, and post-millennialism,
thereby showing the close ties between the millennial ideologies and how they shaped
the social, political, intellectual, and cultural climate surrounding the United States then.
Chapter 3 mainly focuses on the history of the American settlement at Jaffa.
Tracing the journey of the founder of the colony, Clorinda S. Minor, this chapter reveals
under which conditions the initiative took place. That the American settlers arrived in an
unfamiliar environment then is one of the focal points of the chapter, showing how they
interacted with other Christian groups, such as with the founder of another English
millennial colony, John Meshullam. Benefiting from the British and American archival
sources, the primary accounts of both American and German settlers of the settlement,
and the accounts of travelers who visited the colony, the chapter seeks to portray the
daily lives of the colonists and how they interacted with the local population, such as
Jews and Bedouins. The chapter is a tangible depiction of the discrepancies between
how the settlers had imagined the Holy Land before their arrival and what they found
after settling in the region.
Chapter 4 elucidates the crime committed against the American settlers at Jaffa.
Benefiting mainly from the archival materials from NARA, Israel State Archives, and
Prime Ministry Ottoman Archive in Istanbul, together with the personal accounts of the
settlers, this thesis sheds light on how an outrage perpetuated in an isolated settlement in
10
Jaffa reverberated in the prominent cities of the region, such as Jaffa, Jerusalem, Beirut,
Alexandria, and Constantinople. What happened at Jaffa that night was the culmination
of several disturbances between the settlers and the local population. The staunch stance
of the American diplomats regarding the severe punishment of the culprits prompted the
Grand Vizier to intervene in the matter. The whole process, including the crime, the
trial, and the settlement of the issue, was a herald of two nascent diplomatic tools that
would be employed by the United States more constantly in the successive decades: the
novel Orientalist cadre in the consulates of the United States and the gunboat policy. The
ubiquitous power of the United States reached the shores of Jaffa via this matter.
11
CHAPTER II
THE DAWN OF MILLENIUM
Our expectations were raised high, and thus we looked for our coming
Lord until the clock tolled 12 at midnight. The day had then passed and our
disappointment became a certainty. Our fondest hopes and expectations were
blasted, and such a spirit of weeping came over us as I never experienced before. It
seemed that the loss of all earthly friends could have been no comparison. We
wept, and wept, till the day dawn.6
On the morning of October 22, Hiram Edson, a Millerite farmer from New York,
got out of his bed. It was not just an ordinary day. To his belief, the world was supposed
to come to a catastrophic end on that day. Espousing this belief for a while, he and his
inner circle had been looking for the Second Coming of their Savior and preparing for
his return for a long time. And they were not the only ones who then stared at the sky for
an omen of things to come. Thousands of Millerites from the whole country, who
fiercely clung to the idea that there would be no tomorrow, had abandoned their worldly
jobs. They had so immersed themselves in the advent expectation that they had neither
cultivated their fields nor harvested their crops. They had slaughtered their cattle. They
had closed their shops, and the production had halted at all of the Millerite factories due
6 Memoir of Hiram Edson, reprinted in The Disappointed: Millerism and Millenarianism in the nineteenth
century, ed. Ronald L. Numbers and Jonathan M. Butler (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1993),
215.
12
to the divine expectations. At the dawn of Judgment Day, some had struggled under the
burden of their sins and confessed their crimes. There had been a rush to be baptized
before their soul would leave their body. Some of them had sold their homes and
properties. The Millerites, who had not wanted to appear before their Lord as a debtor,
paid their dues. Others had supported those who had not been able to pay up by
themselves. Some even tossed the coins in the streets to get rid of them, and they were
caught immediately by children. Some parents took their children out of school; some
even left them behind at home. The Millerites had been severing their ties with the
world. After all, having put faith in the idea of the imminent return of the Lord, it would
be sinful to return to the fields, businesses, homes, or schools. What is the point if
history is on the threshold of an abrupt end? So, when October 22 came, the lives of the
Millerites had been in a state of social turmoil.
Expecting to meet the Lord in the air and hear the midnight cry, Millerites all
across the country gathered in churches, homes, open fields, or hillside encampments.
The rush of the congregation seemed frantic to their neighbors and met with derision.
Therefore, some Millerites left their cities to find a serene place in which they could wait
for their Lord. Weary of the ridicule of the society, Clorinda S. Minor, who would be the
founder of the American Agricultural Colony at Jaffa in a few years, and her brethren
fled Philadelphia and camped in the countryside. Similar to this group, many members
of the movement, who were seeking refuge from their neighbors' derision, followed their
path and left the city. While they were anxious to see the precursors of the advent, like
falling stars, deads arising from their graves, or Christ's appearance in the sky, the
morning and noon passed uneventfully. They kept praying and looking at the sky for the
13
imminent eschaton, though. When the night fell, a terrible storm wreaked havoc on their
camp, leaving behind it a trail of devastation. Trees were uprooted, and their shelters
were devastated. The whole settlement was in turmoil. Scared to death, some of them
seemed to be losing their marbles. The residents of the nearby city, who had witnessed
the event, housed them that night, giving a shelter to take cover from the storm.7
The Lord did not appear in the clouds on that day.
The next day Millerites had to return to the cities from which they had fled. They
had to square up to the situation in which they found themselves. The dissenters of the
movement sardonically rumored that there were some Millerites wearing white
ascension robes to make it easier to meet the Lord in the air that night. The story of a
man falling from a tree, who had climbed it to see the coming Lord better, was also
circulated in public. The Millerites had to deal with all the humiliations heaped on
them.8
The day October 22, was dubbed "The Great Disappointment" by the Adventist
historians. Though the Millerites were neither the first nor would be the last ones who
waited for the end of the times, the ripple effects of the Great Disappointment in
American society would be decisive.
7 Catherine A. Brekus, Strangers and Pilgrims: Female Preaching in America, 1740-1845, (The University
of North Carolina Press, 1998), 328-330; John Howard Smith, A Dream of the Judgment Day: American
Millennialism and Apocalypticism, 1620-1890, (Oxford University Press, 2021), 232-233; Kreiger and
Goldman, Divine Expectations, 15-16.
8 Historians studying Millerite movement debunk the stories of ascension robes or similar subjects as an
exaggeration of the dissidents of the movement. See Ronald L. Numbers and Janet S. Numbers, “
Millerism and Madness: A Study of ‘Religious Insanity’ in Nineteenth-Century America” in The
Disappointed, 92-117.
14
The Millerites were neither the first nor the last ones in American history who
espoused that the Second Coming of Jesus would occur in their own time. So, the
question that should be asked might be why Americans had been fond of eschatology for
a long time. That's why the following section meticulously traces the social, cultural,
political, and religious milieu in which the Millerites had sprung up.
2. RELIGIOUS FERVOR IN ANTEBELLUM AMERICA
2.1. The Definition of Millennialism and Its Variations
“There is no country in the world in which the Christian religion retains a greater
influence over the souls of men than in America”9 opines Tocqueville, having visited the
United States in 1831-32. What prompted the renowned visitor to say these lines was the
religious fervor that had been reignited once more by the Second Great Awakening
when he sojourned in the United States. Though the American society had been gripped
by the Christian religion from the colonial times, just like Tocqueville observed, the
whole society was a ragbag of various churches, denominations, cults, etc. Of these
denominations and sects, how millennialism emerged as a decisive belief system in
American history lures historians of the subject. Its penetration into even the deeper
level of society might seem an enigmatic phenomenon. However, the impact of
millennialism on American society during the 19th century can be understood by
examining the general tenets of millennialism and its several forms that had been
prominent among Americans.
9 Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, trans. Henry Reeve,Esq (New York: 1841),332.
15
Broadly speaking, millennialism is a branch of eschatology that try to make
prescient interpretation as to future events. Similar to how historians ponder the events
that occurred in the past, the person interested in millennialism also contemplates the
events that are supposed to unfold in the future. The origins of the word could be traced
back to the twentieth chapter of Revelation, which mentions a period of one thousand
years period whose equivalent in Latin is Millennium. However, as a specific term,
Christian millennialism notably is a set of beliefs that requires one to believe in the
Second Coming of Christ, his triumph in this world, and the vindication of the suffering
saints. Though these are fundamental tenets of Christian millennialism, millennialists
have been in dispute over the interpretation of expectations. Would Christ's Second
Coming be subtle, similar to the first coming, or conspicuous, cataclysmic? When would
the Lord come to the earth? In the imminent future or the distant one? Would his second
coming be gradual or swift? 10
These and other questions are the ones dividing Christians who give credence to
the premises of millennialism. In relation to the answers to these questions, three
millennialist schools dominated the Christian tradition: Amillennialism,
Postmillennialism, and Premillennialism. Amillennialist exegesis of the biblical
references regarding the Second Coming of Christ is figurative, meaning they latch onto
the belief that the millennial reign of Christ is spiritual rather than the personal return of
the Lord. It occurs in the hearts of true believers. Contrarily, post millennialists take
those bible references related to the advent literally, believing that Christ will return as
soon as the Church lays the groundwork for his second coming via the preaching of the
10 Ernest R. Sandeen, “Millennialism,” in The Rise of Adventism: Religion and Society in Mid-Nineteenth
Century America, ed. Edwin S. Gaustad (New York: Harper&Row, Publishers,1974), 104-105.
16
gospel. Premillennialists are also inclined to read the Bible to find out the literal
meaning of the millennium. What differentiates them from postmillennialism is they
expect Christ's Second Coming before the millennium and regard him as the one who
will precipitate it. To the premillennialist belief, there are some prophecies mentioned in
the prophetic scriptures, especially in Daniel and Revelation, that are supposed to be
fulfilled just before the Second Coming of Christ. They depict a future in which societies
will be corrupt. Then Antichrist will emerge and try to punish those who will not resign
to his reign. This period is called tribulation in the Christian tradition. When Christ
returns personally, there will be a war named the Battle of Armageddon in which the
Antichrist will be annihilated by Christ's army. The millennial kingdom that Christ
himself will establish will follow the war and last a thousand-year. Finally, when the
millennium pass, the end of time will come with the resurrection of the dead, the
judgment, and the creation of the afterlife.11
2.2.Millennial Anxieties During The Colonial Period and the Revolutionary Era
These variations of millennialism gained a wide following in the American
colonial consciousness, notably in the 18th century. The spark that touched off the
powder keg was ignited in New England. The several revivals that have come to be
known as the First Great Awakening in American Religious History paved the way for
disseminating millennial ideas in American society. The frequency of natural disasters
that befell at that time overlapped with millennial expectations, and they were
interpreted as the portent of the tribulation foretold in the Bible by the society. There had
11 Timothy P. Weber, Living in the Shadow of the Second Coming: American Premillennialism, 1875-1925,
(Oxford University Press, 1979), 9-11.
17
been a rising crescendo of divine expectations over the course of the Seven Years' War,
and American clergymen availed themselves of the millennial fervor that swept the
country, harnessing its energy as a source of patriotic impulse. Having construed
revivals as a sign of the impending millennium, Jonathan Edwards, one of the most
prominent figures of the First Great Awakening, postulated the conviction that America
had a special place in the Lord's plan to renew the world of humankind. Other
theological expressions buttressed him, arguing that America was the first place on
which Christ's earthly kingdom would be founded.12
In the American colonial consciousness, the outbreak of the Seven Years' War
occupied a prominent role, prompting people to believe in apocalyptic expectations. The
presence of French in Canada was obtrusive for the Americans, who perceived every
Catholic compound near them as an ominous sign of the Antichrist. When the Anti-
Catholicism mingled with anxieties created by the spontaneous natural disasters like
earthquakes, apocalyptic expectations among Americans gained momentum. Throughout
the Seven Years' War, when Americans or British won a victory over the French in a
battle, people assumed that God's hand intervened on behalf of Protestant Americans
and did not turn a blind eye to the sufferings of Americans at the hands of Catholics. The
victories at the battles were perceived as the vindication of America's holy destiny on the
eve of the impending millennium. The Seven Years' War left an indelible mark on the
American colonial consciousness, laying the ground for millennial nationalism.13
12 John Howard Smith, “ ‘The Promised Day of the Lord’: American Millennialism and Apocalypticism,
1735-1783” in Anglo-American Millennialism, From Milton to the Millerites, ed. Richard Connors and
Andrew Colin Gow (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 116-118.
13 Smith,“ The Promised Day of the Lord”, 120-125.
18
Throughout the two decades that followed the Seven Years' War, American
clergymen and prominent public figures castigated the British authority for malpractice,
impinging on the legitimacy of the British crown. While doing so, they opined that
Americans had been morally superior compared to their governors. In a milieu in which
Americans had been zealous supporters of the millennial expectations, the ministers
from different denominations, notably the Congregationalists and the Presbyterians,
seized the opportunity and used the rhetoric of millennial urgency to woo society with
God's divine plan, countenancing the independence movement with a religious
motivation. Therefore the Revolutionary War was a watershed for American religious
history in that the nascent millennial covenant theology had superseded the traditional
Puritan belief that America was New Israel, timelessly bound by the divine law to God.
In this new rhetoric, America was a country teetering on the brink of an oncoming
apocalypse. This so-called "millennial nationalism" is imbued with the conviction that
America, as a New Israel, was on the verge of trans-historical successes. Imbued with
millennial fervor and abomination towards British rule, American soldiers were
persuaded that their cause against the authority was legal and sacred. Clergymen, who
did not it hard steaking out a rebellious position in an already tumultuous society,
mingled the millennial kingdom of Christ with a victory over the most intimidating
military power of that time. Some of the milestones of the Revolutionary era, like the
Stamp Act and the conquest of Louisbourg, were seen as divine approval in their sacred
cause against the British. These events enhanced the conviction that they, as the chosen
people by God, were about to create a country that would be at a crucial part of world
history. As a result, a part of the society gradually espoused these sets of ideas and
beliefs derived from post-millennial eschatology as a political identity. They believed
19
that, just like post-millennial theology requires, they made great sacrifices for the divine
cause. They launched military campaigns against British rule, conquered some areas like
Louisbourg, and rebelled against them, such as the Stamp Act protests. Since they did
their duties to found God's kingdom in America, they were optimistic for the future.
However, on the other side of the story, not the whole society was under the influence of
postmillennialism. With the outbreak of war, some premillennialist groups, such as
Shakers, perceived it as an ominous sign of the ever-approaching millennium and
refused the bear arms against Great Britain. In any case, regardless of pre or post,
millennial theology was a decisive factor throughout the Revolutionary Period though. 14
2.3.Millennial Fervor in the Jacksonian America
Apart from the reasons unique to the young republic, European millennial
theology also exerted its influence in the United States during the 19th century. Through
the dissemination of ideas and the massive migration from the continent, several
Christian forms of apocalypticism penetrated American society deeply. By the middle of
the century, of these variations, the British millennial thought was the most prominent
one among the Americans, thereby lefting an indelible mark on the American millennial
theology. Similar to the reasons behind the rise of American apocalypticism, the trigger
that paved the way for the messianic expectations in the continental Europe during that
century was the ramifications of a revolution. When Europe was convulsed by the
turmoil created by the French Revolution, many Europeans were pessimistic as to the
future of their world. Having seen what happened to the traditional institutions of the
14 Stephen A. Marini, “Uncertain Dawn: Millennialim and Political Theology in Revolutionary America” in
Anglo-American Millennialism, From Milton to the Millerites, ed. Richard Connors and Andrew Colin Gow
(Leiden: Brill, 2004), 159-171.
20
continent, they came to the conclusion that their world would be on the brink of an
apocalypse. Therefore, the last decade of the 18th century witnessed a vivid description
of the Biblical prophecies that were unfolding before the eyes of the Europeans. Of these
prophetic passages, Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 gave the apocalypticists what they had
been looking for. Though texts in the Bible referring to the end of the days are opaque
and abound with symbolism, which makes their exegesis polyvocal, there was almost a
unanimity among the students of this theology that the prophecies mentioned in the
Bible were fulfilling at that time. Finally, when the French troops invaded Rome and
sent the Pope to exile in 1798, there was no more hesitation. What the Papacy had to
endure was, to them, the sign described in Revelation 13. The millennialists, notably
premillennialists, found their panacea for the millennial enigma from then on. They
could position themselves in the course of history. What they possessed in their hands
made it possible to converge prophecy and history. They could pinpoint precisely the
time of awaiting prophecies just like historians treat the past. Therefore, in the 19th
century, Americans and Europeans were captive audiences of the millennial fervor.15
Though the outbreaks of wars, revolutions, or the spread of endemics among
people were conspicuous reasons that laid the foundation for the rise of apocalypticism
in American society, antebellum America, notably the Age of Jackson, was an era
replete with subtle, gradual transformations that also affected the mindsets of the people.
That the United States lacked a prevailing religious tradition encouraged people to give
credence to even marginal ideas. With the lack of supreme religious authority, the First
Amendment also provided a climate in which people expressed their religious beliefs
15 Ernest R. Sandeen, The Roots of Fundamentalism: British and American Millenarianism,1800-1930,
(University of Chicago Press,2008), 5-7, 43-44.
21
without fearing punishment. Even if they felt pressure coming from conservative
members of the society, the vastness of the continent always gave them the opportunity
to settle in another area. Instead of being excommunicated by society, they could make
experiment with their ideas in their own communities. Distraught by the traditional
churches of the country, Americans were receptive to the new prophets and prophetesses
who assured them with religious certainty. Therefore the revivals galvanized the society,
prompting Christians to found several nascent cults, denominations, and movements. Of
the five most prominent Great Awakenings that occurred in the United States, the
Second Great Awakening was a watershed in American history, reinvigorating the
debate over the young republic's mission, ideals, and purpose as a newly founded
Christian land on the vastness of the virgin lands. It spread the conviction that the
sacrifices made during the Revolution, the principles upon which the republic had been
founded, all won the approval of God. The Second Great Awakening made an indelible
mark on the mindsets of Americans, giving them a sense of identity and millennial
missions derived from divine expectations.16
To many historians, the Jacksonian era seemed a time brimful of progressive
policies, rampant growth, etc. Americans were sanguine about the prospects for their
future due to the characteristics that defined their age. Imbued with self-reliance, they
had illusions of omnipotence in the 1830s and 1840s. Having beaten Great Britain, the
tremendous military power of that time, they set a precedent by founding a free republic.
They started to expand their territories towards the West, defeating Indians who had
16 William G. Mcloughlin, “Revivalism,” The Rise of Adventism: Religion and Society in Mid-Nineteenth
Century America, ed. Edwin S. Gaustad (New York: Harper&Row, Publishers,1974), 138; Hudson, Religion
in America, 172-173.
22
resisted them in their way. They were among the pioneers of inventors whose
technological innovations allowed mass production. They built several grand canals and
railroads, enhancing the quality of the transportation system. What they had achieved in
such a short period of time cemented their belief that these were the good omens for the
future of the country chosen as the New Israel by God. There was nothing that an
idealistic American could not achieve. Therefore, those millennialists, who had become
engrossed with the possibilities of a progressive, morally perfect society, cleaved to the
prophecies of postmillennialism. It was an eschatology whereby Americans were adept
at mingling political liberalism and economic development with Protestantism. These
notions were so compatible with what postmillennialism offered. The postmillennialists
exalted the spirit of reformers, missionaries, and those who strove for a morally perfect
society. The country was so much swept by this fervor that John Quincy Adams
capitalized on the spirit of the time, claiming that "Progressive movement in the
condition of man is apparently the purpose of a superintending Providence." Perceiving
himself as a harbinger of the oncoming millennium described in the Bible, Adams might
have tried to legitimize the idea of the destiny of Americans in the divine plan.17
One might think that if there were such optimism and ebullient instincts toward
progress during antebellum America, just like described by historians, there should not
have been room for premillennialism, which is characteristically pessimistic. One might
also ask why Americans, who had defeated the mightiest empire of the world then and
founded a Republic after surviving several crises, required a reassurance provided by the
Second Great Awakening that their country had not left the path delineated by the divine
17 Brekus, Strangers and Pilgrims, 314; Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: The
Transformation of America, 1815-1848, (Oxford University Press, 2007), 287-289.
23
order. The very existence of premillennialism and the occurrence of the Second Great
Awakening were reminders that antebellum America was not immune from anxieties,
doubts, and apprehensions. There was a common belief among Americans that
catastrophes were decisive factors shaping the course of human history. Just like how
the past was not immune from divine punishment, which is described in the Bible
stories, the future would also be not exempted from it, meaning the American
exceptionalism would not last forever. There would be an impending doom waiting for
Americans on the horizon. In addition to this belief, the social, economic, and political
changes that boosted the self-confidence of the citizens also exerted considerable
pressure on the Americans, harassing them in their daily lives. The economic prosperity
of the 1820s and 1830s might have prompted Americans to hope the better for the
future. However, the same economy suffered from several economic crises and financial
panics, such as the Embargo of 1807 and the panic of 1837. These depressions and
panics created an unstable economic environment from which many Americans, notably
the farmers and businessmen, wanted to escape. These fluctuations in the market
economy shook the idea that there was nothing a diligent American could not achieve to
its foundations. Many watched the events unfold and believed it was the hand of the
angry God of the Book of Revelation instead of the merciful one that approved
America's special mission in the course of history. Similar to the relationship between
economic prosperity and the anxieties it created, the Westward expansion also caused
some distress. Though depicted as the cradle of the second chances, the West was also
interpreted by some Americans as the place where people live in the state of nature. It
seemed that having clashed with the Indians over the virgin territories on which the state
ıf nature would exist, some Americans perceived marching the West as a marching
24
historically backward. Just similar to the debate over how the newly conquered
territories should be governed, Americans were dither about the nature of their
government itself. Apart from the dichotomy between Hamiltonian politicians, who
were the proponent of commercial economy, and the supporters of Jeffersonian policies,
who envisioned an agrarian country, some even quarreled over the very existence of a
republic. Distressed by the expansion of enfranchisement and suffrage, many Americans
were restless as to domestic affairs. The non-existence of supreme authority and the
vulture nature of the free market created a sense that Americans were left alone,
distracting the nation from its holy destiny. In addition to these anxieties, there were
regional and ideological faultlines that would affect the future of the young republic.
Westward expansion was one problem; the distinct path of the South was another. Both
regions were developing in their own way, and The Missouri Compromise of 1820
added fuel to the fire. The regional schisms of antebellum America threatened the very
existence of the country ruled by the popular government in a vast territory. Even the
Protestants were not unanimous as to their attitude towards the events that were
unfolding before their eyes. While the liberal ones were eager to support technological
advances and social progress, the conservatives felt dizzy with anxiety when the
traditional values were superseded by the novel ones such as individualism, rationalism,
etc. As though the pressure coming from the internal dynamics of the American society
was not enough, many Protestant Americans felt threatened by the massive migration
wave that reached their countries' shores. The influx of millions of immigrants from the
other side of the Atlantic was alarming. Being a citizen of the old regimes, illiterate and
poor, the Europeans who migrated to the United States were not welcomed. The
Americans had to run up against the values that the immigrants brought with them to the
25
country to protect religious freedom and the republican government. Of these migrants,
Catholic immigration to their country was regarded as an ominous sign. Bothered by
their allegiance to the Papacy in Rome, many Americans attacked Catholics in several
anti-Catholic riots. Finally, the era witnessed environmental destruction on an
unprecedented scale. There were several natural disasters that Americans had to survive.
Many were killed by epidemics like spotted fever; many lost their fields after the floods.
There was even famine in some parts of the country. And meteor showers and comets of
the 1830s were the last straw. The millennium was approaching, and some people were
hearing the footsteps of Christ.18
2.4. Millennial Colonies in the United States
2.4.1. The Shakers
Having left England with her eight brethren, Ann Lee set sail to America in
1774. As a member of Shaking Quakers in her mother country, she was a true believer in
the Second Coming of Christ. Upon gaining a Free-Will Baptist preacher, Joseph
Meacham, Ann could not succeed in spreading her idiosyncratic set of beliefs and ideas.
Reported to have shown some miracles that prompted her followers to believe that
Christ came to the world a second time in her body, "Mother Ann" reiterated the
oncoming doom that would shake the world. When Meacham took charge of the
community after the death of Ann Lee in 1784, he gave the Shakers its definitive shape.
As the Second Great Awakening gained momentum, so was the Shakers' society.
18 Brekus, Strangers and Pilgrims, 314-315; Mcloughlin, “Revivalism”, 139-141.
26
Several new Shakers communities sprang up within a decade, stretching from Maine
through New England, New York, Ohio, and Indiana. In the 1830s, there were nineteen
Shakers communities in these states, reaching six thousand members. The daily life in
these villages was strictly arranged according to the doctrines of Ann Lee, notably
celibacy. Indoctrinated by the prophets' revelation that sexual intercourse is the root of
all the evil acts people perform, her followers resided in their communes, segregated
according to their gender. Being a Shaker demanded that their marriage would be
declared null and void upon joining the community. When they brought children with
them, they were considered to be the children of the whole community. The Shakers'
theology emphasized that all Shakers, regardless of their gender, were equal brothers
and sisters in spirit. They were supposed to support each other both spiritually and
materially. The gender segregation rule was so strict that the male and female members
of the community lived in separate dormitories designed based on their sex. Their
leaders were making elaborate daily schedules, including manual labor works that were
the sources of the revenue. According to the Shaker covenant, all the goods and money
earned by a Shaker also belonged to the community, and it would be spent for the needs
of the villages. Thanks to this hectic pace of their schedule, Shakers community thrived
from the very onset of their foundations. Though disparaged by their critics due to their
worship, the Shakers were also exalted due to the neatness of their communal life.
However, this perfection of the order would not last long, and after the 1850s, the
Shaker communities would lose their attraction, mainly because of their strong
attachment to celibacy.19
19 Winthrop S. Hudson, Religion in America: An Historical Account of the Development of American
27
2.4.2. The Mormons
Distressed by the disputes among the Christians, Joseph Smith, a fourteen-yearold
boy, secluded himself in the forest to ponder the wisdom of God in 1820. In his
hermitage, while he was praying, he had visions of heavenly personages talking to him.
In one of these revelations, he was instructed to unearth a pile of tablets buried near the
village of Manchester. After finding these tablets, his duty was to translate them and
spread their messages to the world. When he did what he was instructed, the tablets were
published under the name of the Book of Mormon in 1830. The book was
groundbreaking in that it places America at the center of the cosmos. Apart from the
Biblical-like story portrayed in the book, the story of the Nephites and Lamanites, the
book has several themes that attracted the attention of Americans living at that time. The
quintessential topic that caught their complete attention was the place that the book
places the US in the course of history. Celebrating America as the promised land, the
scripture befits the millennial nationalism of the time. It reemphasized the conviction
that their country would play a vital role during the unfolding drama of the millennium.
By saying so, the Book of Mormons changed the traditional narrative in which the scene
of the theater was Judeo-Christian world, and it re-set the stage in North America,
underscoring the American exceptionalism once more.20
Religious Life, (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company,1987), 174-175; Smith, A Dream of the
Judgment Day, 184-188.
20 Hudson, Religion in America, 180-182; Smith, A Dream of the Judgment Day, 216-219.
28
2.4.3. “New Moral World”
That millennialism became an omnipresent fervor in the United States during the first
half of the nineteenth century can be deduced from its influence over even the founders
of utopian socialist communities. Similar to the seventeenth-century Puritans' initiatives,
many European utopian reformers migrated to the United States to put their plans into
practice. Robert Owen, a Welsh manufacturer-reformer, was the epitome of the
nineteenth-century advocates of utopian socialism. Though married to a wife obsessed
with millenarian ideas, Owen was prosaic to believe in Christianity. When he arrived in
the United States in 1824, the American public gave him a warm welcome. He was a
popular public figure when he set foot in the country, but it did not last long due to his
public speeches, including unorthodox norms as to the society. Having fallen from
grace, Owen traveled around the country to observe the Shaker villages, about which he
read in Great Britain before his arrival. Finally, in 1825 he found his perfect place in
Harmony, Indiana, to create his " New Moral World", buying the Rappist settlement,
which was another millennial community founded by the German pietists then. Though
the initiative lasted only two years, it was a landmark in the history of American
millennialism. At first glance, Owenite utopianism and other secular millennial
communities might not remind somebody of the evangelical millennial milieu of that
time. However, it should be noted that in antebellum America, both mainstream and
unorthodox movements borrowed several ideas from each other. For example, though
Owen did not have much interest in Christianity, he visited the Shakers' village, one of
the most sophisticated forms of Christian theology, to observe communal life. And the
29
American society was not immune to the ideas coming from Europe. Robert Owen and
other secular visionaries were ardent supporters of Enlightenment rationalism and under
the influence of the revolutions that had given the impression that the world would begin
again. So, the experimental nature of American life provided the soil in which they
could sow the seeds of their Millenial-flavored utopias. 21
2.5. THE MILLERITES
The dead saints or bodies will rise, those children of God who are alive then,
will be changed and caught up to meet the Lord in the air, where they will be
married to him. The world and all the wicked will be burnt up (not annihilated),
and then Christ will descend and reign personally with his Saints; and at the end of
the 1000 years the wicked will be raised, judged and sent to everlasting
punishment. (This is the second death.)22
In a letter written in 1831 to his sister, William Miller, a self-educated farmer from
New York, describes the Rapture this way. In a time in which millennialism kept a tight
rein on the religious life, the statement of a farmer like this seems ordinary. What makes
William Miller unique and the most famous millenarian in American history is the fact
that he boldly calculated the end of times, which was supposed to be the year 1843.
Born in a farmer family in 1782 in Massachusetts, William Miller educated
himself during his childhood. Spending his youth as a deist, Miller converted to
Christianity again after the battle he had witnessed in the War of 1812. From then on, he
devoted his time to the exegesis of the Bible, notably the prophetic interpretations. Until
21 Howe, What Hath God Wrought, 292-294; Smith, A Dream of the Judgment Day, 192-194.
22 Smith, A Dream of the Judgment Day, 230.
30
1834, Due to his diffident character, he had avoided public sermons, disseminating his
ideas just to the inner circle. After that time, he felt an urge to spread what he had
discovered in the Bible, grabbing the attention of the neighborhood. The milestone that
transformed his preachings into a national movement was the recruitment of Joshua
V.Himes, who, as an editor of the most prominent Millerite newspaper, Sign of Times,
found ways to reach the mass audiences. Though from the very onset of the spread of his
message William Miller was reluctant to find a new denomination or a church, within a
few years, almost fifty thousand people joined the movement. So, what made Miller's
message so alluring even though he abstained from a novel cult?23
At first glance, what Miller postulated seems an anomaly for that time. He
asserted that he knew the exact date for the Second Coming of Christ. Though his claim
marginalized his movement, and they were derided constantly as cranks or hypocrites by
their critics, the Millerites, too, were the children of the zeitgeist. It was the orthodoxy of
the Millerite doctrine that fascinated Americans then. The pillars of Millerism
comfortably fit into the evangelical culture of the 19th century. Millerites can easily be
identified as biblicists, meaning that they approve of the Bible as the book of God. They
gave unswerving testimony to the authority of the Bible. Having contemplated the
Scripture, Miller came to the conclusion that the prophecies mentioned in the Bible were
always literally fulfilled, and there were some rules to unearth the mystery of figures and
metaphors. To Miller's doctrine, if asked in faith, nothing revealed in the Bible can be
hidden from the believers. So, they read the Scripture to find the literal meaning of the
passages, leading them to the idea that the Second Coming of Christ would be a personal
23 Sandeen, The Roots of Fundamentalism, 50.
31
return and premillennial. They tried to refute the conviction that his return might refer to
a symbolic meaning, such as a peaceful time on the earth. To them, it must be a personal
return, and the reign of Christ on the world must be exactly a thousand-year.24
Evangelicalism was the most ubiquitous form of Christianity in antebellum
America, and the Millerites were not immune to the ethos of that culture. Millerism was
compatible with what Evangelicalism required, such as new birth, Bible, mission, and
millennium. William Miller's conversion from deism to Christianity was the epitome of
an evangelical transformation. Like his, the adherents of the movement also experienced
conversions, coming from several churches such as Methodists, Presbyterians, etc. The
submission to the authority of the Bible was also a ramification of the evangelical
culture of the 19th century. The Scripture took a central place in the spiritual lives of
Evangelicals, prompting them to spread the message of the Gospel. The Millerites, who
believed that the end of time would be in 1843, ventured into massive publications of
books, journals, pamphlets, etc. They took to the roads, becoming itinerant preachers
throughout the country. They set up several camp meetings to gather Americans and
spread the message.25
If read between the lines, Meshulam! or Tidings From Jerusalem: From the
Journal of a Believer Recently Returned from the Holy Land, written by Clorinda Strong
Minor, who would be the founder of the American Agricultural Colony at Jaffa, can
offer some residual Millerism and Evangelicalism. Considering the fact the book was
published after the Great Disappointment, due to which many Millerites left the
24 Sandeen, “Millennialism,” in The Rise of Adventism, 112-113.
25 Ruth Alden Doan, “Millerism and Evangelical Culture”, in The Disappointed, 118-121.
32
movement and ached for consolation in other denominations, notably the Shakers, it
seems that she did not lose her faith in millennialism. Just like Miller indoctrinated that
each person can be the interpreter of the Bible, she was absorbed in reading the Scripture
to find a spiritual reprieve. Having pondered millennialism, she abandoned her
conviction that the Second Coming of Christ would be premillennial.
... many of us believed, as did the disciples when Jesus rode in Jerusalem,
that 'the kingdom would immediately appear.' But we now see that 'the day
of his preparation,' must precede his coming, and in this 'TIME of the END
many shall be purified, and made white, and tried,' and have an
understanding of the times, while the wicked are doing wickedly, and do not
understand. 26
As it can be deduced from this passage, she transformed from a premillennialist,
which was the definitive characteristic of Millerism, to a postmillennialist. It must be
added that this transformation was the watershed for her later life. The reason behind
this claim is that, as explained before, premillennialism is a pessimistic version of
millennial theology. Premillennialists do not strive for the enhancement of society. Why
would people bother themselves trying to make society perfect if there was an imminent
apocalypse? But postmillennialism is a proponent of social progress. When Clorinda
Minor espoused postmillennialism, she could contemplate the condition of humanity,
notably the wretched conditions of Jews in Palestine.
Many millennialists, including some Millerites, found a prerequisite in the Bible
that the Jews must return to the Holy Land before the Second Coming of Christ occurs.
Without their restoration to Ottoman Palestine, there would be no advent. However, the
26 A.L.Wood, Meshullam! Or Tidings from Jerusalem, From the Journal of a Believer Recently Returned
from the Holy Land, 2nd edition, (Philadelphia: privately published, 1851),vii.
33
Millerites did not latch onto the idea of the Jewish restoration because they believed in
the oncoming apocalypse, and if the Jews had to resettle in the Holy Land, it would
refute their belief in the imminent oncoming of Christ. The most conspicuous notion that
buttressed their movement was the certainty of the end of the times. Waiting for the
travel of so many Jews to Ottoman Palestine would last decades. The Jewish question
would damage the prophecy of 1843.27
What the Millerites had ignored became the goal of Clorinda Minor's life. She
had to make a pilgrimage to see what they could do in the Holy Land. God was calling
her to go!28
27 Ruth Alden Doan, “ The Miller Heresy, Millennialism and American Culture” (PhD diss., University of
North Carolina Chapel Hill, 1984),37-38.
28 Wood, Meshullam!, xi.
34
CHAPTER III
THE PROMISED LANDS
Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for
the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring
rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near. Don't
grumble against each other, brother, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing
at the door!
James 5:7-9
Succumbed by the conviction that God was calling her to go, on May 16, 1849,
Clorinda S. Minor, the founder of the American Agricultural Settlement at Jaffa,
departed from Philadelphia to visit the Holy Places, heeding her inner voice. Having left
her husband behind, she ventured into the unknown. The merchant vessel Minor had
embarked in the U.S. stopped by several Mediterranean ports: Gibraltar, Marseilles,
Alexandria, Beirut, and Jaffa. The list of cities visited by the vessel reveals the longevity
of time, almost four months, encompassing her departure from Philadelphia to her
arrival in Jaffa. The crew arrived in Jerusalem on September 5 and set foot in the Holy
Land.29
29 For a more detailed and nuanced description of her sojourn in Holy Land, see A.L.Wood, Meshullam!
Or Tidings from Jerusalem, From the Journal of a Believer Recently Returned from the Holy Land, 2nd
edition, (Philadelphia: privately published, 1851), 1-95.
35
Born in Philadelphia and raised as a Congregationalist, Clorinda Minor (1808-
1855) was an ardent disciple of William Miller, the founder of the Millerite sect. Miller
believed that he had unearthed a clue in the biblical book of Daniel that would enable
him to calculate the precise time of the End of Days. Excitement stemming from Miller's
discovery prompted many of his followers to quit their daily tasks and prepare for the
apocalypse.30 Of these devout people, Minor was so absorbed by her religious zeal that
she had not abandoned her belief even after "the Great Disappointment", in which
Miller's prophecies as to the Second Advent of Christ had not materialized. Minor came
to the Holy Land because, believing that there were works to be done in the Holy Places
to materialize the Second Coming of Jesus, she continued to adhere to millennialism.31
The warm welcome she received from John Meshullam, a Jewish convert to
Christianity from London, and her personal observation during the pilgrimage as to the
condition of the 19th century Palestine induced her to implement what she had on her
mind: The Manual Labour School of Agriculture for the Jews in the Holy Land. Though
some sporadic attempts by American Millenials were to occur until the end of the 19th
century, such as George Adams's colony at Jaffa or the American Colony founded by the
Spefford family, her colony "Mount Hope", founded at Jaffa, was the forerunner of
American agricultural settlement in Palestine.
30 Lester I.Vogel, To See a Promised Land: Americans and the Holy Land in the Nineteenth
Century,(Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993),129.
31 “The millenial ferment resulted, inter alia in American group settlements in Palestine… In the
millenarian concept of the Holy Land, we have the most characteristically nineteenth century
development in American thinking on Palestine… It was the Christologically millenarian view (involving
variously and sometimes vaguely the conversion of the Jews, the return of the Jews to the Holy Land, the
imminent Second Advent of Jesus thereto and the establishment therein of God’s Kingdom on earth)
that developed the characteristic conceptualization of the three middle decades of the century”
V.D.Lipman, Americans and the Holy Land through British Eyes,1820-1917: A Documentary History,
(London: in association with The Self Publishing Association Ltd,1989),20.
36
The multi-national nature of millenarist settlements in Palestine cannot be
approached as an isolated phenomenon. The millenarist fervor that had swept the United
States and Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries and the Ottoman reforms of the 19th
century paved the way for the settlement of Clorinda Minor and others who were to
follow her example. However, there was a discrepancy in how they had imagined the
Holy Lands and what it actually was.
3.1. The Realities of 19th Century Ottoman Palestine
Judgment of how much the American groups could materialize the divine plan
that they had on their mind can only be made in the context of the realities of 19thcentury
Ottoman Palestine. When they disembarked in the Holy Land, they also crossed
the border that separated their perception of the territory and what the Bible Land
actually was. Due to this contrast between the image and reality, it should be started with
what kind of Palestine Clorinda Minor observed during her sojourn.
Except being a crossroads of three major religions, the Holy Land was not
regarded as an indispensable place by the Ottoman authorities until the mid-nineteenth
century, during which it would be a significant center of attraction for the European
powers and the Ottoman Empire. Under the rule of Sublime Porte, the primary source of
income for the residents of Palestine was agriculture, which was heavily disrupted by
drought, crop failures, plague, etc. The peasantry that comprised the largest segment of
the population practiced rudimentary traditional agricultural methods, and therefore,
they had incessantly suffered from natural disasters. As for the artisans, they availed
themselves of the opportunity that pilgrimage offered them at that time. Since Palestine
37
was the Bible land, it was the haunt of many pilgrims coming from several parts of the
world. The commercial classes who could benefit from these voyages prospered
comparatively. However, the region was not a significant source of income for the
Ottoman treasury, though.
Though it is hard to estimate the exact numbers, at the onset of the 19th century,
the area's population was estimated at around 300.000, which was comprised of
Muslims, Christians, and Jews. These three groups were not cohesive and, therefore,
divided into several subgroups. Apart from these indigenous ethnic groups of territory,
by the 1840s, the foreign communities, called "Franks" by the Ottomans, also became
highly visible in the region in a very short period of time. In Ottoman Palestine, the
largest segment of the population was Muslim Arabs, known as fellahin. They depended
on agriculture for most of their incomes, prompting them to settle in the villages and the
cities of the Holy Lands. Though not as large as fellahin, the nomadic Bedouins also
were part of the Muslim Arab population. Compared to the Muslim part of the society,
non-Muslim groups, though relatively small, represented a mosaic of sectarian thoughts
in their religions. Many Christian denominations, including relics of the early primitive
Eastern churches, had settled in the Holy Land for a long time. Some Christians were
members of the Greek Orthodox, Abysinnian, Gregorian and Coptic churches. Others
were adherents of the Roman Catholic church. And during the Egyptian conquest of
Jerusalem, Protestant organizations, under the auspices of their respective European
countries, also ventured into missionary activities in the Holy Land. As for the Jews, at
the beginning of the 19th century, the population of the local community, called Yishuv,
was around 25.000. The major subgroups were Sephardim, whose origins traced back to
Spanish, North African ancestry, and Ashkenazim, whose ancestors came from Central
38
or Eastern Europe. Similar to those of the Christian population, by the 1840s, the Jewish
community also grew after the migration wave coming from Europe.
So, how did the Ottomans handle this society that comprised a myriad of
ethnicities, religions, sects, denominations and etc.? There were two systems
implemented simultaneously by the Ottoman authorities to rule over Palestine. The first
one was the geographical subdivision of the country through which the Sublime Porte
exerted its influence all over its territory, and the Holy Land was no exception to this
rule. Palestine was divided into several administrative units, known as sanjaks, which
were under the control of vali, the governor, of Damascus, until 1841, and in the
following decades by Beyrout. The millet system was the second political practice with
which the Ottomans preferred to reign over the non-muslim subject of the empire.
According to this administration, each of the non-muslim groups was officially
identified as unique separate groups based on their religious affinity by the Ottoman
jurisdiction. With this system, these groups constituted their own millets and had their
own leaders. In just the same way that they interacted with their provinces
via pashas and valis, the Ottomans administered the millets through these leaders
whenever necessary. Each millet had its own judicial system of which cases such as
contracts, marriages, inheritance issues, etc., were part. Unless these matters include a
Muslim plaintiff, they were settled by the recognized leaders of each millet. 32
From the middle of the 19th century, another political actor became more
conspicuous in how the Sublime Porte dealt with its non-Muslim subjects. During the
reign of Ibrahim Pasha, Muhammed Ali's son and the sovereign of the Holy Land in the
1830s, several European countries opened their foreign consulates in the region, starting
32 Vogel, To See a Promised Land, 19-25.
39
with Great Britain. The existence of a consulate could mean a small-scale government
for its nationals and proteges, depending on the capitulations over which the Sublime
Porte and their home country had agreed. These consuls had jurisdiction over their own
personals and people who demanded their protection. The Consulus-Bey, as the
Ottomans call the head of the consulate, had some privileges stemming from the edicts
that the Sultan bestowed upon their country. For example, the residence the consul
dwelled in was accepted as outside the territories of the Ottoman Empire. They had the
right to have their own place of worship within the boundaries of their consulate. The
nationals whose country the Ottomans had proposed capitulations were exempt from the
jurisdiction of local courts. The consuls of some European countries like Great Britain,
France, and of the United States had the right to judge the criminal cases whose actors
were their own nationals. Under the aegis of their own respective governments, these
consuls would exert their influence, and sometimes pressure, over the cases that
involved foreign nationals. The dispute that broke up between the American group and
the British John Meshullam as to the owners of the properties in Artas and the
intervention of both the US consul and British consul in the matter was a quintessential
case.33
As for Jerusalem, the venerable position of the city was accentuated in the 19th
century, during which European countries and the United States kept a close eye on the
city. The ebullient energy and resources devoted by Europeans to the town also
prompted the Sublime Porte to give more prominence to the city for the rest of the
second half of the 19th century. Ibrahim Pasha's reforms and the ripple effects of
33 Ruth Kark, American Consuls in the Holy Land, 1832-1914 (Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, The Hebrew
University,1994), 59-65.
40
Tanzimat periods were conspicuous in the town when Clorinda Minor visited the city.
However, at the turn of the 19th century, Jerusalem resembled other traditional Middle
Eastern towns. It was a small, densely inhabited city encircled by city walls. The city
gates were closed during the night and Friday prayers. The population of the city then is
estimated at around 9.000, comprised of Muslims, Christians, and Jews. The conquest of
the city by Muhammed Ali in 1831 had a profound effect on the dwellers of Jerusalem.
Under the reign of the new ruler, Ġbrahim Pasha, the authority sought to relieve the
conditions for non-Muslims. The Muslim population of the city was disarmed, and the
right to reconstruct their religious sites was bestowed upon Christians and Jews.
Throughout this decade, there was a cultural milieu that made contact with Western
countries more possible. Europeans and Americans, who wanted to see it develop a
greater tolerance of their nationals in that region, thereupon responded to these reforms
by opening their consulates and sending missionaries to Jerusalem. As a result of all of
these developments, the population increase gained momentum, reaching 12.000 after
1834. Though the following decade witnessed the expulsion of Muhammed Ali from
Jerusalem, the Sublime Porte did not try to rewind the clock back to 1831. Having
gained the upper hand in the city once more, the Ottomans heeded the warnings of
European powers as to the conditions of their nationals. During the Tanzimat Period, the
policy of tolerant of non-Muslims was maintained, granting them some special rights.
The noticeable increase in the population of foreigners and in the number of foreign
consuls was the upshot of this policy. Protestants gained millet status, the first Protestant
bishopry was founded in the city, the Greek-Orthodox patriarch decided to establish his
permanent residence in the town, and a Chief Rabbi was sent to Jerusalem to head the
Jewish community of the city. The swift transformation in the city's population had a
41
dramatic impact on the political sphere. The European powers and their nationals
exerted their influence over the governors of the city, who had been tempted to follow
their arbitrary will. In a political milieu in which Muslims and non-Muslim residents of
the town were subject to different laws, the consuls and the pashas of the city had to find
a compromise to dispute their settlements for each case involving foreigners. It was a
knotty problem; therefore, from the middle of the nineteenth century, Jerusalem would
be a playground for the Ottoman authorities and foreign consuls, who would try to
enhance their respective positions in the region. 34
This was the Jerusalem that Clorinda Minor observed.
3.2. The Pilgrimage and The Sojourn at Artas
Having sent his son from Marseilles to home due to his delicate health condition,
Mrs. Minor, accompanied by another millennialist, arrived in the Holy Land. The first
person the group reached out was John Meshullam.35 In his report, written as a result of
a dispute that broke out in 1855 between American colonists and the British consul
James Finn, Lord Napier, the Secretary of the British Embassy in Constantinople,
describes the arrival of the Americans as
In the year 1849, two persons bearing the name of Adams and
professing to be brother and sister appeared in Palestine. They belonged
to the poorer class of traveller and having inhabited for a short time a
room in the hotel kept by John Meshullam at Jerusalem, they were
recommended by him to a cheaper residence with his family in the
village of Bethlehem. Mr and Miss Adams adhered, or professed to
adhere, to that sect of enthusiasts who have a lively impression of the
34 Ruth Kark, Jerusalem and Its Environs: Quarters, Neighborhoods, Villages, 1800-1948 (Jerusalem: The
Hebrew University Magnes Press,2001), 26-34.
35 Vogel, To See a Promised Land,130.
42
restoration of the Jews in anticipation of the second Advent of the
Messiah and in Mr Meshullam they founded a converted Israelite who
was equally zealous for the redemption of his people.36
John Meshullam, who had settled in Palestine with his family in 1841, was the
owner of the first European hotel constructed in the city. In 1845 during one of his
wanderings, he had happened along a village utterly ruined named Artas. Though the
village seemed desolate, Meshullam was attracted by its fertility and abundant water.
Throughout the years, he embarked upon leasing lands from the local population. This
process is reported by British consul James Finn in a dispatch dated August 14, 1850, as
An English subject named Meshullam conceived the project a few
months ago, of putting more of this valley into cultivation: by entering
into partnership with the Sheikh of the place, on the terms of himself to
enjoy three fourths of the produce, and the Sheikh the remainder,-
besides a yearly rent to be paid.
They petitioned the Pasha for leave in this affair,- when his
Excellency countersigned the paper, and sent it to the Makhkameh.-
There a lease was made out in full legal formality for a term of five
years.
Upon this Mr Meshullam set to work with his family, hired
peasants at good wages, cleared portions of ground, sowed kitchen
vegetables and grain, bought cattle and built two chambers seperate from
each other, against the face of the rock.
All went on prosperously,- a wild waste becoming a beautiful
farm and garden in a very short time, until the Greeks and Effendis
commenced their interference with my hired ground near the city. Then
Greeks came into the valley, and purchased those pieces of land on which
the peasants had ignorantly toiled before. Thus dissensions began, and I
have myself heard the peasants use the party designations of Abu
Kalusch (monk's caps) and Abu Bornetah (Frank hats). Taamri Arabs
came with guns into the place and disturbed Meshullam's labours;
diverting the water course in favor of the new comers, though contrary to
the terms of his lease... A very respectable Sheikh of the Great Mosque,
who was lately with me at Urtas, overheard peasants there saying that
they had received gold gazis from the Archimandrite Nikephori, with
directions to be civil to Meshullam "until the time"-...I am told, however,
36 Lipman, Americans and the Holy Land through British Eyes,120.
43
that the peasantry in this neighbourhood have offered much more land to
European cultivators in expectation of regular employment under
improved systems of agriculture-37
The issues that Finn brought to the table in his despatch addressed to Sir S.
Canning were the reflections of a socio-political framework within which the settlers, in
this case, Meshullam, found themselves. The promulgation of Tanzimat Fermanı was a
major breakthrough in negotiations with the foreigners. The ripple effect of the firman
in Palestine was that it allowed the emergence of a milieu in which foreigners were able
to settle in the Holy Land. However, according to Ottoman law, the foreigners who did
not take on Ottoman nationality could not purchase land in their names. Therefore, they
would have to wait until the Ottoman Land Law of 1858 for this right. In practice, even
this law did not solve the problem, and in 1867, an Imperial Rescript granting the
foreigners the land purchase in their names was promulgated.38
Since Meshullam had no right to purchase in his name, he had to cooperate with
the Sheikh of the place. He leased the land for some time and accepted to pay rent and a
quarter of his earnings. As understood by the dispatch, apart from dealing with the
Ottoman bureaucracy39, Meshullam also had to face local hostilities, even from the
other Christian denominations. Clorinda Minor, who both had a chance to observe
Meshullam's agricultural initiative and the situation in Palestine during his sojourn in
37 Eliav,Mordechai. Britain and the Holy Land 1838-1914: Selected Documents from the British Consulate
in Jerusalem.Jerusalem: The Magnes Press,1997, 160-161.
38 Ruth Kark, “Land Purchase and Registration by German-American Templars in Nineteenth Century
Haifa”, International Journal of Turhish Studies, vol 5, nos 1&2, (winter 1990-91):72.
39 For more examples of how foreign philanthropist activities in Palestine were practised, see the petition
of Moses Montefiore who initiated to construct a hospital for the Jewish population in 1859. Başbakanlık
Osmanlı Arşivi- Istanbul/Prime Ministry Ottoman Archive-Istanbul (Herafter to be cited as BOA),
HR.SFR.3…47/19.
44
Palestine, returned to the United States firmly believing that she should arouse public
interest and support Meshullam in his initiative.
3.3. Meshullam! Or Tidings from Jerusalem
The ship Mrs. Minor had embarked at Jaffa set sail on November 3 1849. The
vessel's destination was the United States. However, they had to stop at Falmouth,
England, due to a storm. Mrs. Minor could not avail herself of the respite, though,
suffering from a violent relapse of fever and severe chills. She strived to find the lady to
whom she had been directed. In her sojourn in England, she contacted a circle of
believers who had also received reference letters from Jerusalem. She describes their
conversations as
They were much pleased and quickened by the recital, and one of
them, a gentleman of distinction, kindly proposed to take the charge and
expense (through his agent in Liverpool) of any letters or freight which
friends in America should wish to forward, through England, to the
assistance of Meshullam. Here I saw why I had been sent to Englands, as
there is no direct communication between the United States and
Palestine!40
The international network that was to support Meshullam and Minor in Palestine
commenced being woven even en route. Having continued to keep her diary, she
compiled her manuscripts. She added the biography of John Meshullam with the letters
of colonists and published the first edition in June 1850 under the title of "Meshullam!
or, Tidings from Jerusalem". In the second edition of the book, there are subtle pieces of
40 A.L.Wood, Meshullam!, 92-94
45
information proving that even after her return to the United States, she tried to keep
abreast of any developments in the Ottoman Empire. In the last part of the book titled
"Appeal", dated April 1, 1851, she writes
The way for these unpretending labors seems to have been
remarkably opened, the past year, in perfect harmony with other
movements respecting Israel. Last summer an agent from Constantinople,
arrived in the United States, confirming the most favorable relations,
between our Government and the Sublime Porte; also, since our return
from the East, the Sultan of Turkey has issued a Firman, giving
permission to all denominations, to build, own, and occupy lands in
Palestine. Also in a published letter from Constantinople, dated
December, 1850, it is stated that a Firman had just been received by the
Protestants of Turkey, from the Sublime Porte, and the writer adds: "By
this Firman all the civil and religious rights of the Protestants are secured
to them, and they are distinctly declared to have the privilege of building
churches, holding burying grounds," etc. This is a liberty which has never
before existed since the dispersion, and is surely and unexampled and
dispensational movement of Providence.41
The tone of the appeal seems quite optimistic, and considering the fact that the
reciprocal relations between the Porte and the United States reached their climax at the
beginning of the fifties, Mrs. Minor's excitement is quite understandable. The agent sent
by Constantinople, whose name Mrs. Minor does not mention, was Amin Bey. He was a
naval officer selected as the first Ottoman envoy that set foot on the New World. His
primary mission was to observe the navy yards, factories, and several American
institutions and report them to the Porte. His visit made a conspicuous impact on
American society. After the 1848 Revolutions, some of the Hungarian revolutionaries
took refuge in the Ottoman Empire. The Sultan, who took them under his patronage,
41 A.L.Wood, Meshullam!,137-138.
46
enhanced his reputation in the United States, coming to light constantly during his
agent's visit.42 It seems that Mrs. Minor was also among those influenced by the visit of
Amin Bey. When Amin Bey was traveling in the years of 1850-51 in the United States,
Mrs. Minor had already returned her home. The proximity between the homeland of
Mrs. Minor, which was Philadelphia, and the itinerary of Amin Bey, which comprised
mainly of East Coast cities such as Boston, New York, and Washington D.C., might
have enhanced the influence of his trip on her opinions as to the U.S.-Ottoman relations.
As for the firmans, as mentioned in the text, the Protestants gained unprecedented rights
at that time. The confluence of these events seems to have encouraged Mrs. Minor to
appeal to American society in the second edition of her book.
Apart from the political conditions of the empire, in her book Mrs. Minor, who
postulated that the agricultural labor in the Holy Land was a prerequisite for the Second
Advent of Christ, elaborates on the environment of Palestine. When Minor resided at
Artas, she observed that Meshullam was able to raise" five crops in a year of different
kinds of European vegetables, most of which were unknown in Judea before." When she
asked which crops he cultivates, Meshullam said:
"In October, I plant potatoes; in January, carrots or beets; in April,
potatoes again; in July I get beans in 28 days. Also, another crop of beans
in August.
Without water, I can raise two crops yearly. In April, I plant
cauliflowers and cabbage; or in December, wheat, barley, oats, or
potatoes."43
42 During his visit, Amin Bey had a chance to meet the President the Secretary of State and senators.
Amin Bey's visit to America can be best traced in the issues of the New York Herald, the Daily Scioto
Gazette and his several despatches from the United States. BOA, İ.HR.65/3164, İ.HR.71/3466.
43 A.L.Wood, Meshullam!, 102-103. Some of the seeds of these vegetables were sent to Meshullam when
he corresponded with his network from England.
47
However, this success was also the trigger that paved the way for the envy of
some Arabs and other Christian convents. Though he shared his crops, seeds, and mills
with the local population, according to Minor, he could not escape the hostilities of
some of them. Once, he caught Arab making depredation on his farm. In another case,
his neighbor demanding some seeds in return for a stipulated measure refused the pay
the money. The case was before the court, and the Pasha chastised the perpetrator.
Arabs were not the only ones who envied Meshullam. Minor mentions that the week
before she left Artas, the Pasha was offered 7,000 piastres by a delegation from one of
the convents to stop the Meshullam's initiative at Artas. Except for saying "not Roman
Catholic", Minor does not give the name of the convent. Considering the dispatch of
Finn, in which he mentions a dispute between the Greeks and Meshullam, it might have
been the Greeks who sent a delegation to Pasha to hinder the agricultural labor of
Meshullam.
Though general acceptance is that there was no link tieing the first American
settlers to the Templars, the Pietist sect who was to settle in Palestine after 1868, it
seems that the American settlers tried to contact some member of the sect and that they
informed them about the situation in the Holy Land. In the letter sent by a member of
Templars from Prussia, it is stated that
I would repeat that we hold similar views with yourself, and it
would afford us great pleasure, if we knew of any way to further your
expectations. We have thus far acted according to the grace given and
assure you, that we will in future, with our whole mind, take into serious
consideration what you propose to us. We will greet you, and wish you
many blessings, and hope you will make further communications to us. 44
44 A.L.Wood, Meshullam!,, 125-126. Alex Carmel also proves the link between the American Agricultural
colony of Mrs Minor and the Templars. He mentions that Die Warte, the Templar's publication, was
48
This letter shows that from the very beginning of her arrival, even before founding
her own colony at Jaffa, Mrs. Minor was endeavoring for an international support
network covering the United States, Great Britain, and Prussia. She somehow managed
to position herself at the center of this network, serving as a liaison between the
different groups sharing similar ideas as to the future of the Holy Land and its
inhabitants.45
Until her second venture in 1852, Mrs. Minor strove for the subsidization of the
Artas colony. She spent her time paying attention to the delivery of freight consisting of
seeds, medicine, mill, agricultural books, clothing, hardware, etc.46 She also donated the
money stemming from the sale of her book "Meshullam! Or Tidings From Jerusalem"
to the colony in Palestine.
3.4. To the Promised Land
On November 3, the time was ripe for the second journey. Mrs. Minor,
surrounded by a group of American citizens, left her homeland for the Holy Land. This
time the group that accompanied her during the trip consisted of different people.
following the activities of Minor's colony and had to postpone their settlement in Holy Lands after
hearing the news as to the outrage inflicted upon the colony in 1858. Alex Carmel, Die Siedlungen der
württembergischen Templer in Palastina: 1868-1918, (Stutgart: W.Kohlhammer Verlag,1973), 14.
45 Though sixty years later from arrival of American settlers, Mrs Finn accused Minor and her companions
of being fraud who had opened a shop in Boston in Meshullam's name to collect funds for the Artas
settlement, the charge seems to have originated from the dispute between Finns and American settlers.
Besides, the American consul J.Hosford Smith would decide that Finn was the one who had extorted the
properties from Americans. Arnold Blumberg, A View From Jerusalem, 1849-1858: The Consular Diary of
James and Elizabeth Anne Finn, (London and Toronto: Associated University Press,1980),117.
46 For a more detailed list of commodities sent by Americans for Meshullam’s effort at Artas, see
A.L.Wood, Meshullam!,,134-136.
49
Having lost her husband in Philadelphia, she came with her son, Mr. Charles A.Minor.
Mr. Adams, who had been traveling with Minor during her pilgrimage to the Holy
Land, did not come to Palestine this time. Instead, the group included several
Americans (Mr. Cyrus Thatcher, Miss Lydia Schuler, Miss Emma Neil, Mr. and Mrs.
Dwight, and child). They were either mechanics or farmers. Besides, the group brought
architectural hardware products, tents, clothing, and medicines with them. Several
vegetables and fruits, such as potatoes and American pitches, were introduced to the
area through these colonists at that time. All of these preparations seem that the settlers
came to the Holy Land with a well-designed plan on their minds.
Before they settled at Artas, they had made an agreement with Meshullam. The
contracting parties were represented by John Meshullam on the one side and Mrs.
Minor and Cyrus Tatcher on the other side. The Americans made pledges to the colony
at Artas, equaling the sum of a hundred pounds. The money was put aside for the
common purposes of the settlement. Furthermore, according to the treaty between
Meshullam and Minor, all the expenses and revenues should be equally divided. In the
long run, if they decide to erect new buildings in the colony, the revenue from these
improvements should also be equally shared among the signers. However, Americans
were to have no claims on buildings that Meshullam had erected. Having agreed on
these terms, the American group embarked upon constructing their new house at Artas
because the existing accommodation of Meshullam was not enough for the group. They
spent eight hundred dollars for this initiative. The place that they constructed contained
50
three rooms and was ready for residing before the winter. While erecting their houses,
Americans gained local support for their project.47
The reciprocal relations between Meshullam and the Americans continued for a
while. Some of the group members, Mr. and Mrs. Dwight, left the colony for an
unknown reason. However, the settlement continued to attract Europeans and
Americans. Miss Williams, an Englishwoman, joined the initiative at Artas, bringing
her strong network. In addition to Miss Williams, Mr. and Mrs. Dickson, whose parents
were to be backbones of the Mount Hope colony at Jaffa after the death of Minor in
1855, arrived at Artas.48
In the earlier stages of the mission, it seems that the relationship between the
Americans and Meshullam was relatively peaceful. When Mrs. Minor and her group
joined the Artas settlement, there was no American consulate in Jerusalem. Due to the
increasing number of American missionaries and travelers in the region, there were
talks to appoint an American citizen from the Holy Land as a vice-consular to
Jerusalem. Though Mrs. Minor and her followers were not eager to involve themselves
in the consular activities of the United States in Jerusalem, they nominated Meshullam
as a candidate though.49 They might have thought that the existence of Meshullam in the
American consulate would ease the problems they had to face in the Holy Land.
47James Edward Hanuer. “Notes on the History of Modern Colonisation in Palestine.”, Palestine
Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement, (1900), 130. Lipman, Americans and the Holy Land through British
Eyes. 121.
Moses Montefiore and Mrs Minor first met in Palestine while the latter came to the pilgrimage in 1849.
A.L.Wood, Meshullam!, 36.
48 Lipman, Americans and the Holy Land through British Eyes.122.
49 Ruth Kark, American Consuls in the Holy Land 1832-1914, (Detroit: Wayne State University
Press,1994),127-128.
51
Nominating Meshullam as a candidate instead of a group member, Mrs. Minor and her
group might have shown how much Meshullam gained their trust.
However, this tranquillity in the colony was not to last. Traveling through
Palestine to examine the region for his scientific work, on May 7, 1852, Edward
Robbinson stopped by at the settlement. He portrays the current situation at Artas
colony as
We met here seven or eight Americans, men and women, Seventh
Day Baptists from Philadelphia and the vicinity. They had come out as
missionaries to introduce agriculture among the Jews; but being
unacquainted with the language and customs of the country, and
therefore helpless, they had been taken by Meshullam into his employ;
where they found at least food and shelter. They did not, however,
appear satisfied; and seemed to us likely to leave the place so soon as
they could help them- selves. Indeed, in the course of the following
winter, a quarrel arose between them and Meshullam, and they removed
to the neighborhood of Yafa. They told us they had brought out with
them American ploughs; but could make no use of them for want of
stronger teams. A similar colony of Germans had been in like manner
employed by Meshullam two years before; a glowing report from whom
is given by Ritter. But they too had become dissatisfied; and were now
dispersed. It is hardly necessary to remark, that the idea of speedily
converting the Jews, living as strangers in Palestine, into an agricultural
people, is altogether visionary.50
The German settlers at Artas that Robinson mentions are probably Steinborn
family who had come to Palestine with Großsteinbeck family in 1850. Steinborns had
settled at Artas settlement in 1850 and returned immediately to the homeland in a year.
However, Großsteinbecks became the backbone of the colony at Jaffa, to which Mr.
Minor and her followers decided to join in 1853. In addition to these German families,
50 Edward Robinson, Later Biblical Researches in Palestine and the Adjacent Regions: A Journal Travels in
the Year 1852,(London: J Murray,1856), 274.
52
Heinrich Baldensperger, sent to the Holy Land as the student of Basler Pilgrim Mission,
also had become a member of the Artas initiative. In October 1849, he had come to
Artas and spent a year with Meshullam, helping to lease lands and build a house.51
Given that the Americans nominated Meshullam as the U.S. vice-consulate in
Jerusalem, the dispute between the two parties that Robinson mentions must have
broken out later. However, before the end of the year 1852, it was clear that the
settlement was on the verge of dissolution. The Americans and Meshullam quarreled,
and the consuls of both sides had to intervene.52
Mrs. Minor's group and Meshullam agreed to separate their initiatives, but the
question was how they would share the common properties. Actually, the articles of the
agreement signed by two parties when Americans had joined the settlements were
evident as to the dissolution. If they had complied with the contract, there would have
been no dispute. But they preferred to deviate from the agreement terms, paving the way
for a diplomatic predicament between the U.S. consul in Beirut and the British consul at
Jerusalem.53 They might have believed that they could take more than the fixed share,
which, according to the contract, was half of the properties. On February 8, 1853, Smith
and Finn signed a new document regulating the properties of the colony at the British
Consulate, annulling the previous one. As for the newly erected house at Artas,
51 Jakob Eisler, Deutsche Kolonisten im Heiligen Land: Die Familie John Steinbeck in Briefen aus Palastina
und USA, (Leipzig: S.Hirzel Verlag,2001),27-28.
52 In the Ottoman Empire, the foreign consuls were vested with legal authorities. If a dispute broke out
among nationals of different countries, the consuls of involved countries would serve as arbiters among
the disputed parties without turning it into a case in court. These quarrels would generally be about
contracts, agreements, claims signed by the nationals of various countries. Therefore, in this case, the
consuls had to intervene to patch up their quarrel. Kark, American Consuls in the Holy Land,147-148.
53 At the time of the dispute, Jerusalem was under the jurisdiction of the U.S. consuls in Beirut Joseph
Hosford Smith and Henry Wood.
53
according to the agreement between the consuls, the U.S. side would decide the owner.
The contributions of both parties to the colony were calculated at two hundred fifty
nine-pounds or one thousand two hundred sixty dollars, and the house's prize was two
hundred forty-three pounds. Since the U.S. was the decision-maker as to the ownership
of the house, they had to wait for the return of an answer from her. Until that time, the
house was to be sealed up with the United States Seal, and the keys were to be
deposited in the United States Vice-Consulate. The agreement was signed by the
respective consulates of the disputed parties though, Meshullam and Mrs. Minor's group
were not the signatory. Having agreed on the terms, the U.S.Consul Mr. Hosford Smith
returned to Beirut. However, the situation at Artas deteriorated, let alone amelioration.
Believing that the house was half an English house and that the house could not be sold
because of the agreement between Meshullam and the Arabs with whom he had made a
lease agreement, the British Consulate Finn addressed a letter to the American side
demanding the removal of the Americans in an imperious tone. In return, Smith replied
to this letter in a hostile manner. In the end, on February 2, Americans were removed
from the house. Though the reply coming from the U.S. clearly stated that the
Americans had the property of the house at Artas and that Meshullams should make an
offer to own it, the settlement of the dispute between the Americans and Meshullam was
to last several months.54
Since they did not opt for reconciliation, the reason behind the prolongation of the
dispute should be traced to the attitudes of the disputed parties. According to the
consular reports of Smith, from the very beginning of the arrival of the American group,
54 Lipman, Americans and the Holy Land,121-122.
54
Finn was hostile to them. Americans claimed that Finn appropriated the money solicited
in the United States on behalf of the Artas initiative. The Americans could not receive
the mails supposed to arrive at Artas because Finn had ordered the Jerusalem
postmasters to send all the mails to him before reaching the colony. The American side
claimed that Finn's main motive behind this appropriation was to buy the settlement.
Even Meshullam did not want to cooperate with the British consul and called him "Mr
Cheat". According to the group, before their arrival, Meshullam was desperately in need
of help because the settlement had been losing money. If Finn had not seized the money
solicited in the United States for the colony, their joint initiative would have thriven.
When the Americans left the settlement, the British consul did not allow them to take
even their personal effects and clothing. Though Meshullam and Mrs Minor's group
separated their colonies in 1853, in the year 1862, Meshullam was to accuse Mr. and
Mrs. Finn of ruining his settlement at Artas.55
3.5. The Mount Hope
I have the honour to inform your Lordship that last week three
American families have arrived from the United States and proceeded to
Jerusalem. These families I am told are farmers and mechanics and I hear
their purpose is to settle somewhere in the country in agricultural persuit
[sic]. It is reported that about two hundred families are coming out here
from the same quarter for the same object. I do not know if this report is
true.
I have, etc.
Assad Kayat.56
55 Blumberg, A View From Jerusalem,146-148
56 Lipman, Americans and the Holy Land,127.
55
In 1852, the British Vice-Consul in Jaffa reported the arrival of American families
who had come to the Holy Land to join Mrs. Minor's initiative. Although some
American families arrived in the 1850s to settle in the Mount Hope colony, the numbers
mentioned in the dispatch were clearly an exaggeration. When these families set foot in
Palestine, they found Mrs. Minor and her group in the neighborhood of Jaffa. Having
left Artas, the American group leased gardens in Jerusalem before founding their own
colony in Jaffa. In a letter dated April 4, 1854, which was sent to the paper The
Occident and American Jewish Advocate, Mrs. Minor summarizes her group's current
situation in the Holy Land. According to the letter, it seems that she was trying to keep
abreast of any developments in the United States reading the latest issues of the paper.
Having cited the dispute between Finn and her group, she claims that they were the
victims of "unjust persecutions of the English Consul and his friends in Jerusalem." As
for their current situation, they cultivated the garden of Mr. Judah Levi and aimed to
transform it into a model farm before retreating the garden to Mr. Levi in a year or so.
Since the Americans in the Jaffa colony were labeled as missionaries in the previous
issues of the journal, Mrs. Minor refutes this claim by saying that
They know that we are not as missionaries, or persons sent and
supported by others, that we do not labor for hire. Their old and their
young men have been daily with us, and they have in all things enjoyed
the same liberty of conscience as we would righteously claim from others
for ourselves…Therefore our honest and only object and motive is to
please God, to co-operate with His providence in this outward
preparatory work to open the way for Israel‟s return, when God himself
will manifest His glory and accomplish their salvation in His own way.
We have not, therefore, in the two past years of intimate labor and
converse with Israelites in our house and employ, made the first direct
effort to proselyte or change their faith; but we decidedly choose those
56
laborers who are strict in their habits and regular and devoted in their
prayers and in their observance of the Sabbath.57
Mrs. Minor's attitude towards the conversion and her firm belief in modern
farming was the reflection of how the dominant charitable model implemented in the
region had been transformed in the 19th century. Instead of creating a mass population
dependent on the benefactor's mercy, with the help of this novel model, it was aimed to
teach the potential candidates for conversion the manual and agricultural skills.58
Though Mrs. Minor clearly states that her group's main motive was not the conversion
of the Jews to Christianity, in the essence of the millennialism lied the belief that Jews
would convert to Christianity when they witnessed the Second Advent of Jesus.
Therefore, Mrs. Minor seems to have followed a subtle way of conversion by trying to
prepare the land for the event.
Though Mrs. Minor portrays an optimistic picture as to their relations between her
group and the local population, notably the dignitaries of the region, the fact was that
her initiative also aroused unrest among them. The Anglican Bishop Samuel Gobat
wrote a letter in the same year Minor addressed hers to the Occident, complaining that
What I hear from Germany, England and America touching plans
for the colonization of this country-schemes already in partial operationfairly
bewilder me; and I am at a loss to know what I am to say to all
these enterprises. But I must own that I feel uneasy and anxious when I
think of them. No immigrant ought to dream of the vicinity of Jerusalem.
In Jaffa there are already a few German and American families. The
latter are handsomely subsidised from America, and by that means not
57 Clorinda S.Minor, “Letter from Palestine.”, The Occident and American Jewish Advocate,4 April
1854,200-203.
58 Falestin Naili, “The Millenialist Settlement in Artas and its support network in Britain and North
America, 1845-1878”, Jerusalem Quarterly,Issue 45, (Spring 2011):51.
57
only are they well off, but able to reduce the poor Germans to servitude;
they make them work all Sunday, and keep Sabbath on the Saturday. 59
In 1855, the group leased the Mount Hope site, which was on the west bank of the
Wandy Musrara, but then Moses Montefiore came and bought the land from them. He
deputed Mrs. Minor and his son in charge of the property and employed Mrs. Minor
until her death. The garden purchased by Montefiore was described as
…Jaffa, where some property was purchased, with a house and
well, affording an abundant supply of excellent water. A number of poor
Israelites were at once engaged upon the land which is known by the
name of the „Biara‟ and is situated near the estate of the Wurthemberg
Templars…‟60
The Würthemberg [sic] Templars mentioned in this paragraph was the
Großsteinbeck family, who in 1852 had founded their own separate colony in Sarona
Plain.61 In 1854, this family coming from Prussia was acquainted with the American
group and cooperated in their initiative, leasing their gardens to them62 This business
cooperation was to transform into a joint initiative in a year.
3.6. The Decline of the Colony
It is with deep regret that we have to announce the death of this
excellent lady, after an illness of three months, near Jaffa, on the sixth of
November. She was a true friend of Israel, notwithstanding her notion
that conversion was the best method of making us happy. By her
practical labors in horticulture, feeble and lone woman as she was, she
59 Samuel Gobat and H.W.J.Thiersch, Samuel Gobat, Bishop of Jerusalem, His Life and Work.
(London:J.Nisbet, 1884), 308.
60 Lipman, Americans and the Holy Land,129.
61 Eisler, Deutsche Kolonisten im Heiligen Land,77.
62 Eisler, Deutsche Kolonisten im Heiligen Land, 100.
58
has proved that Palestine may be made to bloom again under the hand of
the husandman, if proper pains are only bestowed; and when the land of
Israel again smiles with plenty and glows in beauty, let the name of its
benefactress, Mrs. Minor, be remembered with a blessing. And may He
who receives alike the devotion of those who call on His name, and those
who know Him not, give her everlasting rest in His presence among the
righteous of His people, because she faithfully endeavored to fulfil [sic]
her duty, and to glorify, as far as she could, Him who is the Father of
all.63
The concise obituary published by the editor of the Occident seems the most
salient one. Mrs. Minor's death on November 6, 1855, was the precursor of the events
that were to devastate the colony in 1858. Mrs. Minor was buried in the little graveyard
at her colony Mount Hope. With the death of the founder of the settlement, the
leadership in the colony changed hands. The American Dickson and the Prussian
Großsteinbeck families perpetuated the initiative.
On October 11, 1853, having departed from Boston aboard the vessel John
Winthrop, Deacon Walter Dickson, his wife, three daughters, and son Henry arrived in
the Holy Land. They were farmers and mechanics from Groton, Massachusetts, who
were imbued with the belief that the kingdom of God was to be set up in Palestine.
Philip D.Dickson and his wife Susan Dickson preceded their parents by arriving in the
Holy Land in 1850. Aiming to disseminate the notions of Christianity, modern
agriculture, and American ideals, the couple had joined the venture at Artas. However,
in a year, Philip had died in the colony and been buried on the Mount of Olives. After
Philip's death, her wife had left the settlement. Having learned the initiative started by
Mrs. Minor, Deacon Walter Dickson sold out their farm in Groton to come to Palestine.
63 “Death of Mrs Clorinda S.Minor”,The Occident and American Jewish Advocate,1 (March 1856):603.
59
However, when the family set sail, they were not aware that their son had died in the
Holy Land and that his wife had been en route from the Holy Land to the United
States.64
As for the Großsteinbeck family, they were farmers from Barmen Wuppertal. The
group included Johann Großsteinbeck, his brother, Friedrich Wilhelm Großsteinbeck,
their sister, Maria Katharina and her husband, Gustav Thiel. In a letter dated November
28, 1850, their journey to the Holy Land was described by Friedrich as
We came to this country nearly a year ago, from the Rhine
province in Prussia, where there are many brethren holding the same
faith with us, about the restoration of Israel, and the coming of the Lord.
Within the last few years, there were several societies established for
Israel, and colporters sent out to the Jews, to distribute Bibles among
them. Through these movements, many of us became so interested in
behalf of the Holy Land, that many would willingly have started at once
to emigrate there, if the undertaking had not seemed too hazardous at the
present time.
We came to the conclusion, to raise some funds, and to send first
two deputies to Palestine, in order to ascertain if it were possible for us to
dwell there with our families. Unfortunately most of the brethren who
felt interested were farmers and mechanics, who had suffered much the
last few years, from the failure of the produce of the fields, war, etc., so
that money was scarce. Now in order that the cause might not suffer by
delay, and in order to find out soon, if it were practicable to live in peace
among the Arabs, and gain bread sufficient for our families, we
concluded at once to go there with our families. Our beloved father gave
each of us, several hundred dollars, and after many blessings from our
people, we left them on Nov 29, 49 by railroad from Barmen. When we
left, we numbered ten persons, five men, two women, and three children,
the least of whom was two and a half years old.65
Though not planned, the paths of the American group headed by Clorinda Minor
and some German Pietists' crossed several times in the Holy Lands from the very
64 Edward Adams Richardson. “The Story of a Neighborhood”, The Community: Groton Massachusetts
(March 1911), 7 . Lester I.Vogel, To See a Promised Land,132. Walter Dickson might have learnt Mrs
Minor’s colony either form his son or the possible correspondence between him and Mrs Minor.
65 A.L.Wood, Meshullam!, 127-129.
60
beginning of their journey. Of these Germans, the Großsteinbeck family would be the
main pillar of their settlement in Jaffa. What lies at the root of their migration to
Ottoman Palestine, as described by Friedrich, was similar to those of the American
group's motives. Though each country had its own unique reasons for the millennial
fervor, the conflagration that swept the United States was also conspicuous in the
German states. The German colonists came from the north part of the Rheinland region,
an area that resembled "the burned-over district" of New York in the United States. At
the outset of the 19th century, there was an ebullient hope among the residents of this
district that the Jews' restoration to the promised lands would be imminent. Some
adherents of this eschaton perceived a plan in which two people from the community
would be sent as the pioneers to observe whether the Holy Land was suitable for a
colonization project. However, the time was not ripe yet. Society was suffering from the
wars that had broken out in the region in the 1840s and crop failures. Some families
decided to leave the area with an inchoate plan, though. The members of the
Großsteinbeck families were among those pioneer groups who began their journey on
29 December 1849. And the group arrived in Jerusalem on 4 February 1850. Since they
had no agenda that they could follow there and no acquaintances in the town that could
help them settle, they took whatever jobs were available then. Friedrich Großsteinbeck,
a farmer in his hometown, became aware of Meshullam's Artas project via Heinrich
Baldensperger, the first German colonist who had migrated to Ottoman Palestine to
cultivate the land and therefore joined Artas project in 1849. Through Baldensperger's
personal contact, Friedrich also settled in the colony. In the beginning, the relationship
between him and other colonists was cordial, and the future seemed promising. They
were able to raise and cultivate the land. Since the end of 1850, Friedrich started to seek
61
new lands to found his own separate initiative, though. Therefore, together with his
brother Johann, he wandered to Jaffa to find out a suitable place for what he had on his
mind. Eventually, after May 1852, he settled in Jaffa with the help of another Prussian,
Peter Claassen, who had been a part of Artas project once. After a year, at the end of
1853, the Germans contacted Clorinda Minor's group. When the Americans heard about
Großsteinbeck's enclave in Jaffa, they offered financial support, hoping probably to
merge with them in the near future. However, Germans, who held out for money
coming from their hometown, refused their offer. Großsteinbeck portrays his first
impression regarding the American group as
"After their arrival, I rode to Bethlehem to visit the newcomers.
Unfortunately, they only speak English, except a maiden, who speaks German.
She said to me that after she heard about our arrival in Palestina (since Meshullam
reported about us), she prayed a lot for us, and she was thrilled to hear that finally
how something was done for the best of Palestine. There are three men, four
women, and one two-year-old boy. The Americans showed indeed that they were
interested in the colonization of Palestine. They once made an important
contribution to the Proselyte (Meshullam), 500 Thaler once, together with seeds
and equipment. Naturally, we did not receive much money, nor did we hope to
take it, and furthermore, it does not suit German honor, our motherland's will, to
do it.66
However, the Großsteinbeck family, who felt the pressure of the financial
burdens, had to push aside their German honor when the much-expected contribution
from their homeland was not on the horizon. So, the two groups made an agreement to
settle in Jaffa together. With the absorption of the American group, the Dickson family,
who would be the other buttress of the initiative, started to live in Jaffa.
66 Jakob Eisler, Der deutsche Beitrag zum Aufstieg Jaffas, 1850-1914: Zur Geschichte Palästinas im
19.Jahrhundert (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag,1997),47-59.
62
In May 1854, the Großsteinbeck family and the Dickson family, both of whom
espoused similar convictions as to the future of the Holy Land, ventured into the
colonization of the area. At this month, two other American families, one of whom was
Charles and Martha Sanders from Rhode Island, joined them, and they were expecting
more Americans to set sail for this mission. The news of the project transcended the
borders of European countries and reached the other coast of the Atlantic, and the
community at Jaffa was recruiting new members. Though the initiative gained
momentum then, none of the foreigners in the region, including the settlers of the
agricultural colony, was immune to the outcomes of the political atmosphere
surrounding the area, notably the Crimean War. In his letter dated 24 May 1854,
Fredrich soothes his parents about the ramifications of the Crimean War in the region by
saying they were no longer afraid of the war. He assures that almost daily, a man from
the court would visit them to ask whether anyone was bothering them and if they
reported a man, he would be imprisoned until he was disciplined. To buttress his
argument, he summarizes an event that had occurred recently at that time:
In the beginning, we had to suffer here, but that is better now. The previous
week, a crude Arab let his donkey and mule enter our garden, and when we drove
them out, he again drove them in and started to quarrel with us. We went and
reported it, and two men were sent immediately to bring the man. They soon
brought him, and they beat him. Then we were asked whether it was enough;
otherwise, they wanted to imprison him and beat him daily until he was
disciplined. One of the highest-ranked court members said to all the Arabs, who
witnessed it, that the least of us is worth more in the eyes of the Sultan than 60
Arabs, so they should watch their step. 67
67 Eisler, Deutsche Kolonisten im Heiligen Land,98-101.
63
Whether Fredrich was sincere while comforting his relatives in his hometown is
unclear. This altercation between the colony's residents and the neighboring Arabs was
neither the first nor the last. In the previous year, in 1853, Jacob Serapion Murad, the
Prussian consul in Jaffa, reported an attack inflicted upon the colonists by the Arabs. He
emphasizes that due to the outbreak of the Crimean War, there was a flush of excitement
among the Muslim population of the region toward the Christian residents. As a result of
this indignation, some foreigners' properties were ransacked, and the Großsteinbeck
family was among the victims. Though the Germans had no desire to embroil
themselves in a similar outrage, the ripple effects of the Crimean War would recur
throughout their stay. In 1855, Friedrich was so beaten to death by Arabs that he could
not get up from his bed for 14 days. One of his cows escaped from the herd and went to
a neighboring fruit garden owned by an Arab. Having been beaten severely, he sought to
seek a rapprochement with his neighbors. He demanded from them that they convey
their complaints verbally rather than through a brutal physical attack. Both the two
occasions that occurred in 1853 and 1855 were very similar. In both cases, Friedrich was
careless about his herd that violated the borders of the Arabs, then he was beaten twice,
and the vicinity of his colony was patrolled by the soldiers sent by the Prussian embassy
and the Ottoman officials. The local people were intimidated by the might of the state.68
Captain C.C. Turner, the commander of the U.S. warship the S.S.Levant, was
instructed to drop anchor in Jaffa harbor on June 3, 1854. The main motive behind one
of the first examples of this "Gun Boat Policy" was the dispatch of the American Consul
at Beirut, S.Hosford Smith, mentioning the increasing unrest in Syria and Palestine.
Captain Turner portrays the situation at Jaffa as
68 Eisler, Deutsche Kolonisten im Heiligen Land, 102-103; Eisler, Der deutsche Beitrag, 60-61.
64
The vicinities of both Jaffa and Jerusalem are visited now and then by small
bands of Bedouins from the Desert, who make inroads sometimes to the walls of
the cities, stealing and plundering whatever comes in their way. One of the
American families living about four miles from Jaffa expressed apprehension of an
attack from them, and begged that I would supply them with some means of
defence. I without hesitation sent them a few of Halls' Carbines, with the necessary
ammunition, which, with what they have, will be enough to keep the Bedouins
who come in very small numbers and are very great cowards ...69
The American family to whom Captain Turner supplemented with the guns must
have been Mrs. Minor's colony because Captain Turner mentions that they were living
about four miles from Jaffa. Plains of Sharon, on which the settlement was founded,
was three miles north of Jaffa, the almost exact proximity to the city reported by the
captain. Besides, the members of Großsteinbeck families recorded similar atrocities
inflicted upon them in the same year in their dairies.
Though unpredictable bursts of anger continued to wreak havoc one disaster after
another for the foreigners, if read between the lines, it can be deduced that the German
group did not give up their hopes for their future in the land. There is conspicuous
ebullient optimism in their letters sent to the homeland. Whenever they mention the
outrages provoked by the local population, they immediately convey the details of how
they were under the aegis of the local government and the embassy. Whether these
precautions taken against the Arabs were adequate or not is questionable. However,
soothing the relatives sets the tone for their letters. Their optimism is crystal clear,
especially when they informed the situation in the Holy Lands after the Crimean War. In
1856, Friedrich reports
69 Carl Alpert, “Two American Naval Expeditions to Palestine, 1848 and 1854”, Publications of the
American Jewish Historical Society,Vol 40, No.3,(March 1951):286.
65
You should not be afraid of the Crimean War because there is peace now. These
days, we hear nothing but the joy that the peace was announced, and Jaffa also
illustrates this. You might have probably read the Firman, which the Sultan had
proclaimed, from the newspapers, before this letter comes to you. He gave free and
equal rights to the Christian and each foreigner here, like the Turks. Agriculture
and trade should promote the roads, and everything necessary should be done for
the land and its connection to improving them. All regional parties should have
complete freedom and, in a nutshell, all obstacles be cleared away, and this land
could blossom if God will.70
However, the air of optimism created by the decree would not last long. The
events that would unfold at the onset of 1858 would bring their hopes regarding the
Holy Land to an end.
70 Eisler, Deutsche Kolonisten im Heiligen Land, 108.
66
CHAPTER IV
OUTRAGES AT JAFFA
4.1. The Crime
"Oh, Mary, I have got a ball." groaned Friedrich and then fell into the middle of
the room. Staggered by what she had just seen, Mary Steinbeck jumped out of bed to
help his husband. While she was rubbing his husband's face and examining his wound,
his father, Walter Dickson, was also lying on the floor, struck on the head with a long
stick. Sarah Dickson, the wife of Walter, and Mary Steinbeck were rushing into the
room to clean and dress their wounds immediately. Friedrich was unconscious on the
ground, and the beating left Walter drenched with blood near him. And two daughters
of Mary and Friedrich Steinbeck, who had to witness all of these atrocities committed
against their parents, would have an indelible memory of that night. So, why did the
colony at Jaffa turn out to be a crime scene that night?
On the night of January 11, 1858, at 10 o'clock, three stranger men outside the
colony's gate prompted the dogs to bark. Hearing the noises, Friedrich and Walter
Dickson went outside to see who had come to their home. These strangers wanted to
look inside their property, ostensibly to find a stray cow. After some talk, they left the
67
area but returned after half an hour. This time they stubbornly insisted that Abdullah,
the shepherd of a neighboring settlement, saw their cows among the settlers' so they
wanted to come in. Friedrich resisted this demand and told them that they bring the
shepherd to his home to settle the dispute. While he was quarreling with these Arabs in
Arabic, to whom two other men had also joined this time, Walter climbed the ladder.
Having seen five men discussing with his son-in-law, he fired a powder gun as a
warning. At that moment, they saw the gate broken down. Trying to comprehend the
scale of the problem, Dickson heard a shot and the voice of Friedrich saying, " They
have hit me; take the gun." Though firing randomly toward them, Walter could not
shoot the culprits. He desperately followed his son-in-law, who managed to stagger
inside the house. His wound was dreadful above the right groin. After a moment, Mary
was no longer feeling his husband's pulse. Friedrich Steinbeck was dead.
However, the night was far from over yet. There was one white man and four
black men ransacking the house. They tried to open the trunks and broke the clock.
They roamed the rooms one by one while constantly asking the family "money." They
took hold of Mary and tried to drag them to another room to unlock the trunks. Mary,
holding the bedstead, resisted in vain. She was struck with the butts of their gun and
pulled out of the room. Four men left the room with her, leaving one behind in the
room. At that moment, the last remaining men also dragged Sarah Dickson into another
room. Four men raped Mary consecutively, and Sarah Dickson was also violated that
68
night. Until five a.m., the looting and violence continued, and then the perpetrators, who
had covered their faces, vanished without a trace in the darkness.71
The following day, the scandal broke, the news of the atrocities spread to Jaffa
immediately, and people exclaimed that they had neither seen nor heard of such
violence in the region. Charles Saunders, a close friend of the family, went to Jerusalem
to bring the sad news to Johann and Almira Großsteinbeck. Johann was not at Jaffa for a
while. After his ships were stolen in the previous autumns, he was so angry that he left
the settlement. When Saunder informed them of the attack and murder of their brother,
Katharina Großsteinbeck and his husband, Gustav Thiel, wanted to accompany Johann
but Katharina was so sick that she could not endure an arduous journey, which was ten
hours riding. Having left behind Gustav to take care of his wife, Johann Großsteinbeck
and Charles Saunders bridled their horses and departed Jerusalem. When they arrived at
Jaffa, they lowered the coffin into the grave. Friedrich was buried in Mount Hope just
like the Clorinda Minor.72
4.2. The Trial
There had been several cases in which the native population showed outbursts of
uncontrolled aggression, but what happened on June 11 was the last straw for the
foreign consuls of the United States and European countries. Having heard of the news,
J.Warren Gorham, the U.S.Consul in Jerusalem, took the initiative and met Dr.Rosen,
the Prussian Consul in Jerusalem. They contemplated the political steps to be taken and
71 Senate Documents, Otherwise Publ. as Public Documents and Executive Documents: 14th Congress,
1st Session-48th Congress, 2nd Session and Special Session, Volume 12,630-636.
72 Eisler, Deutsche Kolonisten im Heiligen Land,122-125.
69
agreed on what to do. Initially, they went to Jerusalem and appeared before the Pacha of
the city. After reporting the outrage inflicted upon their respective nationals at Jaffa, the
consuls demanded a swift investigation to find the culprits. The Pacha send a note to the
governor of Jaffa via his special agent. After informing the Pacha of Jerusalem,
Gorham and Rosen visited the governor of Jaffa and reiterated their demands as to the
arrestment of the criminals, but this time Consul Gorham embellished his speech with
an intimidating tone. He emphasized there were several American ships of war in the
Mediterranean Sea whose captains would not turn a deaf ear if the necessary steps were
not taken. Though forcing each political actor who was responsible for the security of
the population to bring the perpetrators to justice, both of the consuls did not leave the
matter to the mercy of the local governors. They proclaimed that they would reward one
thousand piastres to the one giving the necessary information for the detection of the
offenders. The U.S. Consul also employed secret agents to expedite the process. The
British Consul James Finn also offered his assistance to them in detecting the culprits.
He also made an official visit to the Pacha of Jerusalem to express his concerns as to the
event. Finn also demanded from his government that he offers a 20 pounds reward to be
paid by the consulate for the information detecting the criminals. He underlines the fact
that in the name of common humanity and Christianity, the colleagues should act
together in this matter. The U.S. Consul Gorham depicts his first impressions after his
meetings with the governors of the city of Jerusalem and Jaffa as
Owing to the slightest intercourse which the people here have had with
Americans, they know little of their power and influence. To make them feel our
power, and the influence of our consuls, it is very evident that every effort must
be made in the present case, so to act as that such a case shall never occur again.
70
Every effort has been and shall be made by me to this effect, and I trust that the
most active and efficient support may be given me.
If you will excuse me from every appearance of direction, I would suggest
that a firman should be demanded from the Sultan, requiring the pacha of
Jerusalem and the governor of Jaffa not only to use their authority and influence
now, but to guarantee the safety of individuals and property for the future. The
pacha is an enemy to Christians, and will not move in this matter until he is forced
to. 73
Feeling powerless against the Ottoman bureaucracy in the Holy Land, Gorham
appealed to Edwin De Leon, American Consul-General at Alexandria, whose
experience and influence in the region he trusted. Though Jaffa was not under the
jurisdiction of De Leon, he accepted to help Gorham in this matter. Arriving Jaffa on
board an American warship might give the local population the idea that the Americans
patrol the region to find out what happened to their nationals. However, the consul
could not persuade the captain of the corvette Constellation, Captain Charles H.Bell,
who would not do anything without receiving official orders from the capital.
Therefore, he set sail on board an Austrian steamer, which covered the distance between
Alexandria and Jaffa an average of thirty hours. During his journey, the consul-general
decided to detour, adding Beyrout to his itinerary, whose Pacha was the official superior
of all the governors in Syria. The steamboat almost sank due to the sea conditions en
route, but eventually, the crew escaped unscathed. While Gorham was expecting his
arrival eagerly, on February 2, he paid an official visit to the Pacha of Beyrout. De Leon
made it clear that the criminals should be punished accordingly, and nothing less would
satisfy the American side. The Pacha, informed by the British Vice-Consul at Jafa about
the outrage, assured the American consul that he would take care of the situation and
73 Senate Documents, Otherwise Publ, 628-630; Israel State Archives, File 576, Box 463, The Letter from
James Finn dated Jan 14.1858.
71
send an order to Jerusalem. Given promises by the highest Ottoman official in the
region, De Leon left the city to reach his final destination. When he disembarked at
Jaffa, the governor, who heard the arrival of the American consul, sent one of his agents
to welcome De Leon as a diplomatic gesture due to a foreign representative. While
waiting for the arrival of his guest, Gorham ordered the American flags at the consulates
of Jerusalem and Jaffa to be hoisted as a diplomatic protest. The next day, De Leon and
Gorham, with their Consular Guards bearing arms, went to appear before the governor
of Jaffa. Though unnecessary, De Leon's envoy was on horseback to give an
intimidating impression. The governor, who expected the visit of the American envoy,
summoned his Meclis, the local council. De Leon consciously ignored some of the local
diplomatic courtesies usually extended to the governor in his council. The American
Consul-General's attitudes and language, together with the hoisted flags, grabbed the
governor's attention and forced him to ask whether their countries were at war. After
making a tenuous excuse about why they could not arrest the perpetrators yet, the
governor met stiff resistance from De Leon, demanding immediate justice. Feeling that
the governor did not give credit to his country's power, the American consul-general
threatened the council, mentioning the war vessels sailing in the Mediterranean. If the
Pacha forced a war between the two countries, the shells of these vessels would wreck
the city. The governor, who might have been bored by the obstinate pressure of the
foreigners, sent his agents to the streets of Jaffa and caught five men. At that moment,
the police, who traced a clue, arrested a man among whose possessions they found some
of Dickson's property. When the governor summoned the Americans and informed them
of the culprits, De Leon, reported by the Dragoman of the Jaffa consulate about the
Pacha's method, asked for proof. When he was unable to show any tangible evidence,
72
the Americans demanded their release and arrestment of the one against whom there
was solid evidence available. The five men were exonerated, and the other suspect was
detained. When he refused to give the names of his accomplices, the suspect was
tortured until he made a confession. Two of these culprits were the residents of Jaffa
and were easily caught. However, the other two were the members of the Bedouin
tribes, over whom the governors of the Holy Land could not effectively exert their
influence compared to the towns' dwellers. Therefore the governor of Jaffa had to
implement a strategem, which also included some risks in it. He summoned the Sheik of
the tribe, pretending to discuss routine matters of interest to his tribe. When the Sheik
came, the governor ordered his arrestment, and the leader of the tribe was put in jail as a
hostage. If he did not deliver the perpetrators to the Ottoman officials, the governor
would detain instead of them. There was a burst of anger among Bedouins who heard
the detention of their leaders. They seized the city. If the governor had not ordered the
closure of the city gates, they would have invaded and sacked Jaffa. The city was under
siege for many days, though. It would be the Sheik who yielded first. He accepted to
deliver up his tribesmen, who inflicted a crime upon the settlers at Jaffa. 74
After the arduous investigation process, the five criminals were in prison at Jaffa,
waiting for their transfer to Jerusalem because there was no criminal tribune to judge
them in the town. Though the Pacha of Jerusalem asserted that they did not neglect their
case and strove to bring the culprits to justice, the American Charge d'Affaire, John
P.Brown, succeeded in attracting the attention of the Grand Vizier at Constantinople,
74 Edwin De Leon, Thirty Years of My Life on Three Continents (London: Ward and Downey, 1890),
Volume 1, 246-290; “The Outrage Upon American Missionaries in Syria,” New York Times, April 7,1858;
Senate Documents, Otherwise Publ, 637-643.
73
Mehmed Emin Âli PaĢa, for the situation at Jaffa. He intervened in the case, ordering
the Pacha of Jerusalem to proceed to trial and punish the offenders. However, due to
some disturbances among the Bedouins, the Pacha left the city to quell the unrest. He
had not been in Jerusalem for months, and without him, the perpetrators could not be
judged there. So, there was stagnation in the case once more.
Similar to De Leon's assistance, a delegate from the American embassy at
Constantinople, Eden P.Peters, arrived at Jaffa to cooperate with Gorham to hasten the
trial process. They together visited the camp of the Pacha, who had been constantly on
the move for months. Peters delivered the previous orders of the Sublime Porte, and
they demanded that the trial should take place at Jaffa. The Pacha refused this,
mentioning that he could not proceed with this without an updated order from
Constantinople. The Americans, not eager to wait for a while, had two options;
Jerusalem or Beyrout. The American side did not trust the Pacha of Jerusalem, whom
they accused of being hostile to the Christian population. To them, the council of
Jerusalem was also corrupt and fanatic. The prisoners would not be secure in Jaffa since
the people tried to rescue them from prison. So, they chose Beirut as the place where the
trial of the criminals would take place. 75
On July 3, the prisoners were transferred to Beyrout, and on August 20, the
judicial process started. The court at Beyrout reached a verdict that there was no
evidence of the guilt perpetuated by the prisoners. Unsatisfied with the result, the
American side pressured the Pacha of Jerusalem to send an investigation committee
75 Dispatches, Jerusalem: Gorham to Assistant Secretary of State, 10 June 1858; Gorham to American
Minister Resident at Constantinople,5 July 1858; Senate Documents, Otherwise Publ, 644-646.
74
vested in the power to interrogate all persons who might have participated in or had
knowledge of the crime. On September 3, this special committee, to which Gorham also
joined with the other two Beirut court members, departed the city to reach Jaffa. When
they commenced their examination, the prior investigation conducted by the Jaffa
council, which paved the way for the imprisonment of these five suspects, puzzled
them. To the committee members, the previous one had failed to examine the close
neighborhood of the Dickson family, who might have witnessed, at least, some part of
the crime that had been committed in the settlement. Together with the neighbors of the
American family and the officer who was responsible for the protection of the roads
leading to the gardens of Jaffa then, all the suspects in the city were thoroughly
interrogated. At the end of their procedure, the committee members accused five people
of what happened to the Dickson family on January 11, 1858, and came to the
conclusion that just two of them were among those who had been imprisoned in Jaffa
previously. The two men confessed their participation in the atrocity and gave the name
of others, two of whom were already in prison in Beirut. Since the last one, named
Selam El Abd, was a fugitive, the committee had to return to Beirut with the two
recently arrested men. The orders from the Ottoman side for the arrestment of the fifth
suspect were issued to every governor in Palestine. Great pressure was put on the
Ottoman officials by the American side to catch the fugitive. Once more, the American
side promised an award of 10.000 piasters (about 400$) to the one who could give the
information revealing the suspect's place. But this time, the American who offered the
reward was Uriah P.Levy, the captain of the U.S.S. Macedonian. The captain of another
American war vessel, Wabash, visited the coasts of Jaffa to remind the Ottoman
officials and the zealous residents of the might of American power in the sea. The
75
salutation and the presence of a mighty war vessel exerted an impactful impression on
the dwellers of the city. At that moment, the case remained locked in a stalemate,
though. All the parties had to wait until the decree from the Sublime Porte arrived
because the governors of the Ottoman provinces were not vested in the authority to give
the death penalty to the criminals. Only the Sultan could execute them. There was no
final verdict yet. The fifth suspect was also said to have taken refuge with a Bedouin
tribe, to whom the Ottoman authorities could not exert their influence. On February 28,
1859, the Sublime Porte informed the American side that they had decided the four
suspects, who were in prison in Beirut then, were the accomplices and the fugitive was
the real perpetrators of the crime. On March 15, 1859, the Sublime Porte ordered a
decree to the governor of Beirut. According to the Ottoman side, Ebu Ayta and
Abdüsselam, who refused their participation in the crime, and Mustafa Atıra and Ali
Cibri Bula, who confessed their crimes, together with the fugitive Selam, were all the
perpetrators of the outrage. Some of the commodities of the settlers stolen on that night
were found in possession of Mustafa Atıra and delivered to the American embassy. The
Ottoman officials estimated that the settlers' losses were still more than 25,000 kuruş,
even after the properties were returned to them. Therefore, the Sublime Porte ordered
that the treasury of the Beirut district cover that indemnity. As for the penalty of the
guilties, the Ottomans were wary about giving the death penalty to the criminals,
although it was insisted by the American side. Though the Ottoman side also admitted
that in these types of crimes consisting of fugitives, other suspects lay the blame on the
fugitive; they were also satisfied with the fact that the four suspects also participated in
the crime. Therefore, while the Ottoman officials would strive to find the fugitive
Selam, the other four would be imprisoned in Acre castle for life at hard labor. If Selam
76
was caught, all the culprits would be re-judged to find out whether they should be given
the death penalty. Though Williams protested this verdict, the Department of State,
which emphasized the verdict would have been different in the United States, approved
the decision of the Sublime Porte.76
4.3. The Settlement
Having interviewed with the Grand Vizier Mehmet Âli PaĢa in July 1860, James
Williams, American Minister Resident to Turkey, reports the final settlement as this:
1st The Turkish Government, will not relax in its efforts to secure the
principal offender who has not yet been arrested, and if his person should be
secured by the authorities the extreme penalty of the law for the punishment in
cases of wilful murder, shall be inflicted.
2d The four prisoners, who were convicted as accessories, shall be
removed from Syria where they are now confined, to Constantinople, under a
sentence of imprisonment for life at hard labor.
3d The Turkish government will at a stated time, not very remote, pay in
money for the use of the sufferers, by the crime, who still survive, the sum of five
hundred pounds sterling (£500), (which may be slightly diminished by
exchanging from Caime to English currency) which I propose to divide as
follows-namely- one half the sum to the Father Mr Dixon, or ( in case that he is
dead as has been reported), to his wife; and the remaining half to Mrs Steinbeck,
the wife of the man who was murdered.77
Whether the fifth suspect was brought to justice is unknown. The four participants
of the crime were transferred to Acre and confined in chains. The entire sum of 55.000
piasters or (£500 ), offered as indemnity by the Sublime Porte, was delivered to Brown,
76 BOA, MKT.MVL.105/85; Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America,
ed.Hunter Miller (Washington: United States Government Printing Office,1948), Volume 8, 523-529;
Dispatches: Jerusalem: Gorham to Secretary of State, 16 September 1858; “The Jaffa Outrage,” Daily
Courier, December 31,1858.
77 Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States, 519.
77
the American Charge d'Affaire at Constantinople. He was instructed by the Secretary of
State to transfer it to the US via the Bankers of the United States in London. On August
5, 1861, the Department of Stated transmitted the indemnity, which was equal to
$2,203.26, to Mrs. Dickson and Mrs. Steinbeck.78
78 Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States, 532.
78
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
What did Walter Dickson remember when he glanced a last time to the shore of
Jaffa? What did he think when he and his family were on board the steamer departing
from Jaffa? Did he become disenchanted with his divine plane regarding the Holy Land?
Or was it just the sorrow he felt over the death of his son-in-law and what happened to
his wife and daughter that night? Did he ever have the slightest idea that they were
among the pioneers of modern agricultural settlement in the Bible lands? Or did he ever
perceive himself as a lunatic after that night, just like their critics labeled them?
Answers to these questions will never be known. So, what does the story of this
colony tell the historians of the topic? Was it an adventurous initiative of a lunatic
woman who left her family in the United States to fulfill a biblical prophecy and dragged
many Americans with herself?
Being far from an anomaly, the American Agricultural colony at Jaffa was the
embodiment of antebellum American millennialism. Growing up in a religious
environment shaped by millennial fervor, the colonists were neither hypocrites nor
insane, as the critics dubbed them. They were the children of the zeitgeist. In an era in
which American people espoused open-mindedness and eagerness to entertain a broad
range of religious, social, and economic possibilities, such as utopian communities and
79
westward expansion, Clorinda Minor and her small group might have been encouraged
by her nation's ethos. Though her agricultural colony at Jaffa was founded upon
religious motives, the ripple effects of communal life experiments, established by both
the Christian denominations and sectarian movements then, should not be overlooked.
She could not have been oblivious to those utopian communities.
Carrying the cultural baggage that allowed experimentation, the colonists tried and
failed in an unfamiliar environment. Though Clorinda Minor portrayed the Jews as a
diligent group interested in her project while reporting to the Occident readers, Dickson
lamented that he could not afford to have them since they did not like to work79.
Besides, there is no particular mention of the Jews in the Großsteinbeck letters.
Therefore Clorinda Minor might have exaggerated the presence of the Jews in her
settlement to grasp the attention of the Americans to her initiative in the Holy Lands.
Was she doing this for her personal glory? It is hard to give a crystal clear answer to this
question, but it can be deduced. If Minor had tried to gain publicity in her home country,
being a missionary would have been a much more sensible aim for her. She had not had
to bear the arduous task of an agricultural project about which she had no information in
her previous life. Either way, she would have been regarded as a devout Christian
woman who left her country to spread the message of the Bible. However, she chose the
more onerous and more time-consuming one.80 This deduction can be applied to all the
members of the agricultural settlement. Incidentally, the economic opportunities offered
by the growing city were also decisive, but the main motive behind their initiative
seemed to be their religious zeal regarding the Holy Lands.
79 Herman Melville, Journal of a Visit to Europe and the Levant, October 11,1856-May 6,1857 (New
Jersey: Princeton University Press,1955), 159.
80 Kreiger and Goldman,Divine Expectations,105.
80
The crime known as "Outrages at Jaffa" was the culmination of previous
conflicts between the settlers and the local population. And this time, the attack upon the
colony reverberated in the region and created a small-scale international crisis between
the Ottoman Empire on the one side and American, Prussian, and English consuls on the
other side. The ripple effects of the case spread whole the region. The consuls of Jaffa,
Jerusalem, Beirut, Alexandria, and Constantinople, together with the respective Ottoman
governors of those prominent cities, intervened in the case. The Ottoman officials,
notably the Pacha of Jerusalem, were accused of being dilatory as to the investigation.
However, the Ottomans accused the other side, especially the Prussian consul, of
bumptious diplomatic acts.81 In the end, the Ottoman jurisdiction reached a verdict that
five culprits were responsible for the attack. Realizing that they lagged behind
diplomatically in Ottoman Palestine, Americans perceived the case as a chance to show
the local inhabitants the ubiquitous American power. The American consuls, Gorham,
De Leon, and Brown, reached a consensus that if the perpetrators of this crime were not
severely punished, neither American life and property would be safe in the region nor
the American name respected. Therefore they constantly demanded the presence of an
American war vessel from the Mediterranean squadron. When Wabash visited the shores
of Jaffa, it was one of the pioneers of the gunboat diplomacy of the United States.
"Outrages at Jaffa" also clarifies how the power of the Sublime Porte was nominal in the
region. Besides, it shed light on the nascent Orientalist cadre emerging in the ranks of
American diplomacy. De Leon and Brown could exert so much pressure that a crime
committed in an isolated settlement at Jaffa prompted the Grand Vizier to order a
decree.
81 BOA, HR.MKT./231-38
81
Assuming that nothing had changed would be deceptive. Though the Americans
could not achieve what they had on their mind, they poured new wine into old bottles.
They were the pioneers of modern agriculture in Ottoman Palestine, lefting an indelible
mark both in their fatherlands and in the Holy Lands. Their experiment would be neither
the last nor the most devastating one made by Americans in the Holy Land. So long as
the pendulums of pre and post-millennialisms swing back and forth, some Americans'
interest in the Holy Land will last until Christ comes a second time.
82
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WEBSİTE CONTENT
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accessed June 19, 2022, https://www.vox.com/2017/12/6/16742640/trump-jerusalemisrael-
speech-full-text
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APPENDICES
Appendix A
Karte der Umgebung von Jafa ( Map of Jaffa‟s Surroundings, 1878-79)
by Theodor Sandel
From the collection of the National Library of Israel, courtesy of : Zeitschrift des
Deutschen Palästina-Vereins
87
Appendix B
Jaffa & vicinity
surveyed & drawn by Lieut. C. F. Skyring R.E. 27th Feby. 1842
engraved by B.R. Davies.
From the collection of the National Library of Israel, courtesy of : John Weale
88
Appendix C
The decree ordered by the Sublime Porte to the governor of Beirut