"The Great Design."

The Indian Charity School (later known as Moor's [More's] Indian Charity School) was founded in Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1754 by Eleazar Wheelock. His plan was to remove Indian children from their homelands in order to educate and convert them so that they could return to their societal groups and teach their own people. He believed his plan was divinely sanctioned as the best defense against hostilities between the Indians and colonists. All previous attempts at schooling Indians had been carried out by missionaries in Indian communities, and these efforts failed, Wheelock thought, because the children were easily distracted by friends, families, and duties. Education away from home seemed to Wheelock to be the key to success. Some of the inspiration for the school had come from his experience tutoring a Mohegan named Samson Occom, who studied with Wheelock from 1743 to...