Hail, Hannah

Affiliation

Oneida; Moor's Indian Charity School

Education

Moor's Indian Charity School (1767-1769)

Nationality

Oneida

Residence(s)
  • Kanowalohale
Biography

Hannah was an Oneida girl who studied at Moor’s between 1767 and 1769. She was the daughter of Thomas, the Oneida deacon who pulled all six Oneida children, including Hannah, out of Moor’s on January 20, 1769 (likely a decisive event in Eleazar Wheelock’s decision to move away from Native American education). The ostensible reason for the children’s departure was that Hannah’s mother had died and they were all going home for a visit, but they never returned — likely because of Oneida (and Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois, in general) opposition to Wheelock’s violent pedagogy. Hannah’s brother William also studied at Moor’s (1766-1768). As in the cases of many other Haudenosaunees who studied at Moor’s briefly, we have no information about Hannah’s later life.

Sources

Calloway, Colin. The Indian History of an American Institution. Dartmouth College Press 2010. Chase, Frederick. A history of Dartmouth College and the Town of Hanover, New Hampshire. 1891. Love, Deloss. Samson Occom and the Christian Indians of New England. Pilgrim Press 1899. McCallum, James. The Letters of Eleazar Wheelock’s Indians. Dartmouth College Press 1932. Wheelock, Eleazar. Account Books. Transcription from T. Peace, pers. comm. 2012.