Biography
Jonathan Edwards Jr. was born on May 26, 1745, in Northampton, Massachusetts, the son of the great theologian Jonathan Edwards and his wife, Sarah. He was the ninth of eleven children. He was a boy of ten when his father was dismissed from the church at Northampton, and the family moved to the frontier town of Stockbridge. There he grew up among the Mohican Indians and learned their language. He was said to have spoken Mohican better than English. This experience gave him a lasting interest in Native American languages.
His father died in 1758, when Jonathan was thirteen, and his mother died a few months later. He was left an orphan. He was taken in by relatives, and he was educated at the school in Stockbridge and at the College of New Jersey, now Princeton, where he graduated in 1765. He went on to study theology under Joseph Bellamy, a friend of his father. He was licensed to preach in 1766 and was ordained in 1769.
In 1769, he became the pastor of the White Haven Church, in New Haven, Connecticut. He served there for twenty-six years. He was a faithful and solid preacher, and he took up the theological work of his father. He developed what came to be known as the New England theology. He wrote works on the atonement and the nature of sin. His best known was The Necessity of the Atonement, published in 1785. He argued that the atonement was a public satisfaction to divine justice. His thought was less original than his father's, but he preserved the heritage.
He is best remembered for his stand against slavery. In 1791, he preached a sermon in New Haven, which was published under the title The Injustice and Impolicy of the Slave Trade, and of the Slavery of the Africans. In it, he argued that the slave trade was a violation of the law of God and of the rights of man. He said that it was a sin against Africans and that it brought harm to the owners. He called on Christians to give up slavery and to work for its abolition. It was one of the first major antislavery sermons in America. He spoke with a clear and forceful moral argument, and he was ahead of his time. He was also a friend of the abolitionist cause and a member of the Connecticut Society for the Promotion of Freedom.
His stance was not popular. In 1795, he was dismissed from his church at New Haven. The cause was a dispute over his salary and over his refusal to adopt the Half-Way Covenant, which permitted baptized but unconverted persons to have a role in the church. The matter was complex. Some historians think that his antislavery views played a part. He moved to Colebrook, in northwestern Connecticut, where he served a small church for a few years.
In 1799, he was elected president of Union College in Schenectady, New York. He accepted and took up his duties. He was a good administrator and an effective teacher. He worked to build up the college and to raise its standards. He had a hope of seeing it grow. His time as president was short. In 1801, he fell ill, and he died on August 1, 1801, at the age of fifty-six. His life was shorter than that of his father, and his influence was less. Yet he showed the moral courage of a man who speaks for the oppressed. His life shows that a son may carry on the work of his father in his own way, and that a preacher may use the pulpit to speak against injustice.