Editing David Brainerd (section)

==Biography==

===Early life===
[[File:David Brainerd on horseback.jpg|thumb|David Brainerd on horseback. He travelled over 3000 miles on horseback as a missionary.<ref>'Jonathan Edwards: A gallery of friends, foes & followers', ''Christian History & Biography'', 8 (1985).</ref>]]
[[File:David Brainerd preaching.jpg|thumb|Brainerd [[Open-air preaching|preaching in the open-air]] to Native Americans.]]

David Brainerd was born on April 20, 1718, in Haddam, Connecticut, the son of Hezekiah Brainerd, a Connecticut legislator, and Dorothy Hobart. He had nine siblings, one of whom was Dorothy's from a previous marriage. He was orphaned at the age of nine years, as his father died in 1727 at the age of 46 and his mother died five years later.<ref>Piper, pp. 123–124.</ref>

After his mother's death, Brainerd moved to [[East Haddam]] to live with one of his older sisters, Jerusha. At the age of nineteen, he inherited a farm near [[Durham, Connecticut|Durham]], but returned to East Haddam a year later to prepare to enter [[Yale University|Yale]]. On July 12, 1739, he recorded having an experience of "unspeakable glory" that prompted in him a "hearty desire to exalt [God], to set him on the throne and to 'seek first his Kingdom'".<ref>Piper, pp. 124–127.</ref> This has been interpreted by [[evangelical]] scholars as a [[religious conversion|conversion]] experience.<ref>E.g. Piper, pp. 126, 131.</ref>

===Preparing for ministry===
Two months later, he enrolled at [[Yale University|Yale]]. In his second year at Yale, he was sent home because he was suffering from a serious illness, [[tuberculosis]], that caused him to spit blood. When he returned in November 1740, tensions were beginning to emerge at Yale between the faculty staff and the students as the staff considered the spiritual enthusiasm of the students, which had been prompted by visiting preachers such as [[George Whitefield]], [[Gilbert Tennent]], [[Ebenezer Pemberton]] and [[James Davenport (clergyman)|James Davenport]], to be excessive. Brainerd was [[expulsion (academia)|expelled]] because of comments about the impious staff.<ref>Piper, pp. 127–128.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Edwards|first=Jonathan|title=The Life and Diary of the rev'd. David Brainerd|pages=Thursday, September 14, 1743}}</ref>

A recent law forbade the appointment of ministers in Connecticut unless they had graduated from [[Harvard University|Harvard]], Yale, or a European institution, so Brainerd had to reconsider his plans.<ref>Piper, pp. 128–129.</ref> In 1742, Brainerd was licensed to preach by a group of [[evangelicals]] known as [[Old and New Lights|New Lights]]. As a result, he gained the attention of [[Jonathan Dickinson (New Jersey minister)|Jonathan Dickinson]], the leading [[Presbyterian]] in New Jersey, who unsuccessfully attempted to reinstate Brainerd at Yale. Instead, Dickinson suggested that Brainerd devote himself to missionary work among the Native Americans, supported by the [[Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge]]. He was approved for this missionary work on November 25, 1742.<ref>Piper, pp. 129–130.</ref>

===Entering mission===
On April 1, 1743, after a brief period serving a church on [[Long Island]], Brainerd began working as a missionary to Native Americans, which he would continue until late 1746 when he became too ill. In his late life, he also experienced [[depression (mood)|depression]], loneliness, and lack of food{{why?|date=December 2024}}.<ref>Piper, pp. 133–145.</ref>

His first missionary assignment was working at [[Kaunameek]], a [[Mohicans|Mohican]] settlement near present-day [[Nassau (town), New York|Nassau, New York]]. Brainerd remained there for one year.<ref name="Piper">Piper, p. 130.</ref>

In 1743, he was reassigned to work among the [[Lenape|Delaware Indians]] along the [[Delaware River]] northeast of [[Bethlehem, Pennsylvania]], where he remained for another year, during which he was ordained by the [[Newark Presbytery]].<ref name="Piper" /> After this, he moved to [[Crossweeksung, New Jersey|Crossweeksung]] in New Jersey. Within a year, the Native American church at Crossweeksung had 130 members, who moved in 1746 to [[Cranbury, New Jersey|Cranbury]] where they established a Christian community.<ref name="Piperpp">Piper, pp. 130–131.</ref>

In these years, he refused several offers of leaving the mission field to become a church minister. He continued his work converting Native Americans, writing in his diary:

<blockquote>
'[I] could have no freedom in the thought of any other circumstances or business in life: All my desire was the conversion of the heathen, and all my hope was in God: God does not suffer me to please or comfort myself with hopes of seeing friends, returning to my dear acquaintance, and enjoying worldly comforts'.<ref>Quoted in Piper, p. 145.</ref>
</blockquote>

===Death===
In November 1746, he became too ill to continue ministering, and so moved to Jonathan Dickinson's house in [[Elizabeth, New Jersey|Elizabethtown]] and later to Jonathan Edwards' house in [[Northampton, Massachusetts]]. Apart from a trip to Boston in the summer of that year, he remained at Edwards's house until his death the following year.<ref name="Piperpp" /> In May 1747, he was diagnosed with incurable consumption. In his diary entry for September 24, Brainerd wrote:

<blockquote>
'In the greatest distress that ever I endured having an uncommon kind of hiccough; which either strangled me or threw me into a straining to vomit'.<ref>Quoted in Piper, p. 133.</ref>
</blockquote>
During this time, he was nursed by Jerusha Edwards, Jonathan's seventeen-year-old daughter. The friendship grew between them and "many speculate that there was deep (even romantic) love between them".<ref>Piper, p. 138.</ref> He died from tuberculosis on October 9, 1747, at the age of 29. Jerusha died in February 1748 as a result of contracting tuberculosis from nursing Brainerd.<ref>Piper, p. 154.</ref>

After his death, his younger brother John Brainerd continued his work.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Verstraete |first1=Susan |title=David And John Brainerd: Missionaries to Native Americans |url=https://bulletininserts.org/david-and-john-brainerd-missionaries-to-native-americans/}}</ref>