James Edson White (28 July 1849 – 3 June 1928), frequently known as Edson White, was an American author, publisher and the second son of two of the pioneers of the

Seventh-day Adventist Church The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and ...

, James S. White and

Ellen G. White Ellen Gould White (née Harmon; November 26, 1827 – July 16, 1915) was an American woman author and co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Along with other Adventist leaders such as Joseph Bates and her husband James White, she wa ...

. In 1870 he married Emma McDearmon, but did not have any children. After being detached from his parents and their church for a couple of decades he had a spiritual change of heart when he was 44 years old, at the time he lived in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Mission to African Americans

He found a booklet written by his mother titled ''Our Duty to the Colored People''. This encouraged him to set up a mission to spread the Adventist message to African American people in the southern United States.''A Brief History of Seventh-Day Adventists'' by

George R. Knight George Raymond Knight (born 1941) is a leading Seventh-day Adventist Church, Seventh-day Adventist historian, author, and educator. He is emeritus professor of church history at Andrews University. As of 2014 he is considered to be the best-se ...

Review and Herald Publishing Association The Review and Herald Publishing Association was the oldest of two Seventh-day Adventist publishing houses in North America. The organization published books, magazines, study guides, CDs, videos and games for Adventist churches, schools and ind ...

, 1999 He set up mission schools for black people along the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. The first school set up was on a boat called the ''Morning Star''. This boat had a library, a chapel, a photography lab, a print shop, and accommodation for staff. Schools were created at

Vicksburg Vicksburg most commonly refers to: * Vicksburg, Mississippi, a city in western Mississippi, United States * The Vicksburg Campaign, an American Civil War campaign * The Siege of Vicksburg, an American Civil War battle Vicksburg is also the name of ...

, Mississippi,

Yazoo City Yazoo City is a U.S. city in Yazoo County, Mississippi. It was named after the Yazoo River, which, in turn was named by the French explorer Robert La Salle in 1682 as "Rivière des Yazous" in reference to the Yazoo tribe living near the river's m ...

Lintonia ''Lintonia'' is a genus of African plants in the grass family. ; Species * '' Lintonia brizoides'' (Chiov.) C.E.Hubb. - Kenya, Ethiopia * '' Lintonia nutans'' Stapf - Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, Zi ...

, and

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

. The mission built up to 50 schools, building an organization called Southern Missionary Society. This became part of the Adventist Southern Union Conference. The publishing organization that Edson established was originally known as the "Gospel Herald Publishing Company". It was taken over by the church and renamed to "Southern Publishing Association" in 1901, which subsequently merged with the

in 1980.History: A Short History of the Review and Herald
". Review and Herald website, accessed 2009-05-01 He started the "J. E. White Publishing Company."

Books written

*''Gospel Primer #01'' – used to raise money for the mission *''The coming King'' (1898, 1909, 1933) *''The New Testament primer'' (1906) *''Best stories from the best book'' *''The man that rum made: With temperance lessons and stories'' *''Past, Present and Future'', (1909)

References

External links

* 1849 births 1928 deaths American book publishers (people) American Seventh-day Adventists Seventh-day Adventist writers {{SeventhdayAdventist-stub