1849–1928
Summary
James Edson White was the second son of James and Ellen G. White and the founder of the Adventist mission to the African-American population of the post–Civil War South. Born July 28, 1849, in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, he was the second of four sons (Henry, Edson, Willie, and Herbert). After years of editorial and publishing work, he and his wife Emma launched the steamer Morning Star on the Cumberland and Mississippi Rivers in 1895 — a floating mission station from which they evangelized, taught, and printed religious literature for African Americans in Tennessee, Mississippi, and the Gulf states. He compiled his mother’s The Southern Work (1898), founded the Southern Publishing Association, and continued in mission service until his death in 1928 at the age of seventy-eight.
Birth and the Paris Meeting (July 1849)
Ellen White’s Spiritual Gifts, vol. 2, opens with the announcement of Edson’s birth and her travel to Maine when he was six weeks old: “July 28th, 1849, my second child, James Edson White, was born. When he was six weeks old we went to Maine. September 14th a meeting was appointed at Paris. They had not had a meeting for one year and a half. Brethren Bates, Chamberlain and Ralph were present, also brethren and sisters from Topsham” (Spiritual Gifts, vol. 2, p. 116, par. 1; refcode 2SG 116.1).
The same paragraph records the dramatic confrontation between Stockbridge Howland and the fanatic F. T. Howland that opened the way for the Adventist work in Paris, Maine — a moment when the eight-week-old Edson was present in his mother’s arms.
Mission to the South (1893–1909)
Per the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, Edson White compiled his mother’s writings on the Southern work and was led, partly in response to her March 21, 1891 testimony “Our Duty to the Colored People,” to undertake mission work among African Americans in the post–Reconstruction South.
Loughborough’s Great Second Advent Movement records the work: “Strictly speaking, this society cannot be called foreign, notwithstanding it is doing a work in evangelizing a foreign people (Africans) in our home land. Much credit is due to the persevering efforts of Elder J. E. White, under the blessing of God, for the results already attained” (The Great Second Advent Movement, p. 435, par. 2; refcode GSAM 435.2).
In 1895 Edson and his wife Emma built the steamer Morning Star on the Tennessee River as a floating Adventist mission. Per ESDA, the boat carried a printing press, a school, a chapel, and supplies, and they used it to evangelize African-American communities along the Cumberland, Tennessee, and Mississippi rivers for the next decade. Edson founded several mission schools and the Southern Publishing Association at Nashville. The compilation The Southern Work (1898, expanded 1901) — gathering Ellen White’s repeated appeals on behalf of the African-American population — was published under his editorial care.
Mother’s Counsel on The Desire of Ages (1900)
Ellen White’s June 20, 1900 letter to Edson — preserved in Selected Messages, vol. 3 — records her response to his criticisms of The Desire of Ages: “I received your letter, Edson.” (Selected Messages, vol. 3, p. 119, par. 2; refcode 3SM 119.2). She continued in the same paragraph: “In regard to The Desire of Ages, when you meet with those who have criticisms to make, as will always be the case, do not take any notice of the supposed mistakes, but praise the book, tell of its advantages” (Selected Messages, vol. 3, p. 119, par. 2; refcode 3SM 119.2).
Death (1928)
Per the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists (and the Letters and Manuscripts, vol. 1, biographical note), Edson White died on June 13, 1928, at the age of seventy-eight. The Ellen G. White Estate’s bibliographic note in Letters and Manuscripts, vol. 1, p. 906, par. 3 (refcode 1EGWLM 906.3) cites the Review and Herald obituary published July 5, 1928, p. 22.
