Brainerd, David

Brainerd, David

(1718–47) Protestant missionary; born in Haddam, Conn. An emotional, sickly child, he achieved a religious conversion after much anguish in 1739. He was expelled from Yale in 1742 for making derogatory remarks about a tutor, but he obtained a license to preach and ministered to Indian tribes in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Poor health forced him from the field in early 1747, and he died shortly thereafter. Jonathan Edwards published an account of his life in 1749.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.