The combative and industrious Jedidiah Morse presided over the First Congregational Church of Charlestown, Massachusetts, from 1789 to 1819. During this time Morse emerged as a prominent Federalist supporter and the leading opponent of the Unitarian movement in New England. While concerning himself with political and theological matters, Morse additionally addressed the plight of the Indian and the problem of slavery, but he achieved his greatest fame for his series of geography textbooks and reference works, which earned him the title Father of American Geography.

Born in Woodstock, Connecticut, to Jedidiah and Sarah Child Morse, Morse was the eighth of ten children, five of whom died in infancy. From his father, a deacon at the First Society of Woodstock and a patriot who served on a committee of correspondence, he learned the paramount importance of religious and civic service. He enrolled at Yale College with the class of 1783 at a...