[In the essay below, Peyer characterizes Occom as “the ‘father’ of modern Native American literature.”]

Native American scholarship began early in the 17th century—almost immediately after the foundation of the first New England colonies—as a consequence of efforts made by elergymen such as John Eliot and Thomas Mayhew who hoped to speed up the dissemination of Christianity by educating Native Americans and training them as missionaries. In 1665, the Harvard Indian College commenced offering courses for Native Americans in English, Latin and Greek until 1693, when that institution was again closed down. The missionaries further established a number of “Praying Indian Towns”—each with its own school and instructors.

By 1624, the number of converts in Massachusetts and Plymouth, alone, was estimated to be 4,000. Unfortunately, the only remaining evidence of Native American literary activity during this period are a few scattered letters, written primarily by former pupils of John Eliot (Meserve, 1956). Thus, Native American literature in English actually began in the second half of the 18th century with the writers Samson Occom, Joseph Johnson,¹ and Hendrick Aupaumut²—the former being the earliest and the most prominent.

Occom (sometimes written “Occum”) was born on an unrecorded day in 1723 at Mohegan—a small Native American settlement on the Thames River between Norwich and New London, in Connecticut. At the time of his birth, colonial genocide and diseases had reduced the Mohegan to some 350 people. Due to a long-standing conflict with Connecticut over stolen lands, the tribe was divided into 2 factions (living side by side) in separate communities named Ben's Town and John's Town—each named after its recognized leader or “Sachem.” Occom's grandfather, Tomockham (alias Ashneon) had migrated to Mohegan early in the 17th century from the region around the Shetucket and Quinebaug rivers. One of his sons, Joshua Ockham, married a Mohegan named Sarah, who was said to be a direct descendant of the great Mohegan leader, Uncas. It was Sarah, Occom's mother, who was first converted and thus had great influence upon her son's career (Blodgett, 1935).

For the first 16 years of his life, Samson Occom had little contact with colonists or missionaries because his father—a hunter of some repute—was forced to move about a great deal. His interest in Christian teachings surfaced in the 1740s, when a wave of religious fervor spread throughout New England known as the “Great Awakening.” He began to attend religious meetings regularly and, for some 6 months, debated within himself “Under Trouble of Mind,” as he put it (Occum, 1768). His doubts were apparently resolved by a revelation he had at the age of 17 and, in 1741, he was finally converted by the Rev. John Davenport at Mohegan. At the same time, he began in earnest to teach himself how to read and write the English language in order to understand Biblical texts. Only one year later, on the 1st of July, he was appointed as one of 12 councilors for the Mohegan by the Sachem, Ben Uncas, thus assuming a position of leadership in the tribe when he was only 19.

One of the disciples of the “Great Awakening” was Eleazar Wheelock, pastor of the Second Congregational Church of Lebanon, who also maintained a private school at his home for the instruction of young men preparing to enter college. As a result of some arrangements made by his mother, Occom was taken into this school December 6th, 1743. He remained with Wheelock for approximately 4 years, receiving instruction in English and elementary Latin, Greek, and even some Hebrew. Occom was such a successful student that Wheelock wanted him to enroll in college, but poor health and failing eyesight prevented him from doing so. It was primarily because of his experience with Occom that Wheelock decided to concentrate his teaching efforts on Native American students and founded the famous Indian Charity School.

After leaving Wheelock's school, Occom worked as a teacher for 2 years in New London before moving to Long Island, where he taught the Montauk for 11 years. While at Montauk, he also engaged in ministerial activities, making such progress that he was finally examined and licensed to preach by the clergymen of the Association of Windham County. There he also met and married the Montauk, Mary Fowler, with whom he was to have 10 children. On August 29, 1759, Occom was ordained by the Presbytery of Suffolk in Long Island; only 2 years later, he was sent on a mission to the Oneida, where he taught and preached until his return to Mohegan in 1764 (Love, 1899).

Although Samson Occom remained faithful to Christianity all of his life, his relationship to the church and the dominant society was far from harmonious. He was very much aware of the depredations and injustices suffered by his people since contact, and openly advocated better educational facilities, opposed further sales of tribal lands, and recognized the importance of a compact tribal organization.

Holding such views, he soon came into conflict with the colonists and his superiors over a long-standing land dispute known as the “Mason Controversy” (DeForest, 1852:303-388). Ever since the Mohegan had been placed under the jurisdiction of the governor of Connecticut in 1725, tribal lands had been continually reduced through fraudulent agreements and scandalous court cases. A group of Mohegans, under the patronship of the Mason family, repeatedly appealed for a return of—or least a compensation for—the stolen lands. The case was finally decided in favor of the colonists in 1766, but the long dispute left a permanent rift among the Mohegan.

Occom actively supported the Mason faction upon his return in 1764, for which he was threatened with a cut in funds and the revocation of his preacher's license by the religious organizations financing his missionary activities. On the other hand, the colonists began a campaign of defamation against him, spreading various rumors of his not being a Mohegan, of having been converted only recently as a special exhibit for England, and of being a notorious alcoholic (Richardson, 1933:177-180). When the final decision of 1766 reached him, Occom made the following conclusions in one of his letters:

The grand controversy which has subsisted between the Colony of Connecticut and the Mohegan Indians above seventy years, is finally decided in favor of the Colony. I am afraid the poor Indians will never stand a good chance with the English in their land controversies, because they are very poor, they have no money. Money is allmighty [sic] now-a-days, and the Indians have no learning, no wit, no cunning; the English have all.

(Caulkins, 1845:163)

The highlight of Occom's missionary career came in late 1765, when he was sent to England in the company of Rev. Nathaniel Whitaker on a fund-raising tour for Wheelock's Indian Charity School, sponsored by George Whitefield and the second Earl of Dartmouth. Between February 16th, 1766 and July 22nd, 1767, he delivered over 300 sermons to large audiences in both England and Scotland, managing to collect some twelve thousand Pounds in all. It was Occom's efforts alone that enabled Wheelock to transfer his school from Lebanon, Connecticut, to New Hampshire, which then became Dartmouth College (Richardson, 1933).

Financial need had been a constant problem for Occom, who always lived in relative poverty and was only able to conduct his teaching and missionary activities because he was practically self-sufficient. By 1768, he was entirely disillusioned with the way he was being exploited by the church. He writes in his autobiography:

Now you See what difference they made between me and other missionaries; they gave me 180 Pounds for 12 years Service, which they gave for one years Service in other Missions.—In my Service (I speak like a fool, but I am Constrained) I was my own Interpreter. I was both a School master and Minister to the Indians, year I was their Ear, Eye & Hand, as Well as Mouth. I leave it with the World, as wicked as it is, to Judge, whether I ought not to have had half as much, they gave a young man Just mentioned which would have been but £50 a year; and if they ought to have given me that, I am not under obligations to them, I owe them nothing at all; what can be the Reason that they used me after this manner? I can't think of any thing, but this as a Poor Indian Boy Said, Who was Bound out to an English Family, and he used to Drive Plow for a young man, and he whipt and Beat him allmost [sic] every Day, and the young man found fault with him, and Complained of him to his master and the poor Boy was Called to answer for himself before his master, and he was asked, what it was he did, that he was so Complained of and beat almost every Day. He said, he did not know, but Supposed it was because he could not drive any better; but says he, I Drive as well as I know how; and at other Times he Beats me, because he is of a mind to beat me; but says he believes he Beats me for the most of the Time “because I am an Indian.”

So I am ready to Say, they have used me thus, because I Can't Influence the Indians so well as other missionaries; but I can assure them I have endeavored to teach them as well as I know how;—but I must Say, “I believe it is because I am a poor Indian.” I Can't help that God has made me So; I did not make my self so.

(Occom, 1768)

Even Occom's long relationship with Eleazar Wheelock came to an abrupt end after his return from England. Despite promises that his family would be taken care of during his absence, Occom found them in a state of extreme poverty and ill health. He also refused to go on a mission to the Iroquois as Wheelock desired. Most important, Wheelock was no longer inclined to instruct Native American missionaries and Occom complained that the removal of the school to New Hampshire, financed with the money Occom had raised, would be of no benefit to his people. His fears soon proved correct because, in time, Dartmouth College ceased to be an educational institution for Native Americans.

In 1773, embittered and fearful of renewed conflicts between his people and the colonists, Occom—together with his former pupil Joseph Johnson—began to formulate a plan for the removal of the New England converts to some lands offered in New York by the Oneida. On November 7th, 1785, after the Revolution had come to pass, Occom helped to found Brothertown in Oneida County, a Native American community with a political system modeled after Connecticut town government. It was partially due to these converted Native Americans who had begun to migrate to the area as early as 1775, that the Oneida refrained from joining the British during the Revolution (Love, 1899:226).

Samson Occom began to write fairly regularly from the day he entered Wheelock's private school, keeping a diary from 1743 until 1790. In 1761, he wrote a brief account of the Montauk in the form of a letter to Rev. John Devotion. It contains a description of the Montauk marriage, naming, religious, curing, and burial customs and, as such, it may be the first ethnographic essay written by a Native American in English to be published (Occom, 1809).

While preparing for his trip to England in 1765, Occom wrote a one-page autobiographical sketch outlining his educational experiences. He was motivated by the fact that the rumors mentioned above had begun to reach him and he wished to set these straight. After his return in 1768, he wrote a somewhat longer autobiographical sketch of 10 pages describing his conversion and subsequent missionary activities, quoted in this paper. Although a number of scholars have included extensive passages from the latter, it was not published until very recently (Peyer, 1982).

Occom's reputation as a writer began with the publication of the first edition of his Sermon at the Execution of Moses Paul on October 31, 1772, by the Press of Thomas and Samuel Green in New Haven. Moses Paul, a Native American sailor from Martha's Vineyard, was sentenced to hang for having killed a man by the name of Moses Cook during a drunken brawl in December, 1771. He requested that Samson Occom be present and hold ceremonies on the day of his execution, September 4th, 1772. On that occasion, Occom delivered a moving plea for temperance which was so well received that a number of people requested him to publish it. Reluctant at first, he finally did prepare a longer version of the sermon for publication. Occom's uncertainty and reasons for assenting are expressed here in part:

It seems altogether unlikely that my performance will do any manner of service in the world, since the most excellent writings of worthy and learned men are disregarded. But there are two or three considerations that have induced me to be willing, to suffer my broken lines to appear in the world. One is, that the books that are in the world are written in very high and refined language; and the sermons that are delivered every Sabbath in general, are in a very high and lofty stile [sic], so that the common people understand but little of them. But I think they cannot help understanding my talk; it is common, plain, every day talk: little children may understand me. And poor Negroes may plainly and fully understand my meaning; and it may be of service to them. Again, it may in a particular manner be serviceable to my poor kindred, the Indians. Further, as it comes from an uncommon quarter, it may induce people to read it, because it is from an Indian. Lastly, God works where and when he pleases, and by what instruments he sees fit, and he can and has used weak and unlikely instruments to bring about his great work.

(Occom, 1772)

Occom's statements in favor of a simple literary style directed at minorities—a fairly progressive standpoint from today's perspective—as well as his apparent self-doubts, may well have involved a certain coyness on his part. As Harold Blodgett (1935:36) has pointed out, Occom was “probably no more poorly educated than many a preacher of his day, and in eloquence, earnestness, and simplicity, superior to not a few.”

The Sermon was an immediate success. It sold out only two weeks after its publication and a second edition was printed by Timothy Green of New London on the 13th of November, followed by a third edition on December 4th. In all, some 19 editions were published, well into the 19th century. Thirty-five years after Occom's death, the Sermon was also translated and published in Wales (Love, 1899:174-5). Single-page copies in verse were also sold in Boston and Newbury Port, but it is unknown to this writer whether Occom was the actual author who did, in fact, write poetry as well.

Two years after the first edition of his Sermon was sold, Occom also published A Choice Collection of Hymns, containing several of his own compositions, which went through 3 editions. Finally, Occom also composed and wrote several hymns of which two, “Awaked by Sinai's Awful Sound” and “Now the Shades of Night Are Gone,” were very popular at the time. However, the greater part of his writings, consisting of his diaries and letters, remain unpublished among the Special Collections of the Dartmouth College Library and the Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society.

Samson Occom spent the last years of his life as the minister of New Stockbridge—a Native American community much like Brothertown—and occasionally taught the Tuscarora; he died on the 14th of July, 1792, at the age of 69. Unless earlier publications can be made available, he was probably the first Native American author of the United States. Certainly in terms of productivity, variety and success, it could be said that Samson Occom is the “father” of modern Native American literature.

Notes

1. Hendrick Aupaumut (Mahican, 1757?-1830), educated by Moravians. Served in the Revolutionary War as Scout. Received the name Captain Hendrick. Served U.S. as peace emissary before War of 1812. Sachem of New Stockbridge. Author of A Narrative of an Embassy to the Western Indians, an account of one of his expeditions as emissary, written around 1791, published in Pennsylvania Historical Society Memoirs, 2, 1827:61-131; and “History of the Muhhe-con-nuk Indians,” written 1790, published in Electa F. Jones, Stockbridge Past and Present, Springfield, MA: Samuel Bowles, 1854:14-23. Also reprinted in Peyer, The Elders Wrote.

2. Joseph Johnson (Mohegan, 1752-1777?), student of Eleazar Wheelock and Samson Occom. Spent some time as a whaler before turning to missionary activities. Author of a few letters to local newspapers, including Letter from J—-h J——n, One of the Mohegan Tribe of Indians, to his Countryman, Moses Paul, published in 1772 by the Press of T. Green in New London. Reprinted in Peyer, The Elders Wrote. Johnson was considered to be one of Wheelock's most promising scholars, but he died very young.

References

Blodgett, Harold

1935 Samson Occom. Hannover, NH: Dartmouth College.

Caulkins, Frances Manwaring

1845 History of Norwich. Norwich, CT: T. Robinson.

DeForest, John W.

1852 History of the Indians of Connecticut. Hartford, CT: Wm. Jas. Hammersley.

Love, William DeLoss

1899 Samson Occom and the Christian Indians of New England. Boston, MA: The Pilgrim Press.

Meserve, Walter T.

1956 English Works of Seventeenth-Century Indians. in American Quarterly, 8(3): 264-277.

Occom, Samson

1768 “A Short Narrative of My Life.” unpublished typescript. Hannover, NH: Special Collections, Dartmouth College Library. Reproduced in Peyer, The Elders Wrote.

1772 A Sermon Preached at the Execution of Moses Paul, an Indian. New Haven, CT: Press of Thomas and Samuel Green. Later editions available in Charles Evans, American Bibliography, New York: Peter Smith, 1941.

1774 A Choice Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, New London, CT: Timothy Green.

1809 “An Account of the Montauk Indians, on Long Island,” in Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 10:105-10. Written, 1761.

Peyer, Bernd C. (ed.)

1982 The Elders Wrote: An Anthology of Early Prose by North American Indians, 1768-1931. West Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag.

Richardson, Leon Burr (ed.)

1933 An Indian Preacher in England. Hannover, NH: Dartmouth College Manuscript Series, No. 2. Contains letters of Occom and Whitaker.