UTOPIAN PROMISE - Annenberg Media

OCCOM WEB ARCHIVE
[1236] John Eliot, The Holy Bible
Containing the Old Testament and the
New Translated into the Indian Language
(1663), courtesy of Annenberg Rare
Book and Manuscript Library, University
of Pennsylvania. Commonly known as
the “Eliot Bible,” this book was the first
Bible published in New England and
appeared over a hundred years before
the first complete English edition of the
Bible was published in the American
colonies. It is written in Massachuset, the
language of the Massachuset and
Wampanoag Indians. John Eliot, the
“Apostle to the Indians,” composed his
text to serve the cause of Native
American conversion to Puritan
Christianity.
[2850] Brass medal given to Christian
Indians as a reward for service, courtesy
of the National Museum of the
American Indian, Smithsonian
Institution, N38319/N38320. Photo by
Carmelo Guadagno. Christianized
Indians fought on both the Native and
the British sides in King Philip’s War,
which led to confusion on the part of
colonists as to who was a “good” and
who was a “bad” Indian. Brass medals
were awarded to those who served the
British.
[6747] John Warner Barber, Sketch of
Samson Occom’s house (1836), courtesy
of the Connecticut Historical
Society. This illustration from Barber’s
Historical Collections of Connecticut is
one of the few depictions of a private
dwelling in the book. This house in
Mohegan (present-day Montville,
Connecticut) belonged to Occom.
British-style housing, fenced yards, and
individual property ownership were perceived
by missionaries to be signs of a
successful conversion to Christianity.
[6748] Anonymous, Rev. Samson
Occom, the Indian Preacher (1802),
courtesy of the Annenberg Rare Book
and Manuscript Library, University of
Pennsylvania. Between 1750 and 1766,
Occom sat for at least three different
portraits. This one emphasizes Occom’s
identity as a minister, rather than his
Native American heritage. Others show
him in Native American dress that
resembles a Roman toga.
30 UNIT 3, UTOPIAN PROMISE
fered at the hands of whites. The document remained in the
Dartmouth archives, unpublished, until 1982. It is one of the first
autobiographical pieces in English by a Native American writer and
thus offers a unique and important perspective on eighteenth-century
American spiritual and social life.
TEACHING TIPS
■ You might provide students with some historical background on
the Mohegan tribe so that they can situate Occom’s experience within
the broader context of Indian/white relations in the colonial period in
New England. A member of the Algonquian language family, the
Mohegans constituted the northernmost branch of the Pequot tribe.
During the devastating Pequot War (chronicled from the English perspective
in Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation), the Mohegans sided
with the English. This decision ensured a brief period of peace with
European settlers following the war, but by the end of the seventeenth
century, the tribe had been decimated by disease and by the colonists’
continual encroachment on its lands. At the time of Occom’s birth, the
Mohegans numbered only about 350 and were confined to villages set
aside for them in Connecticut.
■ Students may be unable to comprehend why seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century Native Americans would have been interested in
giving up their traditional beliefs in order to convert to Christianity. In
fact, many Native Americans and African Americans embraced
Christianity because it afforded them the same status as whites, as
spiritual equals in the eyes of God. Of course, European colonists did
not always respect this principle of spiritual equality. You might highlight
the pointed contrasts Occom draws in his narrative between the
Christian ideals espoused by whites and the actual treatment minority
converts experienced at their hands.
QUESTIONS
Comprehension: When does Occom feel that he is being treated
unfairly? What is his concept of justice? How does he deal with the
prejudice and mistreatment he experiences? What rhetorical strategies
does he use to present his complaints in his narrative?
Context: Compare Occom’s description of Indian life and Indian identity
with the perspectives on Indians offered by other writers in this
unit (Bradford, Morton, Rowlandson, or Knight, for example). How
does Occom’s narrative of Native American life complicate or challenge
the perspectives of the English writers? Does his account of
Indian culture have anything in common with their accounts?
Exploration: In his life, Occom managed to inhabit what often
seemed to be two very separate cultures: he wrote and preached in
English and committed himself to the Christian theology taught by
white people, yet never lost his commitment to his identity as an
Indian. How does Occom’s narrative provide evidence of the strategies
he adopted in order to live in two separate cultures at the same