Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
into the Moor’s Indian Charity School in Lebanon, Connecticut. Girls and boys
were taught such skills as husbandry and the domestic arts. Boys were also taught
Greek, Latin, and Hebrew in order to interpret the Bible themselves.
From 1749 to 1764, Occom worked as a missionary for the Montauks at Montauk,
Long Island. He taught reading and spread the word of God; for his eorts, he
received twenty pounds a year from the London Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel, a stipend less than what was given to whites. Occom also married Mary
Fowler, who was a Montauk; together they raised a family.
In 1759, Occom was ordained as a Presbyterian minister by the Presbytery of
Suolk. He fullled several missions among the Oneida tribe before accompanying
the Reverend Nathaniel Whitaker to England to raise money for Moor’s Indian
Charity School. Wheelock promised to take care of Occom’s family during his
absence. Occom remained in England for two years, successfully raising twelve
thousand pounds. He returned home to nd his family neglected and the money
he raised being used by Wheelock to move the Indian School to Hanover, New
Hampshire, where it eventually became Dartmouth College. Wheelock now
intended to introduce white missionaries among Native Americans through the
groundwork laid by Native American ministers like Occom. Anticipating a diversion
of funds and activities away from Native Americans, Occom broke with Wheelock.
Occom became an impoverished itinerant preacher among the New England
Native Americans. In 1768, he described his ministry and life in a ten-page
manuscript that remained unpublished in the Dartmouth archives until 1982. In it,
he describes his life as a minister and teacher, particularly his eorts to encourage
learning among the young. He also notes his diculty in straddling the diering
cultures of the whites and Native Americans. He assesses his marginalized position
as due to the whites always seeing him as an Indian rather than as a Christian
preacher. The poor conditions of his life both fullled and reected his being
viewed by whites as a poor Indian and a despised creature.
During the American Revolution, Occom encouraged Native Americans to
remain neutral. In 1798, he established Brothertown for Christian Indians among
the Oneida and served as a minister there for the remainder of his life.
3.5.1 A Short Narrative of My Life
https://collections.dartmouth.edu/occom/html/normalized/768517-normalized.html
3.5.2 Reading and Review Questions
1. What, if any, are the rhetorical benets of Occom’s referring to himself
and other Native Americans as heathen—until his conversion to
Christianity?
2. What are features of Mohegan life that distinguish it from that of white
Christians? What is signicant about these dierences?
Page | 376