The center point of Christianity in the Thirteen Colonies before the First Great Awakening was the Puritanism of New England. When we examine early Puritanism in America we tend to examine several particular figures such as John Winthrop, Increase and Cotton Mather, Edward Taylor and Jonathan Edwards. There were other religious figures however who represented a portion of the Northeast Thirteen Colonies’ population that was not indissolubly connected to the organized Puritan church. Samson Occom was one particular Presbyterian minister who was not born into the established church in New England. Instead, he was born into the Mohegan tribe of Native Americans near New London, Connecticut. Some scholars say he was a direct descendant of Uncas, of “Last of the Mohicans” fame. He was born in the year 1723. In 1743, during the First Great Awakening he heard the message of Christianity from a Puritan preacher. Upon his conversion to Christianity he studied under the minister Eleazar Wheelock and later Solomon Williams. He then left to become a missionary to the Native Americans.
The first Native American people group that Occom ministered to was the Pequot people in Montauk, New York. He later ministered to the Iroquois in Upstate New York. He sailed to England in 1766 to preach and raise money for a Christian school for Native Americans, an idea that was due to his old teacher, Eleazar Wheelock. Despite relative success in England Occom learned that Wheelock had betrayed his trust and had founded Dartmouth College in New Hampshire with funds originally intended for the Native American school.
Occom devoted the rest of his life to establishing a special place for Christian Native Americans. In the 1780s he led Christian Native Americans in founding a settlement in New York called Brothertown. He also wrote a ten page memoir called A Short Narrative of My Life in 1768. Occom died in 1792.
Occom was influential in both Puritan and Native American history. He represented the process of assimilation into Colonist culture and religion that some Native Americans embraced. He was also the first Native American to mainly write in English and he influenced Native American literacy. In the end, he stayed faithful to Christianity despite the betrayal he suffered at the hands of Wheelock. He explains why in his Short Narrative: “but I must Say, I believe it is because I am a poor Indian.” He trusted God even when other humans betrayed his trust. Samson Occom can be and should be an example to all Christians.