Everything about Samson Occom totally explained
The Reverend Samson Occom (
1723 –
1792) (also called
Samson Occum) was a Native American
Presbyterian clergyman and a member of the
Mohegan nation near
New London,
Connecticut. He has the distinction of being the first Native American person to ever publish documents and pamphlets in English.
Born to Joshua Tomacham and his wife Sarah, Occom is believed to be a direct descendant of the famous Mohegan chief,
Uncas. In
1740, at the age of sixteen, Occom was exposed to the teachings of Christian evangelical preachers in the
Great Awakening. He began to study theology at the "Lattin School" of
Eleazar Wheelock in
1743 and stayed for four years until leaving to begin his own career.
Occom served as a missionary to Native American people in
New England and
Montauk, Long Island where he married a local woman. It was also on Long Island where he was officially ordained a minister on
August 30,
1759 by the presbytery of Suffolk. Although promised otherwise by the church leaders, Occom was never paid the same salary as white preachers, and he lived in deep poverty for much of his life.
Wheelock established an Indian charity school with a benefaction from Joshua Moor in 1754, and he persuaded Occom to go to
England in
1766 to raise money for the school, along with the Rev. Nathaniel Whitaker. Occom preached his way across the country from
February 16,
1766, to
July 22,
1767. He delivered in total between three and four hundred sermons, drawing large crowds wherever he went. By the end of his tour he'd raised over twelve thousand pounds for Wheelock's project.
King George III himself donated 200 pounds, and
William Legge, Earl of Dartmouth subscribed 50 guineas. The friendship between Occom and Wheelock dissolved when Occom learned that Wheelock had neglected to care for Occom's wife and children while he was away. Occom also took issue with the fact that Wheelock put the funds toward establishing
Dartmouth College for the education of Englishmen rather than of Native Americans.
Upon his return from
England, Occom lived at
Mohegan, then moved in
1786 with some
New England and
Long Island Indians to
Oneida territory in what is known today as
New York. He then helped to found Brothertown, and lived among the
Brothertown Indians. Later Stockbridge (Mohicans) people moved to the area. In
1768, Occom wrote the 10-page
A Short Narrative of My Life, which was kept in
Dartmouth College's archive collection until publication in 1982. He also published
Sermon at the Execution of Moses Paul and
A Choice Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs in
1774.
Occom died on
July 14,
1792, in
New Stockbridge, New York. He is buried just off of Bogusville Road outside of Deansboro (formerly known as Brothertown), New York.
In the first half of the 1800s many
Brothertown Indians people moved to what is now known as the
Brothertown township in
Calumet County,
Wisconsin. The
Brothertown Indians are currently petitioning the federal government to be
federally recognized - in effect, re-recognized. Federal recognition was initially stripped from the Brothertown people when they accepted US citizenship in an effort to avoid being displaced yet again. Since then, US policy has changed and Native American people are, quite obviously, both American citizens - as well as citizens of their respective Nations. However the policy as implemented among the Brothertown Indians, the first Native Americans granted US citizenship, at the time stripped them of what we today call
tribal sovereignty.
Located on the campus of Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic, Connecticut, is an upperclassmen residence hall named after Occom.
Works of Samson Occom
- A Choice Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, New London, CT : Press of Thomas and Samual Green, 1774.
A Sermon Preached at the Execution of Moses Paul, An Indian Who Was Executed at New Haven on the 2nd of September 1772 for the Murder of Mr. Moses Cook, late of Waterbury, on the 7th of December 1771, New Haven : Press of Thomas and Samual Green, 1774.
A Short Narrative of My Life. The Elders Wrote: An Anthology of Early Prose by North American Indians 1768-1931. Ed. Bernd Peyer. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 1982 [1762], 12-18. (The 10-page A Short Narrative of My Life was kept in Dartmouth College's archive collection until publication in 1982. This work has also recently been published in The Norton Anthology of American Literature.)
Journals, 1754 and 1786(?), Unpublished manuscript in collection of New London County Historical Society.
Herbs and Roots, Unpublished manuscript in collection of New London County Historical Society.Further Information
Get more info on 'Samson Occom'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://samson_occom.totallyexplained.com">Samson Occom Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
