Writing Indians

by Wyss, Hilary E.

• ISBN13: 9781558492646
• ISBN10: 155849264X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-12-01
• Publisher: Univ of Massachusetts Pr

Summary

A study of cultural encounter, this book takes a fresh look at the much ignored and often misunderstood experience of Christian Indians in early America. Focusing on New England missionary settlements from the mid-seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries, Hilary E. Wyss examines the ways in which Native American converts to Christianity developed their own distinct identity within the context of a colonial culture.

With an approach that weaves together literature, religious studies, and ethnohistory, Wyss grounds her work in the analysis of a rarely read body of" autobiographical" writings by Christian Indians, including letters, journal entries, and religious confessions. She then juxtaposes these documents to the writings of better known Native Americans like Samson Occom as well as to the published works of Anglo-Americans, such as Mary Rowlandson's famous captivity narrative and Eleazor Wheelock's accounts of his charity schools.

In their search for ostensibly "authentic" Native voices, scholars have tended to overlook the writings of Christian Ind

Author Biography

Hilary E. Wyss is assistant professor of English at Auburn University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
A Note on the Text	xi
Abbreviations	xiii
Introduction Writing in the Margins: Christian Indian Identity, 1643-1829	1	(16)
Literacy, Captivity, and Redemption: The Christian Indians of King Philip's War	17	(35)
``Things That Do Accompany Salvation'': Indian Converts, Transculturation, and Reculturation	52	(29)
Captivity and Christianity: Stockbridge, New Stockbridge, and the Place of History	81	(42)
``One Head, One Heart, and One Blood'': Christian Community and Native Identity at Brotherton	123	(31)
Epilogue A Son of the Forest and a Preacher of the Gospel: Narratives of Captivity and Conversion	154	(15)
Notes	169	(20)
Works Cited	189	(14)
Index	203