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Early Indigenous Literatures

Title page of a 1789 edition of Occom's Execution Sermon

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Samson Occom’s Paratexts Samson Occom is often considered the “first Native American who wrote deliberately for print.”[1] Occom held far more power over his authorial output than did Garret or Paul. Yet, as a Mohegan writer in the pre-copyright era, his authority was limited: Occom did approve of and receive compensation for the first edition of his execution sermon published in 1772, however, he had no control over or remuneration from later editions.[2] Weyler also invites us to consider that while Occom was the “sole author” of the execution sermon for Moses Paul, he spoke on behalf of multiple communities: in addition to representing the Church, he spoke as a Mohegan and as an “ethnic Indian.”[3]

In his writing and life Occom exercised agency in navigating his liminal positionality as a Native American minister;[4] however, publishers came to structure the paratexts of Occom’s works in order to position him more firmly within settler Christian narratives. While Occom’s writing did not quite become paratext for the works of white settler authors, the paratexts for his sermons worked to decenter his authorial voice over time.

Early editions of Occom’s execution sermon did give pride of place to the sermon, with a preface and an introduction written by Occom and the appended "Sketch" of Paul’s life. Consider the title pages for these 1772 and 1773 editions, in which Occom is the only author listed:

A later edition of the sermon, published in 1788 in New Haven and reprinted in 1789 in London, frames Occom’s sermon in a different way. Occom’s sermon is compiled together with a “SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE LATE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL AMONG THE INDIANS” as well as a text entitled “OBSERVATIONS on the LANGUAGE of the MUHHEKANEEW INDIANS,”[5] written by Jonathan Edwards, a white settler minister of greater stature than Occom. The title page does not frame Edwards’ text as an appendix to Occom’s sermon; instead, the format of the title page gives Edwards pride of place as an author.

By pairing Occom's sermon with these settler-authored texts about Indigenous peoples, this edition serves to defang Occom as a critic of the settler Christian community’s attitudes toward Native Americans. This edition is a “composite”[6] text, but one in which Occom’s writing is appropriated for settler narratives without his consent.

This edition opens not with Occom’s preface, as did the earlier editions shown above, but with an “Advertisement” by I. Rippon. The advertisement clearly favors Edwards’ writing over Occom’s, stating, “The following Sermon might perhaps, have been altered in a few places for the better, but it is presumed that good judges will overlook the defects of it and wonder they are so few.”[7] Jonathan Edwards receives nothing but praise as a “worthy minister,” in contrast.[8]

Following Occom’s preface is an “Introduction,” which features a fictional conversation between Occom and Paul on the night prior to Paul’s execution.[9] This text blatantly and falsely appropriates Occom’s and Moses’ voices in service of a settler-authored narrative. The dialogue portrays Paul as a wretched figure, fearing his earthly and divine punishment yet unable to muster the conviction to “pray aright.”[10] Not only does the act of appropriating Occom’s and Paul’s voices strip them of their authorial agency, but the imagined dialogue itself depicts Paul as a figure who fails to grasp any agency in his own salvation and Occom as thus an ineffective minister to Paul.[11]
Following the execution sermon, Jonathan Edwards’ text receives its own title page:

This text by Edwards is notable as a precursor to the settler-authored ethnographic work about Indigenous peoples that would become prominent in the 19th century. Edwards presents himself as an authority on the Muhhekaneew language, and claims that the text was authorized by members of the tribe.[12] He thus positions the text as a collaborative one, but with himself as the ultimate authoritative and authorial figure.

Another example of the diminishment of Occom’s authorial presence in favor of settler authorship is a 1766 publication entitled, “EXTRACTS OF Several SERMONS, Preached EXTEMPORE At different Places of Divine Worship, in the City of BRISTOL, BY THE Rev. Mr. NATHANIEL WHITAKER, Minister of the Gospel at Norwich, in New-England, AND THE Rev. Mr. SAMSON OCCOM, An Indian Minister, Who are appointed to solicit Benefactions from the People of this Island, for the Establishing, &c. of an Indian School in America. As taken down by a YOUTH.”[13] The title page positions Whitaker and Occom equally as authors of the compiled text. Yet this equivalence is misleading, as Occom is the author of four of the included sermons, and Whitaker of only one. The title page thus decenters Occom’s authorial voice in a text primarily authored by him. Whitaker is also granted a more distinguished and specific title than Occom: where Whitaker is described respectfully as a “Minister of the Gospel” in a particular town, Occom is tokenized as an “Indian Minister.”

While Occom exercised significant agency in authoring his sermons, his lack of ownership over his work allowed publishers and editors to appropriate and sideline his voice. The following page will turn to an early example of a Native American proprietary author, Pequot writer William Apess. I will consider how Apess’ 1829 autobiography, A Son of the Forest, subverted print culture’s paratextual sidelining of Indigenous authorship.

[1] Karen Weyler, “‘Common, Plain, Every Day Talk’ from ‘An Uncommon Quarter’: Samson Occom and the Language of the Execution Sermon,” 127.
[2] Ibid., 134, 137.
[3] Ibid., 127-128.
[4] Ibid., 116.
[5] Samson Occom,“A sermon at the execution of Moses Paul, an Indian: who had been guilty of murder, preached at New Haven in America,” Printed in New Haven, CT, 1788. Reprinted and sold in London by Buckland, Paternoster-row; Dilly, Poultry; Otridge, Strand; J. Lepard, No. 91, Newgate-street; T. Pitcher, No. 44, Barbican; Brown, on the Tolzey Bristol; Binns, at Leeds; and Woolmer, at Exeter, 1789, i.
[6] Phillip Round, “Toward an Indian Bibliography,” 16.
[7] Samson Occom, “A sermon at the execution of Moses Paul, an Indian: who had been guilty of murder, preached at New Haven in America,” ii.
[8] Ibid., ii.
[9] Karen Weyler, “‘Common, Plain, Every Day Talk’ from ‘An Uncommon Quarter’: Samson Occom and the Language of the Execution Sermon,” 137.
[10] Samson Occom, “A sermon at the execution of Moses Paul, an Indian: who had been guilty of murder, preached at New Haven in America,” iv.
[11] Ibid., iv.
[12] Ibid., Edwards Preface, iv.
[13] Samson Occom and Nathaniel Whitaker, Extracts of Several Sermons, Preached Extempore at Different Places of Divine Worship, in the City of Bristol (Bristol, 1766), title page.