READING SAMSON OCCOM AND JOHN MARRANT

As you read Samson Occom's A Short Narrative of My Life (composed 1768, published in print 1982) and John Marrant's A Narrative of the Lord's Wonderful Dealings with John Marrant, a Black (1785), be attentive both to continuities and to differences. First, both of these texts are spiritual autobiographies, describing the writers' spiritual experiences along with their material lives. As you read, consider how these texts are both similar to and different from the other autobiographies we've read, and how they're similar to and different from each other. How do the themes and issues we've seen in other autobiographies figure in these texts. Issues you may want to consider include education, literacy, family, travel and migration, and religious conversion.

Both of these texts also fit into our discussion of the religious revivals known as the “Great Awakening.” How do revivals, evangelical preaching, and itinerant preaching function in these texts? How do these texts relate to what you've seen in Edwards's and Chauncy's accounts of the revival, and where do they differ?

As you consider these questions, you'll want to be particularly attentive to Occom's and Marrant's representations of the interactions of race and religion. For example, Occom initially describes the Great Awakening as “a Strange Concern among the White People,” and later emphasizes that there was a revival among the members of his spiritual community after the departure of Mr. Horton. He also contrasts the meager financial support he received for his missionary work with that received by white missionaries. Marrant relates his own religious experience as a captive and then as a friend of the Cherokees, and also describes slave owners' interference with their slaves' practice of Christianity. How do Occom's and Marrant's representations of race enrich and complicate your understanding of evangelical religion in America? You might also compare Marrant's description of his relationship with the Cherokee nation to Mary Rowlandson's captivity narrative. In what way does his response to Cherokee culture differ from Rowlandson's response to her captors?

Pay attention, as well, to the authors' use of biblical language and figures. Which biblical texts and characters run through these narratives? What other kinds of stories are incorporated into these texts? For example, how does Occom use the story of the “Poor Indian Boy” near the end of his narrative?

You'll also want to consider the printing history of these texts. Occom's narrative was not printed until the late twentieth century, while Marrant's narrative went through at least fifteen editions, “many of which,” explains Joanna Brooks, “were abridged or manipulated by white editors.”¹ We'll be working with the fourth edition, which scholars view as most complete, and which some scholars view as less mediated by editors.²

For more biographical background on Occom, see the Norton Anthology's introduction to their selection from Occom's narrative (440-1). But please read the full text of Occom's narrative. (If you have ideas about why the Norton Anthology editors chose to excerpt the text as they did, feel free to share them.) Joanna Brooks's excellent collection of Occom's writings also includes extensive biographical information on Occom, and is available through CLIO both in print and as an ebook.³ For biography of Marrant, see Evan Haefeli's essay on Marrant in The Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass (online). Brooks's American Lazarus: Religion and the Rise of African-American and Native American Literatures (also available both in print and online versions) offers a rich discussion of Marrant's biography and texts.