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Native American Missionaries (Atlantic History)

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  1. Introduction
  2. Native Americans have had an incredibly complicated relationship with Christianity. On the one hand, many were unequivocally opposed to Christian missionaries. After all, evangelists were cultural imperialists and religious idealists who attempted to alter or eradicate indigenous ways of life, traditions, religious leadership, and rituals. Of course, there is great truth to this assertion, as many indigenous peoples in the Americas fundamentally rejected Christianity because of its association with the colonial powers that oppressed them. In the United States today only a small percentage of Native Americans identify as Christian. And yet, many other Native peoples did adopt Christianity, in a range of ways and with a variety of outcomes. In places colonized by French and Iberian powers, indigenous peoples often adopted Christianity or developed syncretic, organic religions that fused indigenous and Christian rituals and beliefs. Indeed, the vast geographic and chronological scope of this article—covering different European imperial powers, distinct indigenous polities, and disparate Catholic and Protestant missionary strategies—makes it difficult to generalize about the success or failure of missionary work. Nevertheless, it is true that some indigenous peoples went even further than just converting to Christianity or affiliating with a particular congregation: many actually became missionaries themselves. Native American missionaries were more common than we might think. Although a select few, such as Samson Occom, William Apess, and George Copway, have gained fame throughout history, many other Native Americans served as evangelists to their own people or the people around them. Living as they did between the colonizers and the colonized, they often struggled with their dual identity as Indian and Christian. They also sought ways to protect and ensure a future for their own people. As such, the history of Native American missionaries is both fascinating and controversial, filled with problematic and politically charged questions. If an Indian became a Christian, were they still Indian? Why did they choose to become an evangelist? Was it for spiritual power, money, or access to imperial authorities? What were the problems and opportunities that came along with being a Native Christian? Perhaps most problematically, how do we even define a “missionary”? While the traditional definition means an ordained member of an ecclesiastical body, many more non-ordained schoolteachers, itinerant preachers, and religious figures engaged in evangelical work. This article focuses on English America and the United States but also includes sections on Canadian/First Nations Indians, Native missionaries in Spanish America, and non-white missionaries in Africa and across the globe. Also, although much of the literature focuses on this topic from a historical perspective, a good deal of it has also been produced by literary scholars. In fact, literary scholars were among the first to articulate the importance and power of the writings of Native American missionaries, and so their work is included here.
  3.  
  4. General Overviews
  5. Looking for material on Native American missionaries might not exactly be like looking for a needle in a haystack but rather like looking for many needles in many haystacks. A substantial amount of literature is available on the most famous ones (such as Samson Occom), but most works mention Native American missionaries as part of a larger study of religious interactions, colonialism, evangelicalism, or literary production. There are, however, a few exceptions to that, and the works in this section represent the most sustained and detailed attempts to look at Native American missionaries as important subjects in their own right. Charles 2010 examines the problematic relationship between indigenous Andean church agents and the religious and imperial powers who tried to work with them. Andrews 2013 offers the first comprehensive study of Native American missionaries in the British Atlantic, focusing on Indian missionaries from New England to New York and the Carolinas. Lewis 2003 zeroes in on a few dozen Presbyterian Indian ministers who worked among the Dakotas and Nez Perce during a period of American territorial expansion. Tolly Bradford (Bradford 2010, Bradford 2012) has been the most vocal proponent of taking more seriously the experiences of Native American evangelists among the First Nations peoples of Canada. However, he is also interested in the larger picture and offers interesting commentary on the connections and comparisons with other Native clergy in places such as British South Africa. Peyer 1997 provides an analysis of Indian missionary writers’ educations, aspirations, and agendas and thus extends a helpful link to the literary aspect of Native missionary work. Finally, Ronda and Axtell 1978 might be outdated, but it is still a very useful resource for anyone getting their feet wet in Native American missions. Given the publication date, it naturally neglects much of the excellent recent analyses by literary scholars, but it is still strong on ethnohistorical and anthropological materials.
  6.  
  7. Andrews, Edward E. Native Apostles: Black and Indian Missionaries in the British Atlantic World. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013.
  8.  
  9. DOI: 10.4159/harvard.9780674073470Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  10.  
  11. An essential starting point for an examination into Native American missionaries, as it is the first such book to look at this group in the British Atlantic, including colonial America. Also focuses on the experiences of African and African American evangelists to emphasize connectivity and comparisons among mission projects. Also see Early English America, Wheelock and Moor’s Charity School, and Comparative and Global Perspectives.
  12.  
  13. Find this resource:
  14.  
  15.  
  16. Bradford, Tolly. “World Visions: ‘Native Missionaries,’ Mission Networks and Critiques of Colonialism in Nineteenth-Century South Africa and Canada.” In Grappling with the Beast: Indigenous Southern African Responses to Colonialism, 1840–1930. Edited by Peter Limb, Norman Etherington, and Peter Midgley, 311–339. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2010.
  17.  
  18. DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004178779.i-378.42Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  19.  
  20. Prophetic Identities (Bradford 2012) offers a much fuller analysis of the problems associated with indigenous missionaries in the colonial context that Bradford explores, but this piece is still useful for unearthing the anti-colonial discourses produced by Native missionaries.
  21.  
  22. Find this resource:
  23.  
  24.  
  25. Bradford, Tolly. Prophetic Identities: Indigenous Missionaries on British Colonial Frontiers, 1850–1875. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2012.
  26.  
  27. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  28.  
  29. Investigates the lives, experiences, and worldviews of two indigenous missionaries in different places within the late-19th-century British Empire—Henry Budd in Canada and Tiyo Soga in South Africa—but places them in a comparative religious, imperial, and historical context. Also see New France and Canada.
  30.  
  31. Find this resource:
  32.  
  33.  
  34. Charles, John. Allies at Odds: The Andean Church and Its Indigenous Agents, 1583–1671. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2010.
  35.  
  36. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  37.  
  38. Focuses on the complicated experiences of indigenous peoples living in the Andes who provided linguistic, cultural, and legal services to facilitate exchanges between Spanish missionaries and Andean peoples. Also see Iberian Atlantic.
  39.  
  40. Find this resource:
  41.  
  42.  
  43. Lewis, Bonnie Sue. Creating Christian Indians: Native Clergy in the Presbyterian Church. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003.
  44.  
  45. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  46.  
  47. Looks at the rise of indigenous Indian leaders in the Presbyterian Church among the Nez Perce and Dakota Indians during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Emphasizes Christianity as a form of cultural revitalization for Native peoples. Also see Modern America.
  48.  
  49. Find this resource:
  50.  
  51.  
  52. Peyer, Bernd. The Tutor’d Mind: Indian-Missionary Writers in Antebellum America. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1997.
  53.  
  54. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  55.  
  56. Focuses mainly on four Indian authors—Samson Occom, William Apess, Elias Boudinot, and George Copway—and contends that these missionary writers were all vital to establishing an early tradition of Native literature and literacy. Despite the title, the timeframe goes back to the colonial era and forward toward the Civil War. Also see Modern America.
  57.  
  58. Find this resource:
  59.  
  60.  
  61. Ronda, James P., and James Axtell, eds. Indian Missions: A Critical Bibliography. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978.
  62.  
  63. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  64.  
  65. An outdated collection at this time but still useful as a starting point for research on Indian missions across the board, especially for scholars not familiar with the topic.
  66.  
  67. Find this resource:
  68.  
  69.  
  70. Iberian Atlantic
  71. Native American religious leaders were ubiquitous among the indigenous peoples living in the spaces claimed by the Iberian powers. If French and English missionary efforts produced uneven results, many evangelical efforts among indigenous peoples in Latin America produced some successes. Even today, Latin American countries are heavily Catholic, and people who claim indigenous heritage identify as Christians much more frequently there than in other places that experienced European colonial encounters. Further research continues to explore this important topic, but the texts in this section still offer a solid introduction to it. The best place to start is Charles 2010, which focuses exclusively on the contested operations of indigenous Andean agents who worked for, but often pushed back against, Spanish clerical authorities. Meanwhile, Ricard 1966 and Hackel 2005 discuss the ways in which Native peoples both rejected and accepted Christian evangelization, with an emphasis on the role of Native leaders. Boxer 1970 is an older work but still provides a solid analysis of the problems associated with using Native evangelists in the Portuguese and Spanish empires. Lavrín 2008 takes readers behind the walls and into Mexican convents, while Hyland 2003 unearths a fascinating biography of a mestizo Jesuit missionary. Wilde 2009 and Neumann 2009 both zero in on the Jesuit missions to the Guarani, with Wilde examining indigenous claims to spiritual power and Neumann focusing on literacy. Like Neumann, Rappaport and Cummins 2012 explores the language encounter and the ways in which literacy created opportunities for indigenous leaders to combat cultural colonialism.
  72.  
  73. Boxer, C. R. “The Problem of the Native Clergy in the Portuguese and Spanish Empires from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries.” In The Mission of the Church and Propagation of the Faith. Papers read at the Seventh Summer Meeting and the Eighth Winter Meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society. Edited by Geoffrey J. Cuming, 85–105. Studies in Church History 6. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1970.
  74.  
  75. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  76.  
  77. Wide-ranging essay by one of the most established scholars of Iberian imperial expansion. Looks at the ways in which Native clergy illuminated racial, ecclesiastical, and imperial challenges in Christian evangelization.
  78.  
  79. Find this resource:
  80.  
  81.  
  82. Charles, John. Allies at Odds: The Andean Church and Its Indigenous Agents, 1583–1671. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2010.
  83.  
  84. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  85.  
  86. Analyzes the complex and often conflicted role of indios ladinos, or the native Andeans who operated as go-betweens between indigenous societies and Spanish clerical authorities. Emphasizes the importance of literacy, the language encounter, and indigenous material cultures as well as legal and physical violence. Also see General Overviews.
  87.  
  88. Find this resource:
  89.  
  90.  
  91. Hackel, Steven W. Children of Coyote, Missionaries of Saint Francis: Indian-Spanish Relations in Colonial California, 1769–1850. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005.
  92.  
  93. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  94.  
  95. Although not focused on Native missionaries specifically, Children of Coyote spends a great deal of time examining how indigenous peoples both resisted and participated in missionary efforts in pre-statehood California.
  96.  
  97. Find this resource:
  98.  
  99.  
  100. Hyland, Sabine. The Jesuits and the Incas: The Extraordinary Life of Padre Blas Valera, S. J. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003.
  101.  
  102. DOI: 10.3998/mpub.17703Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  103.  
  104. Deeply researched and engagingly written account of Blas Valera, a mestizo Jesuit priest who was imprisoned and then exiled from his home in Peru for claiming, among other things, that Incan religion was on par with Catholic doctrine. Pays special attention to recently discovered and controversial documents that complicate the narrative of this mysterious figure.
  105.  
  106. Find this resource:
  107.  
  108.  
  109. Lavrín, Asunción. Brides of Christ: Conventual Life in Colonial Mexico. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008.
  110.  
  111. DOI: 10.11126/stanford/9780804752831.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  112.  
  113. Examines daily life in Catholic convents in colonial Mexico, with a special emphasis on discipline, religiosity, death, sexuality, organization, and gender. Includes an original and wonderfully detailed chapter on native nuns who entered the convent (pp. 244–274).
  114.  
  115. Find this resource:
  116.  
  117.  
  118. Neumann, Eduardo. “Letra de Índios: Cultura Escrita, Comunicação e Memória Indígena nas Reduções do Paraguai.” Varia Historia 25.41 Belo Horizonte (January–June 2009): 177–196.
  119.  
  120. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  121.  
  122. Contends that indigenous figures in the Portuguese missions to the Guarani in Paraguay were able to appropriate literacy as a way of indigenous communication and memory, thus allowing them to craft their own side of the history.
  123.  
  124. Find this resource:
  125.  
  126.  
  127. Rappaport, Joanne, and Thomas Bitting Foster Cummins. Beyond the Lettered City: Indigenous Literacies in the Andes. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2012.
  128.  
  129. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  130.  
  131. Wrestles with the implications of Spanish attempts to impose textual and visual literacy upon a group of Andean indigenous peoples who had never experienced such symbolic systems. Interdisciplinary in nature, it pays special attention to the ways that literate Andeans used texts and visuals to subvert and oppose colonial authority; discussions of indigenous encounters with Catholicism are interspersed.
  132.  
  133. Find this resource:
  134.  
  135.  
  136. Ricard, Robert. The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico: An Essay on the Apostolate and the Evangelizing Methods of the Mendicant Orders in New Spain, 1523–1572. Translated by Lesley Byrd Simpson. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966.
  137.  
  138. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  139.  
  140. Originally published in Spanish in 1933 and translated into English in 1966, this work offers a fascinating and vigorously written account of evangelization practices in Mexico, with a detailed chapter (pp. 217–238) on the opportunities and problems caused by the training of indigenous preachers.
  141.  
  142. Find this resource:
  143.  
  144.  
  145. Wilde, Guillermo. Religión y poder en las misiones de Guaraníes. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Editorial San Benito, 2009.
  146.  
  147. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  148.  
  149. Discusses the Jesuit missions to the Guarini over three centuries. Places a major emphasis on the vital role of native leadership of the mission and the competition over spiritual power between Jesuits and indigenous leaders.
  150.  
  151. Find this resource:
  152.  
  153.  
  154. New France and Canada
  155. French colonists were particularly active in missionary work, but the results were mixed. Recollect and especially Jesuit missionaries sought to convert indigenous peoples by traveling and living among them. Sometimes this resulted in the cultivation of indigenous Christian leaders and spiritualists, but it also often exacerbated existing tensions and fomented discord in an increasingly imperialistic context. Anderson 2007 and Greer 2005 offer a fascinating comparison of two Christian converts during the 1st century of France’s colonization of New France, with Anderson demonstrating the tragic contradictions of using Native missionaries and Greer tracing how a hagiographic tradition developed out of one famous convert’s life. The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents 1610 to 1791 provides a wide-ranging, text-searchable Internet resource for missionary encounters. White 2012 takes a turn southward, focusing on the transformations in the material experiences of indigenous converts and others in colonial Louisiana. Smith 2013 and Bradford 2012 are excellent biographical overviews of major Canadian missionaries, with Bradford’s work being particularly keen on connecting missionary work across comparative spaces in his analysis of African missionaries. Meanwhile, Pettipas 1974 is a transcription of one of the most famous Canadian missionary’s diaries.
  156.  
  157. Anderson, Emma. The Betrayal of Faith: The Tragic Journey of a Colonial Native Convert. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.
  158.  
  159. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  160.  
  161. Beautifully written and deeply researched book about the tragic fate of Pastedechouan, a Native American living along the shores of the St. Lawrence before he went to France for evangelical training. He later returned home as a would-be missionary but was eventually hated by both the French who recruited him and the Innu who thought he had betrayed them.
  162.  
  163. Find this resource:
  164.  
  165.  
  166. Bradford, Tolly. Prophetic Identities: Indigenous Missionaries on British Colonial Frontiers, 1850–1875. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2012.
  167.  
  168. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  169.  
  170. Employs a comparative approach to see how two indigenous evangelists—one from Canada and one from South Africa—experienced Christian evangelization, attempted to convert other Natives, and tried to carve out a place for themselves within the British Empire. Also see General Overviews.
  171.  
  172. Find this resource:
  173.  
  174.  
  175. Greer, Allan. Mohawk Saint: Catherine Tekakwitha and the Jesuits. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
  176.  
  177. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  178.  
  179. Mohawk Tekakwitha was no evangelist herself, but stories about her conversion, piety, and severe asceticism were inspirations for indigenous Christians, and Greer does an excellent job working through the evidence to place Tekakwitha in context and show how and why she became such an important religious icon through the years.
  180.  
  181. Find this resource:
  182.  
  183.  
  184. The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents 1610 to 1791. Omaha, NE: Creighton University.
  185.  
  186. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  187.  
  188. Hosted by Creighton University, this site provides a comprehensive collection of The Jesuit Relations, the periodic reports from Jesuit missionaries in New France. The site is a digitized, text-searchable transcription of an earlier collection by Reuben Gold Thwaites, and the introductory page includes resources for further research.
  189.  
  190. Find this resource:
  191.  
  192.  
  193. Pettipas, Katherine. The Diary of the Reverend Henry Budd, 1870–1875. Winnipeg: Manitoba Record Society, 1974.
  194.  
  195. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  196.  
  197. Henry Budd was the first First Nations person to be ordained in the Anglican Church, and Pettipas here offers a transcription of a diary during his missionary work in Manitoba.
  198.  
  199. Find this resource:
  200.  
  201.  
  202. Smith, Donald B. Mississauga Portraits: Ojibwe Voices from Nineteenth Century Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013.
  203.  
  204. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  205.  
  206. Smith includes a bulky section on the life of George Copway, a famous religious and literary figure, and the first First Nations person to publish a book in his lifetime. Also useful because it includes biographical sketches of other missionary Indians. Also see Modern America.
  207.  
  208. Find this resource:
  209.  
  210.  
  211. White, Sophie. Sophie White, Wild Frenchmen and Frenchified Indians: Material Culture and Race in French Louisiana. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012.
  212.  
  213. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  214.  
  215. Focuses on the material changes to indigenous life in French colonial Louisiana. Though not specifically about missionary encounters, includes vignettes and examples scattered throughout that demonstrate the material changes in the lives of indigenous schoolteachers, converts, and others.
  216.  
  217. Find this resource:
  218.  
  219.  
  220. Early English America
  221. Because the missions to New England’s Indians were the most widely publicized effort to Christianize the region’s indigenous inhabitants by the early English colonists, an overwhelming amount of material is available on them. Most of the scholarly works have focused on the beliefs, attitudes, and practices of John Eliot, the famous English colonist who started the New England praying towns. However, Seeman 2001, Silverman 2005, and Andrews 2013 take different angles, emphasizing the importance of indigenous beliefs and religious figures in the shaping of these encounters. The Eliot missions produced thousands of pages of primary and scholarly texts, so any list cannot be exhaustive. However, scholars interested in this topic would benefit from going right to the sources listed in this section, which offer modern transcriptions and historical introductions to place the works in context. Clark 2003 is the best starting point, because it is the first modern collection of the most important texts produced by Eliot’s mission. However, Bowden and Ronda 1980, Goddard and Bragdon 1988, and Leibman 2008 are all essential reading for immediately afterward. Weis 1959 is simply helpful for offering factual, contextual information about the makeup of the praying towns. Although Gookin 2003 lacks a modern introduction, it is still useful because it discusses what happened to Indian evangelists and their converts during King Philip’s War. Interested readers might also look at the Oxford Bibliographies entry “Native American Religion.”
  222.  
  223. Andrews, Edward E. Native Apostles: Black and Indian Missionaries in the British Atlantic World. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013.
  224.  
  225. DOI: 10.4159/harvard.9780674073470Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  226.  
  227. Although the entire book is framed more broadly around the British Atlantic in the 17th and 18th centuries, Andrews spends the first chapter and a half dislodging John Eliot from his perch as the sole architect of these missions and emphasizing the importance (and problems associated with) Native American missionaries. Also see General Overviews, Wheelock and Moor’s Charity School, and Comparative and Global Perspectives.
  228.  
  229. Find this resource:
  230.  
  231.  
  232. Bowden, Henry, and James P. Ronda, eds. John Eliot’s Indian Dialogues: A Study in Cultural Interaction. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1980.
  233.  
  234. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  235.  
  236. Very important but underappreciated work. Indian Dialogues are a series of three fictitious dialogues by Native ministers to skeptical Indian audiences (including famous Wampanoag king Philip). Bowden and Ronda’s edition stresses the cultural significance of the text, using it as a lens to understand the opportunities and limits of cross-cultural communication.
  237.  
  238. Find this resource:
  239.  
  240.  
  241. Clark, Michael P., ed. The Eliot Tracts: With Letters from John Eliot to Thomas Thorowgood and Richard Baxter. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003.
  242.  
  243. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  244.  
  245. An essential text for anyone interested in 17th-century missionary work in New England; this is the first modern collection of missionary tracts—about a dozen of them in total—that deals with John Eliot’s famous mission to Indians in New England. Offers both historiographical and historical overviews of the missions.
  246.  
  247. Find this resource:
  248.  
  249.  
  250. Goddard, Ives, and Kathleen J. Bragdon, eds. Native Writings in Massachusett. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988.
  251.  
  252. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  253.  
  254. A wide-ranging collection of indigenous writings by two established anthropologists. Most of the writings deal with land sales and political issues, but because many Native missionaries were fluent in several languages, they are also represented here.
  255.  
  256. Find this resource:
  257.  
  258.  
  259. Gookin, Daniel. An Historical Account of the Doings and Sufferings of the Christian Indians in New England, in the Years 1675, 1676, 1677. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger, 2003.
  260.  
  261. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  262.  
  263. Gookin’s work was an attempt to vindicate and defend the Christian Indians who were caught between Indians and English during King Philip’s War. This is simply a typescript of an older 19th-century version, and this text is in great need of a more modern edition with an editorial introduction.
  264.  
  265. Find this resource:
  266.  
  267.  
  268. Leibman, Laura Arnold, ed. Experience Mayhew’s Indian Converts: A Cultural Edition. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2008.
  269.  
  270. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  271.  
  272. Experience Mayhew collected deathbed narratives from both male and female Indian converts, many of whom were evangelists, in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Here Leibman provides the first modern edition of them as well as a solid introduction of the historical context in which the work was first published.
  273.  
  274. Find this resource:
  275.  
  276.  
  277. Seeman, Erik. “Reading Indians’ Deathbed Scenes: Ethnohistorical and Representational Approaches.” Journal of American History 88.1 (June 2001): 17–47.
  278.  
  279. DOI: 10.2307/2674917Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  280.  
  281. A fascinating, methodologically based look at how to read Indian deathbed accounts. Compares French and English colonial accounts from Indian converts and offers a way to systematically decipher which elements were orthodox and which were truly authentic Indian voices.
  282.  
  283. Find this resource:
  284.  
  285.  
  286. Silverman, David J. Faith and Boundaries: Colonists, Christianity, and Community among the Wampanoag Indians of Martha’s Vineyard, 1600–1871. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
  287.  
  288. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511806537Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  289.  
  290. Widely acclaimed book on the intercultural experiences of Martha’s Vineyard Indians from the beginning of English colonization to the middle of the 19th century. Much of it deals with land, property, and politics, but there is a good amount about the Vineyard’s religious development here, too, including the role of Native Christian leaders.
  291.  
  292. Find this resource:
  293.  
  294.  
  295. Weis, Frederick L. “The New England Company of 1649 and Its Missionary Enterprises.” Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts 37 (1959): 134–218.
  296.  
  297. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  298.  
  299. What this work lacks in interpretive force it makes up for with demographic and factual details on the New England praying towns. Includes a list of Native ministers operating in each praying town during the early colonial period.
  300.  
  301. Find this resource:
  302.  
  303.  
  304. 18th-Century America
  305. The 18th century witnessed fresh attempts by missionaries to employ Native peoples as evangelists. In some cases, Indians became active participants in educational ventures, as seen in Hart 2000. Other research, such as Klingberg 1962, demonstrates how they were caught up in diplomatic affairs and in other cases, such as Simmons and Simmons 1982, we see how Native preachers broke off from established churches and began new ones, which was not without controversy. Fisher 2014 is an excellent source for indigenous Christianity in New England and even more broadly, while Wheeler 2008 looks at how Moravian Christianity appealed to Indian converts. Taylor 2006 is a beautifully written book about the dynamics of intercultural, political, economic, and military exchanges in 18th-century New York, while Pilkington 1980 provides excellent primary source material through which to explore these issues from the lens of one white missionary who was deeply immersed in Native culture.
  306.  
  307. Fisher, Linford D. The Indian Great Awakening: Religion and the Shaping of Native Cultures in Early America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
  308.  
  309. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  310.  
  311. Thoroughly researched and richly detailed examination of Native encounters with Christianity in southern New England. Talks a good deal about the complicated role of Native Christian figures, such as the controversial Narragansett preacher, Samuel Niles. Emphasizes that “affiliation” with a church is a better conceptual model for understanding religious change than “conversion.”
  312.  
  313. Find this resource:
  314.  
  315.  
  316. Hart, William B. “Mohawk Schoolmasters and Catechists in Mid-Eighteenth Century Iroquoia: An Experiment in Fostering Literacy and Religious Exchange.” In The Language Encounter in the Americas, 1492–1800. Edited by Edward G. Gray and Norman Fiering, 203–257. New York: Berghahn, 2000.
  317.  
  318. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  319.  
  320. A solid factual account of how Mohawk Indians contributed to Anglican educational ventures in colonial New York by serving in mission schools.
  321.  
  322. Find this resource:
  323.  
  324.  
  325. Klingberg, Frank J. “The Mystery of the Lost Yamasee Prince.” South Carolina Historical Magazine 63.1 (1962): 18–32.
  326.  
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  328.  
  329. An older but still important summary and one of the rare works detailing the life and experiences of the Yamasee Prince, an Indian sent to England for diplomatic purposes and evangelical training. He eventually disappeared as the Yamasee War with the English broke out.
  330.  
  331. Find this resource:
  332.  
  333.  
  334. Pilkington, Walter, ed. The Journals of Samuel Kirkland: 18th-Century Missionary to the Iroquois, Government Agent, Father of Hamilton College. Clinton, NY: Hamilton College, 1980.
  335.  
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  337.  
  338. Very comprehensive collection of Presbyterian missionary Samuel Kirkland’s 18th-century journals. A great resource for learning about the mechanics of 18th-century Indian missionary work in New York.
  339.  
  340. Find this resource:
  341.  
  342.  
  343. Simmons, William S., and Cheryl L. Simmons, eds. Old Light on Separate Ways: The Narragansett Diary of Joseph Fish, 1765–1776. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1982.
  344.  
  345. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  346.  
  347. Although this is a diary focused on a white minister named Joseph Fish, much of the material deals with his complicated relationship with Samuel Niles, a controversial but wildly popular Narragansett preacher.
  348.  
  349. Find this resource:
  350.  
  351.  
  352. Taylor, Alan. The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution. New York: Knopf, 2006.
  353.  
  354. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  355.  
  356. Not dedicated to Native American missionaries per se but spends a lot of time discussing Wheelock-educated Joseph Brant, Oneida minister Good Peter, white Presbyterian Samuel Kirkland, and other major figures during an age of civil and international war in New York. Beautifully written and offers excellent context for 18th-century missions.
  357.  
  358. Find this resource:
  359.  
  360.  
  361. Wheeler, Rachel. To Live Upon Hope: Mohicans and Missionaries in the Eighteenth-Century Northeast. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008.
  362.  
  363. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  364.  
  365. Superbly researched book that looks at Moravian communities from New England to the Ohio River valley, spending a good amount of time on how and why Indians accepted Moravians into their midst and even adopted some of their unique religious ideas and rituals.
  366.  
  367. Find this resource:
  368.  
  369.  
  370. Wheelock and Moor’s Charity School
  371. The most ambitious effort to integrate Native American missionaries into Christian evangelism during the 18th century was begun by Eleazar Wheelock. A Yale graduate and Connecticut clergyman who had success transforming Mohegan Samson Occom into a famous preacher in the 1750s, Wheelock began a school in Connecticut called Moor’s Charity School. The school would bring in dozens of Indian students from New England, New York, and the Mid-Atlantic, all in the hope of turning these pupils into proselytizers. The effort ultimately failed, however, and many of the texts listed in this section outline both the ambitions and the shortcomings of Wheelock’s plan. McCallum 1932 and McCallum 1969 provide a good, if outdated, starting point, while Axtell 1985 offers an excellent ethnohistorical analysis that places Wheelock in a larger context. Szasz 1988 does the same in terms of education, while Murray 1998 and Dartmouth College Library 1971 offer excellent access to and navigation of relevant primary sources regarding some of Wheelock’s most important pupils. Finally, Andrews 2013 and Szasz 1988 both include chapters that detail the experiences of Indian missionaries and schoolmasters among the Iroquois.
  372.  
  373. Andrews, Edward E. Native Apostles: Black and Indian Missionaries in the British Atlantic World. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013.
  374.  
  375. DOI: 10.4159/harvard.9780674073470Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  376.  
  377. The volume has a chapter dedicated to the Indian missionaries who studied at Moor’s Charity School and then worked as missionaries among the Iroquois (pp. 151–186). Also see General Overviews, Early English America, and Comparative and Global Perspectives.
  378.  
  379. Find this resource:
  380.  
  381.  
  382. Axtell, James. The Invasion Within: The Contest of Cultures in Colonial North America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
  383.  
  384. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  385.  
  386. Axtell’s superbly written and deeply researched ethnohistory examines cultural encounters among French, English, and indigenous participants, but it spends a great deal of time discussing how Eleazar Wheelock’s school in its aspirations and in its failures represented these encounters.
  387.  
  388. Find this resource:
  389.  
  390.  
  391. Dartmouth College Library. A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of the Papers of Eleazar Wheelock: Together with the Early Archives of Dartmouth College & Moor’s Indian Charity School, and the Records of the Town of Hanover, New Hampshire Through the Year 1779. Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College Library, 1971.
  392.  
  393. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  394.  
  395. Excellent finding aid for anyone interested in researching the activities of Eleazar Wheelock, including his vision of an Indian school and college.
  396.  
  397. Find this resource:
  398.  
  399.  
  400. McCallum, James Dow, ed. The Letters of Eleazar Wheelock’s Indians. Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College, 1932.
  401.  
  402. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  403.  
  404. Slightly outmoded but still incredibly useful collection of letters from the male and female students who attended Eleazar Wheelock’s Charity school in 18th-century Connecticut. Many continued on as missionaries.
  405.  
  406. Find this resource:
  407.  
  408.  
  409. McCallum, James Dow. Eleazar Wheelock. New York: Arno, 1969.
  410.  
  411. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  412.  
  413. A traditional, if a bit outdated, biography of the main architect behind Moor’s Charity School.
  414.  
  415. Find this resource:
  416.  
  417.  
  418. Murray, Laura J., ed. To Do Good to My Indian Brethren: The Writings of Joseph Johnson, 1751–1776. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1998.
  419.  
  420. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  421.  
  422. Much-welcomed collection of sources surrounding the controversial Mohegan Joseph Johnson’s life, travels, and conflicts. Johnson was Samson Occom’s son-in-law who had been educated at Wheelock’s school and served as a missionary to Indians.
  423.  
  424. Find this resource:
  425.  
  426.  
  427. Szasz, Margaret. Indian Education in the American Colonies, 1607–1783. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1988.
  428.  
  429. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  430.  
  431. Looks at Indian education in early America in general but includes a fascinating chapter on female students at Moor’s Charity School (pp. 218–232) and one on Indian teachers among the Iroquois (pp. 233–257).
  432.  
  433. Find this resource:
  434.  
  435.  
  436. Samson Occom
  437. Samson Occom might be the most famous of all Native American missionaries. A Mohegan Indian living in Connecticut during the last half of the 18th century, he was a preacher, educator, community-builder, and transatlantic fundraiser. Dartmouth College was initially built by the monies he raised during a speaking tour throughout the British Isles, and Brothertown, New York, was a post-Revolutionary community forged in part through his efforts and leadership. Occom is such a pivotal figure—with such rich textual production—that he deserves his own section in this article. Brooks 2003 and Brooks 2006 do an excellent job placing Occom in context and recovering much of his lost work. Love 1899 is an older but still detail-rich biography, while Silverman 2010 and Lopenzina 2006 provide detailed accounts of Occom’s post-Revolutionary activities and attempts to found a Christian community in New York. Chamberlain 2004 offers an excellent account of Occom’s most famous and iconic sermon.
  438.  
  439. Brooks, Joanna. American Lazarus: Religion and the Rise of African-American and Native American Literatures. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
  440.  
  441. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  442.  
  443. Contends that the foundations of Indian literary traditions were rooted in an 18th-century revivalist evangelicalism that was appropriated by Indians such as the famous Samson Occom as well as people of African descent, like John Marrant and Prince Hall. Includes several hymns by Occom as appendixes. Also see Literary Analyses.
  444.  
  445. Find this resource:
  446.  
  447.  
  448. Brooks, Joanna, ed. The Collected Writings of Samson Occom, Mohegan: Leadership and Literature in Eighteenth-Century Native America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
  449.  
  450. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  451.  
  452. The starting point for Occom. Comprehensive collection of Samson Occom’s writings, including his letters, excerpts from his diary, and other samples. Includes a detailed introduction, excellent context, and a useful index.
  453.  
  454. Find this resource:
  455.  
  456.  
  457. Chamberlain, Ava. “The Execution of Moses Paul: A Story of Crime and Contact in Eighteenth-Century Connecticut.” New England Quarterly 77.3 (2004): 414–450.
  458.  
  459. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  460.  
  461. The best and most thorough analysis of Occom’s famous sermon on the execution of Moses Paul, an Indian who had been accused and convicted of killing a white colonist.
  462.  
  463. Find this resource:
  464.  
  465.  
  466. Lopenzina, Drew. “‘The Whole Wilderness Shall Blossom as the Rose’: Samson Occom, Joseph Johnson, and the Question of Native Settlement on Cooper’s Frontier.” American Quarterly 58.4 (December 2006): 1119–1145.
  467.  
  468. DOI: 10.1353/aq.2007.0012Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  469.  
  470. Fascinating and originally conceived article that shows the comparisons and entanglements with two post-Revolutionary frontier communities: Cooperstown, New York, and Brotherton, New York. Emphasizes Occom as a major post-Revolutionary community-builder and leader.
  471.  
  472. Find this resource:
  473.  
  474.  
  475. Love, William DeLoss. Samson Occom and the Christian Indians of New England. Boston: Pilgrim, 1899.
  476.  
  477. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  478.  
  479. Detailed, well-structured factual and narrative account of Occom’s life and activities. Laden with some contemporary late-19th-century assumptions about Indian barbarism but still useful to mine the chronological details of Occom’s life.
  480.  
  481. Find this resource:
  482.  
  483.  
  484. Richardson, Leon Burr, ed. An Indian Preacher in England: Being Letters and Diaries Relating to the Mission of the Reverend Samson Occom and the Reverend Nathaniel Whitaker to Collect Funds in England for the Benefit of Eleazar Wheelock’s Indian Charity School, from Which Grew Dartmouth College. Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College, 1933.
  485.  
  486. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  487.  
  488. An outdated but still useful collection, even if Brooks’s collection (Brooks 2006) trumps it. As the title suggests, Richardson’s central interest is compiling primary texts surrounding Occom’s efforts to raise funds for Wheelock’s college in New Hampshire, so accordingly most of the material is from the late 1760s and 1770s.
  489.  
  490. Find this resource:
  491.  
  492.  
  493. Silverman, David J. Red Brethren: The Brothertown and Stockbridge Indians and the Problem of Race in Early America. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010.
  494.  
  495. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  496.  
  497. Deeply researched examination of how Native Americans, led by some New England Algonquians such as Occom, attempted to create new communities during and after the American Revolution. Main contribution is to illuminate how Indians thought about race.
  498.  
  499. Find this resource:
  500.  
  501.  
  502. Modern America
  503. The majority of scholarly works and edited primary sources on Native American missionaries tend to focus on the periods of early contact, before 1800. However, a handful of excellent studies of Native American missionaries are available on the later, post-1800 period. Lewis 2003 and Demos 2014 are undoubtedly the first two stopping points, as Lewis provides an excellent and detailed historical account of Indian clergy among the Nez Perce and Dakota Indians, while Demos focuses on one school’s attempt to transform “heathen” into missionaries. O’Connell 1997 and Gura 2015 both offer excellent resources on William Apess, a famous Pequot minister from the early 19th century. O’Connell provides a collection of Apess’s writings while Gura’s work is an eminently readable and concise biography. Peyer 1997 takes a look at missionary authors and their relationship with colonial enterprises. Smith 2013 focuses mainly on Canadian Native preachers but spends much time on George Copway, who spent a good deal of time dealing with Americans.
  504.  
  505. Demos, John. The Heathen School: A Story of Hope and Betrayal in the Age of the Early Republic. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014.
  506.  
  507. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  508.  
  509. A vivid and energetically written account of a forgotten school tucked away in a corner in early-19th-century Connecticut. Demos recounts not only the vision and character of the school, but also the contemporary fame it generated and the widely dispersed peoples it intended to churn out as missionaries.
  510.  
  511. Find this resource:
  512.  
  513.  
  514. Gura, Philip F. The Life of William Apess, Pequot. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015.
  515.  
  516. DOI: 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469619989.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  517.  
  518. An excellent study of a major figure, drawing from Apess’s writings as well as other contemporary sources to place Apess in his historical and literary context. A short, accessible, and clearly written biography.
  519.  
  520. Find this resource:
  521.  
  522.  
  523. Lewis, Bonnie Sue. Creating Christian Indians: Native Clergy in the Presbyterian Church. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003.
  524.  
  525. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  526.  
  527. Most important book on Native American missionaries in 19th-century America and beyond. Examines how the Presbyterian Church cultivated a core of Native preachers among the Nez Perce and Dakota Indians and also how those ministers tried to forge an indigenous Christianity on their own terms. Also see General Overviews.
  528.  
  529. Find this resource:
  530.  
  531.  
  532. O’Connell, Barry, ed. A Son of the Forest and Other Writings. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1997.
  533.  
  534. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  535.  
  536. Excellent and most accessible modern edition of Apess’s classic autobiography. O’Connell explains that Apess was not just a Pequot minister in the early 19th century, but he was also a powerful cultural and political critic and a voice against the ethos of white colonialism. Includes other important writings from Apess.
  537.  
  538. Find this resource:
  539.  
  540.  
  541. Peyer, Bernd. The Tutor’d Mind: Indian-Missionary Writers in Antebellum America. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1997.
  542.  
  543. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  544.  
  545. Emphasizes how education offered Indians trained at missionary and other Western-style schools an opportunity to combat colonialism through the power of the pen. Latter half of the book focuses on the 19th century. Also see General Overviews.
  546.  
  547. Find this resource:
  548.  
  549.  
  550. Smith, Donald B. Mississauga Portraits: Ojbibwe Voices from Nineteenth-Century Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013.
  551.  
  552. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  553.  
  554. This work is mostly about Indians in Canada, but George Copway, an Ojibwe Indian and Christian preacher who Smith discusses at length, was a major figure in 19th-century American-Indian relations as well. Also see New France and Canada.
  555.  
  556. Find this resource:
  557.  
  558.  
  559. Literary Analyses
  560. Historians have examined Native American missionaries for obviously historical reasons: what they tell us about the period in question, the religious transformations that Native American societies experienced, how these experiences have shaped Native America today, and so on. However, literary scholars have also produced an incredibly rich body of work dealing with the writings and identities of Native American missionaries. Just as literary scholars should take a good look at the historical context in which their subjects existed, historians who ignore the excellent analyses by literary scholars do so at their peril. Taken together, these works form some of the most insightful, creative, and sophisticated analyses of Native American missionaries and the world they lived in. Wyss 2000 and Brooks 2003 emphasize the power of literacy and writing. While both cover a lot of interpretive ground, Wyss focuses on how Native literacy was used to identify and protect indigenous communities while Brooks is more interested in how it shaped an indigenous literary tradition. Bross 2004 and Stevens 2004 are both critical works that are not necessarily focused on Native American missionaries per se but rather provide excellent examinations of mission literature and how that shaped transatlantic perceptions and policies. Bross and Wyss 2008 offers an excellent collection of primary sources with insightful analyses of them from top scholars. Gustafson 2000 and Bellin 2007 use texts to focus on the non-textual: oral culture and dramaturgical performance. Finally, Round 2010 explores the history of the book among Native Americans, focusing a good deal on missionary literature and how it shaped evangelical efforts among Indians.
  561.  
  562. Bellin, Joshua David. “John Eliot’s Playing Indian.” Early American Literature 42.1 (January 2007): 1–31.
  563.  
  564. DOI: 10.1353/eal.2007.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  565.  
  566. Fascinating article that looks at the traditional confessional narratives of the praying Indians in a new light, with a performative angle. Bellin’s clearly argued essay examines the ways in which performance mediated and informed these intercultural encounters.
  567.  
  568. Find this resource:
  569.  
  570.  
  571. Brooks, Joanna. American Lazarus: Religion and the Rise of African-American and Native American Literatures. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
  572.  
  573. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  574.  
  575. Focuses on African American and Native American literary traditions, particularly their Christian evangelical characteristics. Contends that the origins of black and Indian literary traditions started with major published figures such as Samson Occom, John Marrant, and others. Also see Samson Occom.
  576.  
  577. Find this resource:
  578.  
  579.  
  580. Bross, Kristina. Dry Bones and Indian Sermons: Praying Indians and Colonial American Identity. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004.
  581.  
  582. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  583.  
  584. More of a literary analysis of the figure of the praying Indian than a history (although it does contain good historical background), Dry Bones shows how representations of Native converts helped to shape imperial and colonial identities during England’s tumultuous 17th century. Should be read alongside Laura Stevens’s The Poor Indians (Stevens 2004).
  585.  
  586. Find this resource:
  587.  
  588.  
  589. Bross, Kristina, and Hilary E. Wyss, eds. Early Native Literacies in New England: A Documentary and Critical Anthology. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2008.
  590.  
  591. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  592.  
  593. Brilliantly conceived collection of primary texts by Native peoples coupled with analytical essays by leading scholars in the field. Contains sermons and diaries from some Native American missionaries.
  594.  
  595. Find this resource:
  596.  
  597.  
  598. Gustafson, Sandra M. Eloquence Is Power: Oratory & Performance in Early America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000.
  599.  
  600. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  601.  
  602. Examines the power of oratory and speech from the colonial to the post-Revolutionary eras. Readers will be most interested in chapter 2, in which Gustafson looks at the transformation of the “savage” speaker and how oratory gave blacks and Indians a chance to combat racist assumptions about their barbarity.
  603.  
  604. Find this resource:
  605.  
  606.  
  607. Round, Phillip H. Removable Type: Histories of the Book in Indian Country. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
  608.  
  609. DOI: 10.5149/9780807899472_roundSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  610.  
  611. Not necessarily a book about Native American missionaries but rather a wide-ranging (both geographically and chronologically) work about the texts that white missionaries brought into Indian country, translations and failed translations into indigenous languages, and how Native peoples attempted to harness these texts for spiritual and political battles.
  612.  
  613. Find this resource:
  614.  
  615.  
  616. Stevens, Laura M. The Poor Indians: British Missionaries, Native Americans, and Colonial Sensibility. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.
  617.  
  618. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  619.  
  620. Not necessarily about Native American missionaries but an important book on missionaries nonetheless. Discusses how missionary work among “poor” Native Americans operated as a lens through which transatlantic figures could articulate and justify British imperial designs. Should be read alongside Kristina Bross’s Dry Bones and Indian Sermons (Bross 2004).
  621.  
  622. Find this resource:
  623.  
  624.  
  625. Wyss, Hilary E. Writing Indians: Literacy, Christianity, and Native Community in Early America. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2000.
  626.  
  627. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  628.  
  629. Contends that literacy was not necessarily an agent of cultural imperialism but rather a potentially empowering skill that educated Native peoples, including ministers, could deploy to resist colonialism, racism, and dispossession to try to sustain their indigenous communities.
  630.  
  631. Find this resource:
  632.  
  633.  
  634. Comparative and Global Perspectives
  635. Native American missionaries were not the only “indigenous” Christian evangelists. In fact, thousands of non-white Christian missionaries can be located from Africa to Asia to Australia, and even within black America. Many Native missionaries in other places had similar experiences and faced the same challenges as Native American ones: creating an identity that was both Christian and indigenous, fostering relationships with imperial and colonial figures while still trying to preserve their people, and shaping Christianity to meet their own communities’ needs. And yet, there were also important contextual and experiential differences, and research into the sources in this section will certainly make those comparisons and connections clear. Andrews 2013 once again provides a good starting point for early America, as the author discusses black and Indian missionaries together, and Frey and Wood 1998 offers a nice companion piece that picks up chronologically where Andrews leaves off. Brock, et al. 2015 offers a series of smaller biographies of indigenous missionaries across the globe, which provides an excellent comparative context. Sensbach 2005 provides an engaging account of a female Afro-Moravian evangelist in the 18th century, while Carretta and Reese 2010 offer a fantastic introduction to and transcription of one African missionary’s copious letters. Thornton 1998 provides a fascinating study of one Kongolese Catholic woman’s religious movement, while Brock 2005 offers a brief but comparative view of indigenous evangelists across the globe. Terence Ranger (Ranger 2003) and Lamin Sanneh (Sanneh 2008) have been two of the most vocal scholars in discussing how indigenous cultures reject, accept, or appropriate Christianity. These two works are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of their total scholarly output.
  636.  
  637. Andrews, Edward E. Native Apostles: Black and Indian Missionaries in the British Atlantic World. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013.
  638.  
  639. DOI: 10.4159/harvard.9780674073470Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  640.  
  641. Half of this work discusses Native American missionaries, and the other half is focused on missionary projects engaged in by African and African American individuals. Also see General Overviews, Early English America, and Wheelock and Moor’s Charity School.
  642.  
  643. Find this resource:
  644.  
  645.  
  646. Brock, Peggy. “New Christians as Evangelists.” In Missions and Empire. Edited by Norman Etherington, 132–152. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
  647.  
  648. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  649.  
  650. A short but wide-ranging analysis of how “new Christians” operated as evangelists in the midst of empires. Brock’s subjects range from South Africa to British Columbia, the Cook Islands, and Australia. Interested scholars should research her other publications as well.
  651.  
  652. Find this resource:
  653.  
  654.  
  655. Brock, Peggy, Norman Etherington, Gareth Griffiths, and Jacqueline van Gent, eds. Indigenous Evangelists and Questions of Authority in the British Empire, 1750–1940. Boston: Brill, 2015.
  656.  
  657. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  658.  
  659. A wide-ranging, global approach to native missionaries in a range of historical contexts. Focuses on issues of power and authority, includes a valuable historiographical survey of the field, and is framed mainly as mini-biographies of significant figures.
  660.  
  661. Find this resource:
  662.  
  663.  
  664. Carretta, Vincent, and Ty M. Reese, eds. The Life and Letters of Philip Quaque, the First African Anglican Missionary. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2010.
  665.  
  666. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  667.  
  668. Philip Quaque was an 18th-century African living on the Gold Coast when he was sent to England for a religious education and then sent back as an Anglican missionary. Carretta and Reese do an excellent job of introducing and transcribing the dozens of letters he sent to religious and political figures across the Atlantic.
  669.  
  670. Find this resource:
  671.  
  672.  
  673. Frey, Sylvia R., and Betty Wood. Come Shouting to Zion: African American Protestantism in the American South and British Caribbean to 1830. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998.
  674.  
  675. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  676.  
  677. An excellent synthesis that highlights the evolution of southern and Caribbean black Christianity and the African American spiritual leaders who forged it from the colonial period to the age of international emancipation. Essential starting point for anyone interested in black religion.
  678.  
  679. Find this resource:
  680.  
  681.  
  682. Ranger, Terence. “Christianity and Indigenous Peoples: A Personal Overview.” Journal of Religious History 27.3 (October 2003): 255–271.
  683.  
  684. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9809.2003.00195.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  685.  
  686. Ranger, a renowned expert on Zimbabwe, here offers a comparative discussion of the impact of Christian evangelization on Native peoples across the globe. He has long made the argument that Christian conversion was not just a top–down (meaning from the European missionaries) but also a bottom–up (meaning from the indigenous side) process.
  687.  
  688. Find this resource:
  689.  
  690.  
  691. Sanneh, Lamin O. Disciples of All Nations: Pillars of World Christianity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
  692.  
  693. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195189605.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  694.  
  695. Traces how Christianity has evolved beyond the West. Sanneh’s list of publications might require its own Oxford Bibliographies entry, so interested scholars should look at his other writings for more on topics of Christian expansion, religious translation, and intercultural encounters.
  696.  
  697. Find this resource:
  698.  
  699.  
  700. Sensbach, Jon F. Rebecca’s Revival: Creating Black Christianity in the Atlantic World. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.
  701.  
  702. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  703.  
  704. Beautifully written account of a female Afro-Moravian religious leader named Rebecca Protten, which details her travels and travails as an evangelical woman throughout the Atlantic world.
  705.  
  706. Find this resource:
  707.  
  708.  
  709. Thornton, John K. The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Atonian Movement, 1684–1706. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
  710.  
  711. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511572791Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  712.  
  713. Thornton has long been known as a scholar who emphasized how Catholicism shaped Kongolese life during the height of the slave trade. Here he offers his most sustained analysis of the topic by focusing on the rise and eventual execution of a woman who claimed to be a new Saint Anthony.
  714.  
  715. Find this resource:
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