A speech by Brothertown Indian leader Samsom Occom, 1771

A Sermon at the Execution of Moses Paul... to which is added a short account of the late spread of the Gospel among the Indians, 1789

The author of this pamphlet was elder Samson Occom (1723-1792), a leader of the Brothertown (sometimes found as Brotherton) Indians who united in 1769 when seven Christian, English-speaking Indian communities moved to land made available by the Oneidas in upstate New York. Occom learned English and became a Christian minister prior to the American Revolution. In 1771 Moses Paul, another Christian Indian, was accused of committing a murder in Bethany, Connecticut, while under the influence of alcohol (modern historians have concluded that he acted in self-defense). Knowing he would be hung for the crime, Paul asked Occom to preach at his execution.

Occom's powerful sermon in support of temperance became a classic missionary argument against drunkenness. The edition presented here was published while Occom was raising funds in 1789 and includes a short summary of his career and of missionary work among American Indians at the time. The other work mentioned on its title page, Jonathan Edwards' Observations on the Language of the Muhhekaneew Indians, is given elsewhere in Turning Points in Wisconsin History.

The Brothertown (sometimes found as Brotherton) Indians are descendants of the Pequot and Mohegan tribes of southern New England. They united in 1769 when seven Christian, English-speaking Indian communities moved to land made available by the Oneidas in upstate New York. Forty years later, as white settlers pushed west, they were dispossessed and forced to move again. With their Oneida and Stockbridge neighbors, they came to Wisconsin in the 1820s and 1830s, settling along the eastern shore of Lake Winnebago in Calumet County.

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