Samson Occom

Samson Occom

By: Caroline Waters

Samson Occom was born in 1723 in Wigwam. He was the son of Sarah and Joshua Tomacham. He was related to the famous Mohegan chief. Samson grew up around a nomadic lifestyle until he was 16. At 16 Samson began to study English in order to be able to read the scripture. At the age of 17 Samson fully converted to Christianity. Starting in 1743 at the age of 20 Samson studied with Reverend Eleazar Wheelock in Lebanon, Connecticut, for four years. In 1751 Samson married Mary Fowler and they eventually had ten children together. Samson worked as a farmer, fisherman, cooper and bookbinder to support his family. In 1764, he moved his family to Mohegan to assist minister to Reverend George Whitefield in raising money to create the Wheelock’s Indian Charity School. Today it is known as Dartmouth College. Since Samson had great success with raising money for the school Whitefield sent him to Great Britain to raise more money for the school. He spent two years there preaching over three hundred sermons to raise money.

    After he returned from Great Britain he continued to devote most of his time and energy to preaching and working for the Native Americans. In 1784 Samson traveled throughout New England to preach and raise money for resettlement of the Christian Native Americans onto their homeland of the Oneida lands. In his final years of life he continued to give service to and support his Native Americans. Samson only wrote two books in his lifetime but he was the first published Native American. In 1772 he published Execution of Moses Paul and in 1774 he published Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs.

 MacKay, K. L. "Native American Literature." Native American Literature. University of Oklahoma Press, n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2013