“DEATH IS CALLED THE KING OF TERRORS”: RARE FIRST EDITION OF SERMON ON THE EXECUTION OF MOSES PAUL, 1772, THE FIRST KNOWN BOOK PUBLISHED IN ENGLISH BY AN AMERICAN INDIAN

OCCOM, Samson. A Sermon Preached at the Execution of Moses Paul, An Indian, Who was executed at New Haven, on the 2d of September 1772, for the Murder of Mr. Moses Cook, Late of Waterbury, on the 7th of December 1771. Preached at the Desire of said Paul. New London: T. Greene, [1772]. 12mo, contemporary stiff brown calf wrappers stitched as issued, uncut; pp. 23 [1]. Housed with a copy of W. DeLoss Love’s Samson Occom and the Christian Indians of New England (1899) in custom half morocco clamshell box.

First edition of the work reported to be the first book published in English by an American Indian, the first of only two published works by Samson Occom, one of the most popular preachers of his day, a work profoundly influenced by the execution sermons of Increase and Cotton Mather.

Born a Mohegan and believed to be the descendant of Uncas, the famed Mohegan chief, Samson Occom converted to Christianity at 16 amidst the revivalist fervor of Jonathan Edwards’ Great Awakening. In 1743 Occom became the first Indian pupil of famed evangelical preacher Eleazar Wheelock, who was then inspired to open a school for Indian students in Lebanon, Connecticut that ultimately moved to Hanover, New Hampshire and became Dartmouth College. Ordained as a minister, Occom traveled to England on behalf of Wheelock’s school, where he “preached, in the course of a year and a half, nearly 400 sermons” before returning to America in 1768 to continue his missionary work (Field 1151). “One of the few temperance sermons published during the late 18th century… [and] probably the first book published in English by an American Indian, Occom’s Sermon was so popular that it was reprinted at least 19 times… The occasion for the sermon was the murder of Moses Cook, a respected citizen of Waterbury, Connecticut, by Moses Paul, a Christian Mohegan who committed the act while drunk.”

Sentenced to death for the murder, Paul asked Occom, his fellow Mohegan, to preach at his hanging. “Held on 2 September 1772 the execution attracted a large audience of Indians and whites because it was New Haven’s first hanging in 20 years, and because it afforded a unique opportunity to hear an Indian preach against his people’s alcoholism” (Ruoff, Studies in American Indian Literatures) “Reflecting Occom’s own evangelical convictions, and focusing, in the tradition of all execution sermons, on the omnipresence of death and the necessity for immediate, radical conversion, his Sermon was immensely popular,” and eloquently revealed the influence of Increase and Cotton Mather (Gray, History of American Literature). Occom continued in his work to become “a sturdy and uncompromising leader of his people in resisting white encroachment upon Indian lands” (ANB). This first edition appeared circa November 13, 1772, the date publication was announced in the New London Gazette, a weekly newspaper owned by publisher Timothy Green, who was Connecticut’s official printer throughout the Revolutionary period. With funereal ornament on title page, biography of Moses Paul on final page. Evans 12493. Sabin 56635. Field 1151. See Field 1148. See Rosenbach 32:266.

Slight spotting, edge-wear with some loss to final leaf minimally affecting text; some wear to roughly tanned leather wrappers. An extremely good copy of a highly significant historical work.