Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America

Richter examines two types of oral narrative that record the words of American Indians: conversion narratives and spiritual autobiographies of Christian Indians as transcribed by Puritan missionaries in Massachusetts, and speeches of Native diplomats as recorded by colonial government scribes.

In 1653, Puritan missionary John Eliot published Tears of Repentance, a collection of conversion narratives by American Indians from Natick, the “praying town” Eliot had founded near Boston. The most extensive narratives are those by a man named Monequassun. His testimony is couched in an idiom more European than Indian, full of “interminable expressions of self-flagellating piety” (115). However, Richter believes that although Eliot may have adapted the wording, the speeches probably represent a “reasonably authentic record” (117) of what the Indians said.

Puritan clergyman William Perkins developed an elaborate “morphology of conversion” (119) consisting of 10 stages modeled on the Calvinist doctrine of divine grace:

1. Attention to God’s word in scripture or preaching
2. A genuine understanding of divine law and the nature of good and evil
3. An awareness of one’s own specific sins
4. “Legal fear,” a profound awareness of one’s innate sinfulness
5. An ability to consider seriously the gospel’s promise of salvation
6. The will and desire to believe, the first glimmer of faith
7. Desperate combat between faith and doubt
8. God’s assurance of his mercy
9. Grief for sin because it is sin (different from mere legalism)
10. God’s grace, allowing one to begin to obey his commandments and do good works