An Indian Bible and A Brass Hawk
Land, Sachemship Disputes, and Power in the Conversion of Ben Uncas II
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9081143 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Linford D Fisher (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 319-343 |
| Publication date | 2013-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Social History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-4529 • E-ISSN: 1527-1897 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jsh/sht081 |
| OpenAlex | W2171566110 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 12 |
In October 1736, the Mohegan Sachem Benjamin Uncas II caused a public stir by professing Christianity. Instead of reading this event as a simple “conversion”, this essay resituates this profession of Christianity in the wider social, cultural, and political contexts of the 1730s, arguing that these contexts are critical for understanding the full ramifications and motivations for such a public religious affiliation. The two most relevant contexts are bitter sachemship disputes in the 1720s and 1730s and the Mohegan Land Controversy, a drawn-out legal battle over Mohegan land that lasted seventy years. Instead of mapping onto more traditional religious events—like the First Great Awakening—Ben Uncas II’s various religious affiliations and associations correlate more particularly with these other social upheavals, in part because they garnered transatlantic attention and the intervention of the British crown.
Archaeology · Battle · Christianity · Event (particle physics) · Intervention (counseling) · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Reading (process) · Religious conversion · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · History · Law · Psychology · Religion, Gender, and Enlightenment
Native Americans, Conversion, and Christian Practice in Colonial New England, 1640—1730
After Columbus
Conversion
Conversion from Indian to Puritan
Inventing Guardianship
Claiming the New World
Papers of the Tenth Algonquian Conference
Conversion, Identity, and the Indian Missionary
Outside the Fold
A Reappraisal of the Praying Indians
Embracing Ambiguity
Red Yankees
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |