Description
Samson Occom had become a Christian convert during the Great Awakening, a religious revival that transformed denominations and social and political life on both sides of the Atlantic. He quickly became a renowned preacher, and in 1766 traveled to Britain for a speaking tour intended to raise money for a school for Indigenous boys. One of his many public appearances took place here in Moorfields, where he gave a sermon attended by a rapt audience of hundreds. In his journals , the earliest first-hand accounts of London by an Indigenous person , Occom criticized the chaos of the city and its moral confusion, noting in particular the glaring inequalities between the rich and the poor. While on tour, he also sought to raise allies for his people’s ongoing concerns regarding settler encroachment on their lands in Connecticut.
Bibliographic sources
Thrush, Indigenous London, 107-114. Image credit, the British Museum