For the Good of Their Souls

In 1712, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts opened its mission near present-day Albany, New York, and began baptizing residents of the nearby Mohawk village Tiononderoge, the easternmost nation of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy. Within three years, about one-fifth of the Mohawks in the area began attending services. They even adapted versions of the service for use in private spaces, which potentially opened a door to an imagined faith community with the Protestants.Using the lens of performance theory to explain the ways in which the Mohawks considered converting and participating in Christian rituals, historian William B. Hart contends that Mohawks who prayed, sang hymns, submitted to baptism, took communion, and acquired literacy did so to protect their nation's sovereignty, fulfill their responsibility of reciprocity, serve their communities, and reinvent themselves. Performing Christianity was a means of ""survivance,"" a strategy for sustaining Mohawk life and culture on their terms in a changing world.

This book is thoroughly researched and thoughtfully argued. It makes a significant contribution as a case study in the development of indigenous Christianity, as a history of the Mohawk people during tumultuous times through the lens of their adoption of Christianity, and as an exploration of the multiple meanings of conversion."—Colin G. Calloway, author of The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation "Not only is ‘For the Good of Their Souls’ easily the best treatment of Mohawk Christianity, and the Mohawks in general, during the eighteenth century, but it advances our understanding of Indian Christianity considerably. Additionally, it is at once theoretically sophisticated, clearly written, and accessible."—David J. Silverman, author of Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America

William B. Hart is professor of history at Middlebury College.