Originally published on December 23, 2020 (Episode 191)
Introduction
In 1775 Johannes Papunhunk died in a Moravian village in Ohio. He was not a Moravian, nor any other kind of European, but a member of the Munsee tribe born around seventy years earlier.
Over his long life, Papunhunk was a prophet, preacher, reformer, and diplomat, dedicated to finding a home where his people could live in peace.
As Richard Pointer observes in his new book Pacifist Prophet: Papunhank and the Quest for Peace in Early America, Papunhunk defies our categories. He was a prophet who inspired peace rather than war; a nativist reformer who embraced Christianity; a critic of white practices who was nonetheless admired by leading Pennsylvanians; a refugee of violence, protected by some whites even as he fled others. Papunhunk refuses to be who we think he ought to be. In his complicated life, we can find a different way of seeing early America.
About the Guest
Richard Pointer is Emeritus Professor of History at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. He is also the author of Encounters of the Spirit: Native Americans and European Colonial Religion and Protestant Pluralism and the New York Experience: A Study of Eighteenth-Century Religious Diversity.
For Further Investigation
Richard Pointer, Pacifist Prophet: Papunhank and the Quest for Peace in Early America (Nebraska, 2020)
Richard Pointer, Encounters of the Spirit: Native Americans and European Colonial Religion
Richard Pointer, Protestant Pluralism and the New York Experience
Linford Fisher, The Indian Great Awakening: Religion and the Shaping of Native Cultures in Early America
James Merrell, Into the American Woods: Negotiators on the Pennsylvania Frontier
Gregory Evans Dowd, A Spirited Resistance: The North American Indian Struggle for Unity, 1745–1815
Listen & Discuss
What does Papunhunk’s life tell us about peace, identity, and religious transformation in early America? Share your reflections in the comments—and forward this episode to a friend who loves Native American or early American history.
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