In thinking about the ways in which Christianity influenced the early American Republic, one of the more underrepresented lines of historical inquiry on this topic lies in the way in which Christianity was believed to be a cultural bridge between the Indigenous people of the area and those who travelled far distances to settle on its shores. This cultural bridge had more implications than just merely the conversion of Indigenous peoples to Christianity in the name of their own salvation, but also had implications for the cultivation of partnerships across dissimilar communities in the name of building a shared future in the New World more broadly.

Several primary sources accounts from the period give credence to this idea. In 1671, John Elliot published an 80-page pamphlet entitled Indian Dialogues, for Their Instruction in That Great Service of Christ, in Calling Home Their Countrymen to the Knowledge of God, and of Themselves, and of Jesus Christ. In it, John Elliot calls upon his own experiences in evangelizing to the Indigenous population(s) of the early American Republic and creates a written manual through which Indigenous converts to Christianity can go about the business of bringing the Christian faith back to their families and communities.¹ His work reads as a conversation between three Indigenous men seeking to find not only answers to essential questions around salvation through Jesus Christ, but also the ways in which salvation through Christ can help cultivate shared values between their communities and those of European settlers seeking a shared future with them.

Abraham Pierson’s 1659 work Some Helps for the Indians: Showing Them How to Improve their Natural Reason, to Know the True God and the True Christian Religion is similar to the work of John Elliot on this topic. Pierson too offers an 80-page pamphlet designed to tackle the idea of Christianity being used as a cultural bridge to create lasting partnerships between Indigenous and settler in the New World. Unlike Elliot however, Pierson’s target audience in his work are the settlers themselves. Written in largely a Q & A format, Pierson’s work attempts to answer critical questions about salvation through Jesus Christ in a way that would be more easily consumed by the Indigenous people Euro-American settlers would encounter. Moreover, his pamphlet also includes a full Algonquin translation within it. Pierson’s work makes a couple of important points simultaneously with respect to this topic. The first is that there was an acknowledgement by the early Euro-American settler community that the desired path forward with respect to nation building in a land with deep roots in the Indigenous community was to bring them along settler communities as partners. The second is that being able to communicate with Indigenous peoples in their own languages was critical to the sustainable success of these attempts at bridging cultural divides using Christianity.²

Using Christianity as tool to bridge cultural divides in the early American Republic was not without its share of risks, however. Some 150 years after the publishing of the before mentioned pamphlets, John Halkett would write a retrospective piece entitled Historical Notes Respecting the Indians of North America: with Remarks on the Attempts made to Convert and Civilize Them (1825). In it, Halkett catalogues the varying degree of success to which theses attempts to use Christianity as a cultural bridge were employed. His conclusions were that these attempts, on the whole, had mixed results. While Euro-American settlers were successful at establishing a New World in the early American Republic centered on Christian values, its ability to bridge vast cultural differences was less effective.³ While some settler communities were able to find willing partners in the Indigenous people that lived there, many Indigenous communities maintained an aura of ambivalence to it (if not outright hostility).

While Christianity’s influence in the early American Republic served as a critical piece of cultivating American identity during the period, its ability to reach the Indigenous peoples in a way that would cultivate lasting partnerships was limited. For all the shared values that may have been able to be cultivated between the two groups using Christianity during the period, cultural and languages barriers between the two seemed to wide a gulf to be bridged in this particular time and place. This was not for lack of trying. While, as a matter of the historical record, we see many breakdowns (some violent) in the cultural encounters between Indigenous and settler across American history, at least in the early American Republic, there was a hope, belief, and a desire to create partnerships with the Indigenous people that lived there in the name of a shared future built on shared values through salvation in Jesus Christ.

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¹ John Elliot, Ts. Indian Dialogues, for Their Instruction in That Great Service of Christ, in Calling Home Their Countrymen to the Knowledge of God, and of Themselves, and of Jesus Christ. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1671.

² Abraham Pierson. Some helps for the Indians : shewing them how to improve their natural reason, to know the true God and the true Christian religion … : undertaken at the motion and published by the order of the commissioners of the United Colonies. London: Printed by M. Simmons, 1659.

³ John Halkett. Historical notes respecting the Indians of North America : with remarks on the attempts made to convert and civilize them … London: Printed for A. Constable and co., Edinburgh [etc.], 1825.