Sudden Impact
Spreading the Word
The Mathers and other Puritan patriarchs derived their authority from their interpretation of the Word. They brought the first press to Massachusetts in 1640 to publish materials for worship, beginning with a book of psalms, known as The Bay Psalm Book. Hard use spared few copies. Only two survive of this ninth edition, the first to contain music. In the 1660s, the press produced the first bible printed in the Western Hemisphere, a translation of the scripture into Algonquin by the missionary John Eliot. Some Native Americans converted, but many resented the subversion of their culture and the annexation of their lands. In 1676, they mounted a series of attacks that ended in defeat and the death of their leader Metacomet of the Wampanoag.
Cotton Mather, The Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, of the Old & New Testament.
Boston: B. Green and J. Allen for Michael Perry, 1698. Tracy W. McGregor Library of American History (M 1698 .B53)
Mr. Richard Mather by John Foster, c. 1670.
Tracy W. McGregor Library of American History (M 1670 .F6)
John Eliot, The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and the New. Translated into the Indian Language….
Cambridge, [Massachusetts]: Samuel Green and Marmaduke Johnson, 1663. Tracy W. McGregor Library of American History (A 1663 .B53)
Portrait of Metacomet in Samuel Gardener Drake. Indian Biography….
Boston: Josiah Drake, 1832. Tracy W. McGregor Library of American History (A 1832 .D73)