Assuming the Habit of the Country: John Marrant’s Narrative and Playing Indian

Abstract

African American evangelist John Marrant’s Narrative details his conversion to Christianity, captivity by the Cherokee, and his subsequent spiritual, and cultural transformation. Marrant eventually choose to stay among the Cherokee as missionary, and comes to live, dress, act and talk like a true member of the tribe. His Narrative was one of the most popular captivity narratives in America at the time of publication (1785), but lapsed into obscurity by 1835. His dramatic and dual transformations make this narrative unique among other captivity narratives. At once passing and playing Indian, Marrant challenges eighteenth-century notions of what it means to look and act like an Indian, and what it means to look and act like an African American. The interplay between Native and African American in the character of Marrant in his Narrative also points to the symbolic intermixture that occurs between these two groups in a newly-formed American nation.