“I Hope I Have a Treasure in Heaven, Because My Heart Is There”: Salvation and Damnation in the Conversion Narrative of Patience Boston

abstract:This essay considers the 1738 conversion narrative of Patience Boston, a young Native woman executed for murder in York, Maine, in 1735. Titled A Faithful Narrative of the Wicked Life and Remarkable Conversion of Patience Boston, it contains Patience’s first-person account of her religious experiences while in York’s prison awaiting execution and was edited and published by York’s two ministers, Samuel Moody and his son Joseph. We analyze this text as a composite work of Patience Boston, Samuel Moody, and Joseph Moody, arguing that the evangelical piety of the two ministers resulted in the production of a conversion narrative that challenged colonial New England’s entrenched hierarchies of status in its confident proclamation of Patience’s heavenly salvation. We discuss Patience’s Narrative in comparison to earlier criminal narratives and analyze the role of New England’s Indian wars in shaping Samuel’s and Joseph’s desire to present Patience to the public as the model of a perfect Protestant Indian. We also consider the Narrative as an early exemplar of the piety of the Whitefieldian awakenings of the 1740s, arguing that this style of piety made it possible for Joseph to believe himself likely damned while simultaneously proclaiming Patience’s assured salvation.