![]() “William Apess,” John Paradise, New York Public Library, Likely Public Domain, No Known Restrictions. It joins a line of protest that would lead to civil rights writers like Henry David Thoreau and to Abolitionist writers like Frederick Douglass.īecoming America, Wendy Kurant, ed., CC-BY-SAįigure 1. His An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man insists that whites look at their racial prejudice and mistreatment of people of color, especially Native Americans. Recognized for his pioneering status as a Native American public figure, William Apes was an astute recorder of a life in between. An indentured servant, soldier, minister, and activist, Apes lived an uncommonly rich life for someone who died at just 41 years of age. With Apess’ help, the Mashpee petitioned the state government, declaring their refusal to allow any whites to “come upon our plantation, to cut or carry off wood, or hay, or any other article without our permission.” They claimed their right to self-governance, as they possessed the constitutional rights of freedom and equality.īesides his autobiography, Apess wrote sermons, conversion narratives, and political commentaries. A Son of the Forest (1829) is an autobiography by William Apes. Preaching across the state of Massachusetts, Apess became involved in the ultimately successful Mashpee Revolt of 1833 against the state government, with the Mashpee protesting their being treated as wards of the state. He certainly resented the prevalent mistreatment of Native Americans by whites, lamenting their unjust laws and lack of Christian fellowship. According to his autobiography, he encountered barriers placed between himself-as a Native American-and the church hierarchy, only later being ordained as a Methodist minister. After obtaining a license to “exhort” at church services, he became an itinerant preacher. Apess came to appreciate the egalitarian views of evangelical Methodism being particularly drawn to the enthusiasm of their camp revivals and services, he chose to be baptized a Methodist. From 1816 to 1818, he lived once more among the Pequots. The name is probably a variation of Wapanacki, meaning “eastern people.” The Wampanoag have also been cal… Indian Education, Education, IndianĮDUCATION, INDIAN.During the War of 1812, Apess joined the American militia and participated in the American attack on Montreal. Metacom (1640-1676) was a Native American chief (sachem) whose tribe, the Wampanoags, waged the most devastating war against the Engish in ea… Wampanoag, Name White New Englanders who coveted farmland but needed help surviving in harsh conditions built uneasy partnerships with… Sachem Of The Wampanoags Philip, Metacom King Philips War, KING PHILIP'S WAR (1675–1676). I felt an assurance that I was included in the plan of redemption with all my brethren (A Son of the Forest, p. He wrote, I felt convinced that Christ died for all mankind that age, sect, color, country, or situation make no difference. Apess’ 1829 A Son of the Forest: The Experience of William Apess, a Native of the Forest became an eloquent example of Native American jeremiadic rhetoric because in it readers find issues of identity and the formulation of modes of representation characteristic (O’Connell 2) that was customary for this kind of ethnic discourse to exist. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1992. While with the Methodists,Apess experienced conversion at age 15. On Our Own Ground: The Complete Writings of William Apess, a Pequot. ![]() He returned to New York in 1839, where he died of apoplexy on 10 April. Well-known throughout his career as a powerful orator, by the time Apess gave the eulogy he had lost the support of sympathetic whites as well as the Mashpee leadership. Apess's greatest achievement was his final work, Eulogy on King Philip (1836), in which he produces an alternative account of King Philip's War that defines both history and politics for native peoples in New England. Enlisted by Cape Cod's Mashpee Indians to aid in their petition for self-government, Apess recounts their partially successful struggle in his third book, Indian Nullification of the Unconstitutional Laws of Massachusetts or, the Pretended Riot Explained (1835), which was well received by Boston's literary and political elite. His second book, Experiences of Five Christian Indians of the Pequot Tribe (1833), shows his exposure to both in its account of the absurdity of color as a signifier of racial inferiority. By 1832, Apess had relocated from New York to Boston, where he became associated with both the anti-removal and antislavery movements. This narrative of Apess's life and conversion to Methodism excoriates Christian hypocrisy toward, and misrepresentation of, native people, a pronounced theme in all his work. ![]() SON OF THE FOREST, A (1829 revised 1831) was the first of five books written by the Pequot preacher and orator William Apess. William Apes, tl.e author of thefollow- ing narrative is a native of the Anaerican soil, and a descendant of one of the. ![]()
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