The loneliness of a forest seems nothing to it” (Irving 175). Irving considers the prairies to be a place that is altogether foreign to him and offers him little comfort, “To one unaccustomed to it, there is something inexpressibly lonely in the solitude of a prairie.
While both authors respect and admire the vastness and unfamiliarity of the prairies they do so in very distinct ways.
Both Washington Irving’s A Tour on the Prairies and William Cullen Bryant’s poem The Prairies involve a great deal of praise surrounding the discovery and exploration of this new America. In his extensive introduction to the volume, Barry O'Connell reconstructs the story of Apess's life, situates him in the context of early nineteenth-century Pequot society, and interprets his writings both as a literary act and as an expression of emerging Native American politics.The prairies, as depicted in literature, are a place of beauty and freedom it is represented as a place of much potential in very distinct ways. Another piece in the collection, The Experiences of Five Christian Indians of the Pequo Tribe (1833), concludes with an eloquent and unprecedented attack on Euro-American racism entitled "An Indian's Looking-Glass for the White Man." Also included are Apess's account of the "Mashpee Revolt" of 1833-34, when the Native Americans of Mashpee petitioned the government of Massachusetts for the right to elect their own representatives, and his Eulogy on King Philip, an address delivered in Boston in 1836 to mark the 160th anniversary of King Philip's War.
A SON OF THE FOREST APESS SHMOOP FULL
Readable and engaging, it is not only a rare statement by a Native American, but also an unusually full document in the history of New England native peoples. Apess's A Son of the Forest, originally published in 1829, was the first extended autobiography by an American Indian. Contents A son of the forest - The increase of the Kingdom of Christ: a sermon and The Indians: the ten lost tribes - The experiences of five Christian Indians of the Pequot tribe - Indian nullification of the unconstitutional laws of Massachusetts relative to the Marshpee tribe or, The pretended riot explained - Eulogy on King Philip, as pronounced at the Odeon, in Federal Street, Boston Summary This book brings together all of the known writings of William Apess, a Native American of mixed Pequot and white parentage who fought for the United States in the War of 1812, became a Methodist minister in 1829, and championed the rights of the Mashpee tribe on Cape Cod in the 1830s. NMAI copy 39088019419035 from the library of H. ANTH copy 39088014693162 Bequest from the library of William C. Object Details Author Apess, William 1798-1839 O'Connell, Barry 1943- Subject Apess, William 1798-1839 Bookmark from The University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, Massachusetts 01004 inserted. Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, African Art.
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