Essay and 13 Questions

James Fenimore Cooper

· 1789-1851; born in Burlington, New Jersey

· land/homestead inherited from father: “Cooperstown,” on Otsego Lake in central New York

· took up writing professionally once his inherited wealth began to dwindle and debts began to accumulate

· wrote historical novels, historical biographies, sea adventures—but is, by far, best known for his frontier-adventure “Leatherstocking Tales” (white Natty Bumppo—or Hawkeye, or Leatherstocking, one of the most popular characters in the history of American literature—and his Mohican friend Chingachgook)

· credited by the British author/critic D.H. Lawrence for establishing the “myth of America” (the frontier spirit of the apparent American character); Richard Slotkin’s “regeneration through violence”

· Cooper’s Leatherstocking themes: the often violent price of progress, the lamenting of the resulting suffering, the admirable morality and ethics of the Mohicans as Native Americans

from Chapter 3 of the first volume of The Last of the Mohicans, “Natty Bumppo and Chingachgook; Stories of the Fathers” (1826):

· background: This chapter is a diversion from the momentarily main action, during which Major Duncan Heyward is escorting Alice and Cora, the daughters of the British Lieutenant Colonel Munro to Fort William Henry. However, a massacre is about to occur there, perpetrated by the Huron Indians allied with the French general Montcalm (the treacherous Huron guide Magua).

· spoiler: Cora, Uncas, and Magua all die.

· Natty Bumppo and Chingachgook are having a historical debate concerning the problematic relationship between white Americans and Native Americans in a beautiful

wilderness setting. This is accomplished through a discussion of each other’s “fathers.”

· Note the “savage” DOUBLING between Natty and Chingachgook.

· the difference between Indian war and white man’s war, according to Chingachgook

· Uncas has been tracking the French and their Indian allies (the Huron and the Iriquois); his killing of a buck.

· cut off by the imminent approach of white men

William Apess

· 1798-1839; born in Colrain, Massachusetts; distantly related to the Wampanoag King Philip (Metacomet) likely of mixed ancestry (Native, European, and African American)

· Early abusive experiences with his alcoholic Native grandparents led to his becoming an indentured servant and converting to Christianity (eventually an evangelical Methodist preacher).

· served during the War of 1812

· aided the Mashpee Indians (of the only remaining Indian town in Massachusetts) in winning their rights of self-governance from the state legislature

· A Son of the Forest: the first extensive autobiography published by a Native American, in 1829

from the conclusion of The Experiences of Five Christian Indians of the Pequot Tribe, “An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man” (1833):

· a searing indictment of race prejudice against people of color in general and against Native Americans in particular

· narrative voice: probing, ironic, direct address to the reader