Description
New England history often treats Indigenous people as minor or secondary actors within the larger colonial story. Focusing on those Native Americans who were sachems, or leaders, in local tribes when Europeans began arriving, Marie Balsley Taylor reframes stories of Indigenous and British interactions and illuminates the vital role that Indigenous kinship and diplomacy played in shaping the textual production of English colonial settlers in New England from the 1630s until King Philip's War.
Taylor argues that genres like the conversion narrative, the post-sermon question and answer session, and scientific treatise--despite being written in English for European audiences--were jointly created by Indigenous sachems and settlers to facilitate interaction within the contested space of colonial New England. Analyzing the writings of Thomas Shepard, John Eliot, John Winthrop Jr., and Daniel Gookin and the relationships these English Protestants formed with Indigenous leaders like Wequash, Cutshamekin, Cassacinamon, and Waban, this innovative study offers a new approach to early American literature--indicating that Native thought and culture played a profound role in shaping the words and deeds of colonial writers.
Author: Marie Balsley Taylor
Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
Published: 08/25/2023
Pages: 216
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 0.80d
ISBN13: 9781625347251
ISBN10: 1625347251
BISAC Categories:
- History | Indigenous Peoples in the Americas
- History | United States | Colonial Period (1600-1775)
- Social Science | Ethnic Studies | American | Native American Studies
About the Author
MARIE BALSLEY TAYLOR is assistant professor of English at the University of North Alabama.