CULTURAL READINGS: Colonization & Print in the Americas

Rosenbach Museum & Library

William Apess, A Son of the Forest. The Experience of William Apes, A Native of the Forest. New York: The author, 1831.

A Son of the Forest was the first full-length autobiography published by a North American Indian. Apess, a Pequot, used his position as a Methodist preacher to reach white audiences, both in speech and in print. Although he defended the virtues of native oral traditions, he was acutely aware of the damage inflicted by a written historical record devoted entirely to the victors' version of events. A masterful polemicist, Apess published five works between 1829 and 1836. He added the second "s" to his name in 1836.

Print and Native Cultures

• Print as a (Re)source for Native Cultures
• Oral Cultures in Print
• [Return to] Native Writing

Exhibition Contents | Introduction | Essays | Bibliography & Links