PAL: Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide
An Ongoing Online Project ©© Paul P. Reuben
Chapter 3: Early Nineteenth Century: William Apes or William Apess (Pequot) (1798-1839)
Outside Link: | "The Pilgrims from the Indian Perspective" |
(from "Cultural Readings: Colonization & Print in the Americas")
According to Barry O'Connell (listed below) , Apes changed his name to Apess is his later publications and in the legal documents of 1836 and 1837. His family members continue to use the spelling Apes.
Primary Works
A Son of the Forest: The Experience of William Apes, A Native of the Forest, Comprising a Notice of the Pequod Tribe of Indians, Written by Himself, 1829; The Increase of the Kingdom of Christ, a Sermon, 1831; The Experiences of Five Christian Indians of the Pequod Tribe; or An Indians's Looking-Glass for the White Man, 1833; The Indian Nullification of the Unconstitutional Laws of Massachusetts, Relative to the Marshpee Tribe: or, The Pretended Riot Explained, 1835; Eulogy on King Philip, as Pronounced at the Odeon, in Federal Street, Boston, by the Rev. William Apes, an Indian, 1836., 1829; , 1831; , 1833; , 1835; , 1836.
Study Questions
1. (a) Relationship between the publication of "An Indian's Looking-Glass for the White Man" (1833) and the debate over passage of Indian Removal Bill. Also relationship to miscegenation bill in Massachusetts passed around this time.
2. (a) Compare/contrast the oratorical styles used by Apess and Douglass and their treatment of Indian-White relations.
(b) Compare and contrast the oratorical style used by Apess and American Indian orators such as Logan and Seattle.
(c) Discuss Apess's and the slave narrators' criticisms of the treatment of Indians and slaves by White Christians.
(d) Discuss the influence of Christianity and its concept of the essential equality of all men under God as expressed by Apess and Copway and by slave narrators such as Douglass.
MLA Style Citation of this Web Page::
Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 3: Early Nineteenth Century - William Apess " PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. WWW URL: <http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap3/apess.html> (provide page date or your date of logon).
Their Wigwams
The Pilgrims from the Indian PerspectiveAuthor William Apes Quotation "Without asking liberty from anyone, they possessed themselves of a potion of the country" Annotation In his autobiography, William Apes, a Pequot, offers an Indian perspective on the early history of relations between the English colonists and the native peoples of New England. Year 1636 Text December, 1620, the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, and without asking liberty from anyone, they possessed themselves of a portion of the country, and built themselves houses, and then made a treaty and commanded them [the Indians] to accede to it.... And yet for their kindness and resignation towards the whites, they were called savages, and made by God on purpose for them to destroy.... The next we present before you are things very appalling. We turn our attention to dates, 1623, January and March, when Mr. Weston Colony, came very near to starving to death; some of them were obliged to hire themselves to the Indians, to become their servants in order that they might live. Their principal work was to bring wood and water; but not being contented with this, many of the white sought to steal the Indians' corn; and because the Indians complained of it, and through their complaint, some one of their number being punished, as they say, to appease the savages. Now let us see who the greatest savages were; the person that stole the corn was a stout athletic man, and because of this, they wished to spare him, and take an old man who was lame and sickly...and because they thought he would not be of so much use to them, he was, although innocent of any crime, hung in his stead....Another act of humanity for Christians, as they call themselves, that one Capt. Standish, gathering some fruit and provisions, goes forward with a black and hypocritical heart, and pretends to prepare a feast for the Indians; and when they sit down to eat, they seize the Indians' knives hanging around their necks, and stab them in the heart.... The Pilgrims promised to deliver up every transgressor of the Indian treaty, to them, to be punished according to their laws, and the Indians were to do likewise. Now it appears that an Indian had committed treason, by conspiring against the king's [Massasoit's] life, which is punishable with death...and the Pilgrims refused to give him, although by their oath of alliance they had promised to do so.... In this history of Massasoit we find that his own head men were not satisfied with the Pilgrims; that they looked upon them to be intruders, and had a wish to expel those intruders out of their coast. A false report was made respecting one Tisquantum, that he was murdered by an Indian.... Upon this news, one Standish, a vile and malicious fellow, took fourteen of his lewd Pilgrims with him...at midnight....At that late hour of the night, meeting at house in the wilderness, whose inmates heard--Move not, upon the peril of your life. At the same time some of the females were so frightened, that some of them undertook to make their escape, upon which they were fired upon.... These Indians had not done one single wrong act to the whites, but were as innocent of any crime, as any beings in the world. But if the real suffers say one word, they are denounced, as being wild and savage beasts.... We might suppose that meek Christians had better gods and weapons than cannon. But let us again review their weapons to civilize the nations of this soil. What were they: rum and powder, and ball, together with all the diseases, such as the small pox, and every other disease imaginable; and in this way sweep of thousands and tens of thousands. Source: William Apes, Eulogy on King Philip (Boston, 1836), 10 ff.
This site was updated on 30-Jun-06.
William Apes & Mashpee's war for independenceFrom the earliest days of white settlement on Cape Cod, native people were continuously squeezed and relocated from their traditional lands to the point where, by the beginning of the eighteenth century, there were few survivors of what had been a once numerous and vigorous people. Though they kept a loose tribal structure, the Wampanoag people were submerged by an English colonial structure that took little notice of their culture or their needs. In the late 1600s "Marshpee," as it was then called, became a settlement area for the Indian survivors of King Philip's War.
In 1763 the area was incorporated as a plantation. White colonial administrators were appointed to control the affairs of the district because it was felt that the native people were incapable of running their own affairs. The Indians had no say as to who would be their overseers and it can be said that their status differed little from the vassalage of medieval European serfs. No schools were set up to educate the Wampanoags and their children were commonly "bound out" as indentured laborers to the farms of local whites.
Attempts at Home Rule
Several attempts were made to create some form of home rule prior to the Revolutionary War but with the exception of a few gratuitous and relatively meaningless gestures from the Crown, there was no real effort to create any sort of self-government for native people on Cape Cod. When the Revolution ended, the new government of Massachusetts moved quickly to reaffirm white control in the district.
After years of fruitless petitioning, the arrival in May 1833 of a self-educated Methodist Pequot preacher named William Apes signaled the beginning of renewed hope for some sort of home rule. Apes had been an itinerant missionary who had moved around New England after running away from his indenture in Connecticut. He was originally from Colrain, Masssachusetts and was self-educated. He appears to have decided to come to Mashpee out of curiosity about the Native American community there.
Apes became immediately involved in the issue of home rule as both an organizer and a publicist. The effect of his arrival and settlement in Mashpee emboldened the Indian people in Mashpee. Almost a half century after white America had gained its independence, the Wampanoags made another concerted effort to gain theirs. With Apes as their inspirational leader, a twelve man Indian council was elected that drafted what amounted to a nullification document challenging the established guardianship laws of the Mashpee district.
Disregard for Indian Rights
It had been common practice for white residents of neighboring towns to go at will into the Indian district and take wood and shellfish without regard to Indian property rights.
Whites freely availed themselves of Mashpee's shellfish beds and pasturage. Because the authority to lease out grazing and haying lands was in the hands of the non-Indian overseers, complaints by native people to stop the practice went unheeded. On May 21, 1833, led by Apes and Baptist minister "Blind Joe" Amos, the Wampanoags drew up a formal protest that paralleled the U.S. Constitution. Its most aggressive clause called for self-rule, because, as it stated, "all men are born free and equal, as says the Constitution of our country."
In addition, the resolution declared that native people "would not permit any white man to come upon our Plantation, to cut, or to carry off, wood, or hay, or any other article, without our permission, after the 1st of July next." Adding a supporting clause for good measure, the manifesto threatened to deal with violators by "binding them and throwing them out!" An overwhelming 287 Mashpee residents out of a permanent population of just over 300 signed the resolution, praying for the basic privilege to manage their own property.
For a Cape Cod that had not seen any local Indian difficulties for almost two centuries, the publication of this bold document was seen as an insurrection. References to the so-called "Woodlot War" cropped up in the local press and Massachusetts Governor Levi Lincoln prepared to call out the state militia. On July 1, 1833 a group of whites led by William Samson of Barnstable went into the Wampanoag district to take wood and there was a confrontation.
The Wampanoags moved to enforce their control over their property. Reverend Apes was arrested with several other native men, taken to Cotuit and charged with "riot, assault, and trespass." The last charge was levied against Apes because he had never been given permission by the white overseers to become a legal resident of the district. After a guilty verdict, he was sentenced to thirty days in jail and a fine of one hundred dollars. Lemuel Ewer, a white farmer from South Sandwich posted the $200 bail for Apes who was allowed to return to Mashpee to await a date for imprisonment.
Mediation Ordered
In an effort to prevent an escalation of the problems in Mashpee, Governor Lincoln sent a delegation to mediate the dispute. Almost all of the whites in Barnstable county stood with the overseers. William Apes was portrayed by most of the press as an outside agitator and manipulator. No Cape legislator was willing to introduce the Indian resolution before the General Court.
Osterville lawyer Benjamin Hallett eventually argued the nullification case in the state legislature for the Wampanoags and, aided by a speech by Apes, convinced the body that the guardianship of the district was outdated and indeed, patently unfair to the native people who lived in Mashpee. In March of 1834, the plantation was given the status of a self-governing district and the Wampanoags were allowed for the first time to elect their own selectmen.
It would be 36 more years before Mashpee was granted a charter in 1870 to become an incorporated town on Cape Cod. In the interim, William Apes seems to have gradually lost his position of leadership in the Indian community. His name shows up in county records for failure to pay taxes, perhaps indicating difficult economic circumstances. He lived for some years in South Mashpee near Dean's Pond but he fades from the town and county records after 1838.
What happened to him is still a mystery. The man, who perhaps more than any other, could be said to be the prime catalyst for Mashpee's independence, returned into the obscurity from whence he had come.
