The history of the antebellum United States is, in many respects, the history of subjugation of racial minorities in the interests of the white majority. American society developed and implemented cultural norms that signified white Anglo-Saxon Protestants as superior to other races or religions to reinforce this subjugation. Native Americans were one of the groups that suffered severely because of these norms and the practices they produced, but some of them resisted. In the early 19th century, William Apess occupied a notable place among the advocates of Native American rights and vigorously challenged discriminatory practices aimed at Indians.
However, to appeal to the sentiments of his predominantly white audience successfully and deliver his message in a readily accessible way, he also had to adhere to some of the social practices of white society. Specifically, while Apess challenged the practice of representing Native Americans as savages with no attachment to their land – a rationale for the Indian Removal – he still wrote his autobiography in the well-established genre of spiritual conversion.
The cornerstone cultural norm that Apess challenged in his autobiography titled A Son of the Forest was the perception of Native Americans as incapable of forming a strong attachment to the lands they occupied. As one of the examples, Apess offered the story of Indian sachems visiting General Knox in New York in 1789 and returning in sadness after observing the city from the balcony (161). When the general inquired about the cause of their sadness, they answered that “this fine country and this great water was once [theirs]” (Apess 161).
The chiefs then described in detail how the white newcomers first asked for some land to settle temporarily, then refused to go and bought more, and then drove the Indians into the wilderness (Apess 161-162). After reciting the sad story of his people, the chief concluded empathically: “This makes me sorry, brother! And I cannot help it!” (Apess 162). Thus, the author spared no effort to depict the Indians’ anguish because of being removed from their ancestral lands – every bit as acute as a white person would feel.
This depiction was a clear challenge to the prevailing cultural norms of the time, which generally portrayed Native Americans as primitive savages incapable of valuing their lands. The contrast between Apess’ views and the common perception of Native Americans was especially notable, as A Son of the Forest came out soon after President Jackson’s famous congressional speech on Indian Removal. In this piece of oratory, the President ridiculed the idea that a “wandering savage has a stronger attachment to his home than the settled, civilized Christian” (Jackson 2).
Jackson appealed to this widespread cultural norm to justify political action – namely, the removal of the Fife Civilized tribes from their lands. As a result, when Apess opposed the representation of Indians as savages with no attachment to their territories, he also challenged the social practice of removing them from their ancestral lands. In this sense, the author of A Son of the Forest tries to transform the cultural norms and social practices that influenced the status of Native Americans in the early 19th century.
Yet while challenging some of his contemporary social practices, Apess remained faithful to the others, which is already evident in the genre he chose for his book. Gura is right to note that A Son of the Forest is not merely a story of the author’s life, but “a spiritual autobiography” specifically (74). This genre of autobiographical writing was rather common for all Christian denominations, by occupied an especially prominent place in Protestantism due to its emphasis on personal worship. Since the 16th century, the adherent of various Protestant churches left narratives of their conversion to help individual Christians to “understand and express their spiritual progress” (Murray 42).
Thus, when Apess decided to write his book as a spiritual autobiography, he acted within the centuries-long literary tradition specifically tailored to suit the tastes of the Protestant audience. In other words, he expressed his ideas via a well-established social practice of producing narratives of personal spiritual progress – likely with the goal of creating closer bonds with his Protestant audience.
As one can see, Apess’s A Son of the Forest contains examples of both challenging and upholding the cultural norms and social practices of his time. On the one hand, he vigorously opposed the idea that Native Americans were savages incapable of forming an attachment to their lands. This opposition must have been especially notable in the historical context of the early 1830s, as Apess’ autobiography came out almost simultaneously with President Jackson’s argument for Indian Removal based on the opposite notion. Thus, by attacking the tendency to depict Native Americans as unsettled savages, Apess also challenged the social practice of removing them from their lands.
However, to deliver his argument, the author chose the form of spiritual autobiography – a genre with deep roots in Christianity and, in particular, Protestantism. Therefore, when writing his autobiography, Apess also upheld a centuries-old social practice of producing narratives of personal conversion – likely in an attempt to form a closer bond with his predominantly Protestant audience.
Works Cited
Apess, William. A Son of the Forest. G. F. Bunce, 1831.
Gura, Philip F. “Son of the Forest: William Apess and the Fight for Indigenous Rights.” New England Review, vol. 35, no. 4, 2014, pp. 72-81.
Jackson, Andrew. “Speech to Congress on Indian Removal.” National Park Service. Web.
Murray, Molly. “The Radicalism of Early Modern Spiritual Autobiography.” A History of English Autobiography, edited by Adam Smyth, Cambridge UP, 2016, pp. 41-55.