a son of the forest quotes apess summary

He was baptized into the church in 1818 and was ordained a minister in 1829. In 1813 he had had a religious experience, and he turned to evangelical Methodism to help him regain control of his life. He had taken up drinking in the army, and after leaving it in 1815 he wandered about and held a number of odd jobs. Apess eventually ran off from his master's house and, later, although still a very young man, participated in the unsuccessful American attack on Montreal in the War of 1812.

Early in his life his parents moved back to Connecticut and unfortunately entrusted his care to his alcoholic grandparents who beat him severely and then sold him as an indentured laborer when he was only four or five years old. William Apess was born in 1798 in the small town of Colrain, Massachusetts, some distance from North Stonington and Ledyard, Connecticut, where his people, the Pequots, mostly resided on two small reservations. His extraordinary essay 'An Indian's Looking-Glass for the White Man' (1833) is a powerful indictment of what Apess called color prejudice and what would today be called racism. 'AN INDIAN'S LOOKING-GLASS FOR THE WHITE MAN'Īlmost forgotten until the late 1970s, the writing of William Apess-'Apess' has become standard although the name is also sometimes spelled 'Apes'-a Pequot, exists today in a volume of complete works and in a growing body of critical work.

A son of the forest quotes apess summary