A son of the forest summary9/28/2023 From the years 1816 to 1818, he worked at various jobs in Canada. By the age of 16, he became an alcoholic and struggled with alcoholism for the rest of his life. Īpess ran away from General Williams at the age of fifteen and joined a militia in New York, where he fought in the War of 1812. The Methodists were more welcoming than the Congregational Church, to which the town elite belonged. The congregation he knew had many people of mixed race, including African Americans and Native Americans. During this period, Apess grew increasingly close to the "noisy Methodists," as Apess referred to them. William Williams, under whom Apess spent four years. The elderly judge, too old to deal with an unruly and rejected child, quickly sold his indenture to Gen. He never really wanted to leave, but, despite his reassurances, the family he had come to regard as his own sold his indenture to Judge James Hillhouse, a member of the Connecticut elite. Furman discovered his ill-formed plans to run away. Furman eventually forbade him from attending. He describes the joy he gained from sermons, and the depression he suffered when Mr. Even as a young child, his devotion was ardent. Furman, a Baptist, gave William his first memorable experience with Christianity when he was six, and she discussed with him the importance of going to heaven or hell. Furman's mother died, he writes that "She had always been so kind to me that I missed her quite as much as her children, and I had been allowed to call her mother." Apess was sent to school during the winter for six years to gain an education, while also assisting Furman at work. In contrast, he grew to love his adopted family dearly, despite his status as an indentured servant. He said that he did not see his mother for twenty years after the beating. His autobiography does not mention any contact with his Pequot relatives for the rest of his childhood. Furman, for a year until he had recovered from injuries sustained while living with his grandparents. Then five-year-old Apess was cared for by his neighbor, Mr. They were taken away for their own safety and indentured to European-American families. After seeing continued abuse, a neighbor intervened with the town selectmen on behalf of the children. But they were abusive and suffered from alcoholism. His parents separated, and the five children were cared for by their maternal grandparents. Until the age of five, Apess lived with his family, including two brothers and two sisters, near Colrain. He claimed descent from King Philip through his mother, who also had some European-American and African-American ancestry. According to his autobiography, his father was mixed Pequot and European American, as Apess' white paternal grandfather had married a Pequot woman. William Apess was born in 1798 in Colrain in northwestern Massachusetts to William and Candace Apess of the Pequot tribe. Apess has been described as "perhaps the most successful activist on behalf of Native American rights in the antebellum United States." Early life In recent decades, Apess's works have been frequently anthologized in collections of American literature, alongside other early American Native writers like Samson Occom and Jane Johnston Schoolcraft. Later in life, he was adopted by the Mashpee tribe. Apess was part Pequot by descent, especially through his mother's family, and identified with their culture. In 1829 he published A Son of the Forest, one of the first autobiographies by a Native American writer. Apess spent most of his career in New England. William Apess (1798–1839, Pequot) (also known as William Apes before 1837), was a Methodist minister, writer, and activist of mixed-race descent.
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