Jenny Hale Pulsipher is a professor of history at Brigham Young University and the author of numerous articles and two award-winning books, Subjects unto theSame King: Indians, English, and the Contest of Authority in Early New England and Swindler Sachem: The American Indian Who Sold His Birthright, Dropped Out of Harvard, and Conned the King of England.
I wrote...
Swindler Sachem: The American Indian Who Sold His Birthright, Dropped Out of Harvard, and Conned the King of England
By
Jenny Hale Pulsipher
What is my book about?
Swindler Sachem tells the story of an ingenious and complicated 17th century Native American man--John Wompas. Wompas's life upends common wisdom about Native Americans in the colonial era. He was a Harvard-educated scholar who became a sailor; he called the Nipmuc village of Hassanamesit his home but spent his adult life living among the English of Boston and London; he cheated his kin by selling their lands, then bequeathed all of Hassanamesit to them in his will; he secured an audience with the king of England, who called him his "loyal subject," and he was denounced by Massachusetts officials, who threatened him with foreign slavery.
In Swindler Sachem, Pulsipher uses the life of John Wompas to examine Indian-English struggles over Native land and sovereignty during an era of political turmoil in the English empire and reveals how one remarkable man navigated those perilous waters for the benefit of himself and his people.
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The Books I Picked & Why
The Last American Puritan: The Life of Increase Mather
By
Michael G. Hall
Why this book?
Hall's biography of one of the most influential Puritans in colonial New England offers a rich reading experience. Mather had a finger in everything, and seeing New England through his eyes helps the reader make sense of the political and religious factions, doctrinal struggles, the relationship between lay people and ministers (always less conservative than their followers), and the sweetness and suffering inherent in family life.
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American Slavery, American Freedom
By
Edmund S. Morgan
Why this book?
This is a classic of American history from one of our greatest historians. Morgan was a master of both the art and the craft of history, and that skill is on full display in this account of the Virginia Colony from its early seventeenth-century founding, through a series of Native American/colonial wars, to the rise and solidification of American chattel slavery. Morgan insightfully probes the question of how a nation founded on liberty could give rise to the extremes of slavery and freedom.
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Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America
By
Daniel K. Richter
Why this book?
In Facing East, Richter uses both historical research and imagination to shift the perspective on early America from the west-facing European view to the east-facing Native American one. The result is a deeply researched, well written, and surprisingly moving book exploring a series of Native lives (Pocahontas, King Philip, Kateri Tekakwitha), events (Christian Indian missions, King Philip's War, the French and Indian War), and subjects (Native American trade, religion, the expansion of the English Empire).
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Prospero's America: John Winthrop, Jr., Alchemy, and the Creation of New England Culture, 1606-1676
By
Walter W. Woodward
Why this book?
Woodward's biographical approach, and his good fortune in finding a subject who left so much material to peruse, allows readers to come to know early New England in rich detail. Winthrop was a man of wide interests, including alchemy, religion, and medicine, and he used his knowledge to contribute to the physical well being of his neighbors (Native and colonist alike), to steer the Connecticut Colony through political challenges, and to participate in trans-Atlantic scientific exploration. A fascinating read.
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Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750
By
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Why this book?
Ulrich, winner of the Pulitzer Prize forA Midwife's Tale, first wrote this ground-breaking study of women in early New England. With her characteristically elegant prose and inspired organization, she details the varied roles women played in family, community, and religious life. An illuminating work, and a page-turner.
