Born of Pequot descent, William Apess was the first Native American to publish a full-length autobiography. Apess became a Methodist minister and one of the most piercing moral critics of white Christian America’s hypocrisy.

Drawing on the Bible, the Declaration of Independence, and the language of natural rights, Apess demanded that liberty, equality, and self-government apply to Native peoples as much as they were to anyone else. From his autobiography, A Son of the Forest, and his fiery essay “An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man” to his leadership in the Mashpee Revolt, Apess held the American republic accountable to its professed creed.

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