The Indian Chief as Tragic Hero: Native Resistance and the Literatures of America, from Moctezuma to Tecumseh - Softcover

Sayre, Gordon M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807829706 ISBN 13: 9780807829707

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 2005

Synopsis

The leaders of anticolonial wars of resistance--Metacom, Pontiac, Tecumseh, and Cuauhtemoc--spread fear across the frontiers of North America. Yet once defeated, these men became iconic martyrs for postcolonial national identity in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. By the early 1800s a craze arose for Indian tragedy on the U.S. stage, such as John Augustus Stone's Metamora, and for Indian biographies as national historiography, such as the writings of Benjamin Drake, Francis Parkman, and William Apess.

With chapters on seven major resistance struggles, including the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and the Natchez Massacre of 1729, The Indian Chief as Tragic Hero offers an analysis of not only the tragedies and epics written about these leaders, but also their own speeches and strategies, as recorded in archival sources and narratives by adversaries including Hernan Cortes, Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz, Joseph Doddridge, Robert Rogers, and William Henry Harrison.

Sayre concludes that these tragedies and epics about Native resistance laid the foundation for revolutionary culture and historiography in the three modern nations of North America, and that, at odds with the trope of the complaisant "vanishing Indian," these leaders presented colonizers with a cathartic reproof of past injustices.

About this title

Book Description:

"While thought provoking and satisfying to the expert in early American colonial studies, at the same time Sayre renders an approachable introductory survey for the newcomer. . . . An excellent study with wide-ranging implications, which will stimulate research for many years."-- Itinerario

From the Inside Flap:

The leaders of anticolonial wars of resistance spread fear across the frontiers of North America, yet once defeated, these men became iconic martyrs for postcolonial national identity in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. With chapters based on seven major resistance struggles, Sayre offers an analysis of not only the tragedies and epics written about these leaders, but also their own speeches and strategies, as recorded in archival sources and narratives by their adversaries. Sayre concludes that these tragedies and epics laid the foundation for revolutionary culture and historiography and that, unlike the stereotype of the complaisant "vanishing Indian," these leaders presented colonizers with a cathartic reproof of past injustices.

About this edition

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0807829706
• ISBN 13: 9780807829707
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368