Julie Borrego
English 48A
Journal for
William Apess

"Did you you ever hear or read of Christ Teaching his disciples that they ought to despise one because his skin was different then theirs?"(1055)

"I felt convinced that Christ died for all mankind—that age, sect, color, country, or situation make no difference. I felt an assurance that I was included in the plan of redemption with all my brethren." - A Son of the Forest

Summary:
Here we see Apess, pleading to fellow Christians to rethink their discrimination against people with different skin color.

My Ideas:

As I read Apess's "An Indian's Looking-Glass for the White Man, I was moved to really think about the Native Americans and how White settlers completely wiped tribes out. I was ashamed as well for not knowing more about Native Americans, they should be a bigger part of our history in school. Not just settlers came...yes their was fighting...but now their happy on their Reservations. We are taught about the trail of tears and the battle of Wounded Knee, but I have never read a piece of literature from a Native. While reading this, I couldn’t help but to think of my Great Grandmother, who was half Choctaw Indian from Arkansas. She had to keep the fact that she was Native American a secret, because it could have been a death sentence. But the sad thing is because of that we have no Idea for sure what our heritage and traditions are. It saddens me to think that she had to be in fear of the truth of who she really was. So even with this information in my Ancestry, I am even more ashamed to have not known the whole story.