Indian Nullification of the Unconstitutional Laws of Massachusetts Relative to the Marshpee Tribe - Or, the Pretended Riot Explained by William Apes
page 79 of 185 (42%)
page 79 of 185 (42%)
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be among them will soon seek another home and society, which it is not
in the power of the Indians to do, on account of their color. Could they have been received and treated by the world as other people are, there would not be so many living in Marshpee as there are by half. The laws were calculated to drive the tribe from their possessions, and annihilate them, as a people; and I presume they would work the same effect upon any other people; for human nature is the same under skins of all colors. Degradation is degradation, all the world over. If the white man desired the welfare of his red brethren, why did he not give them schools? Why has not the State done something to supply us with teachers and places of instruction? I trow, all the schooling the Marshpee people have ever had, they have gotten themselves. There was not even a house on the plantation for the accommodation of a teacher, till I arrived among them. We have now a house respectable enough for even a white teacher to lodge in comfortably, and we are in strong hopes that we shall one day soon be able to provide for our own wants, if the whites will only permit us to do so, as they never have done yet. If they can but be convinced that we are human beings, I trust they will be our hindrance no longer. I beg the reader's patience and attention to a few general remarks. It is a sorrowful truth that, heretofore, all legislation regarding the affairs of Indians, has had a direct tendency to degrade them, to drive them from their homes, and the graves of their fathers, and to give their lands as a spoil to the general government, or to the several States. In New England, especially, it can be proved that Indian lands have been taken to support schools for the whites, and the preaching of the gospel to them. Had the property so taken been |
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