1843

[Goodrich, Samuel G.] By the Author of Peter Parley's Tales. "Pocahontas." Lives of the Celebrated American Indians. Boston, 1843. 169-89. This Goodrich, of the family of publishing Goodrich's represented in this archive, began the widely popular Peter Parley books for young people in the 1820s and wrote many of them. The preface indicates that the purpose of this book is to correct the "misrepresentations" and "deep prejudice," confirmed by evidence of their current wasted condition, that characterizes knowledge of the Indians. His account of Pocahontas here is of quite generous length, of quite generous praise (the rescue is the "most striking and dramatic incident in the whole history of the North American Indians"), and ends with this paean: "The name of Pocahontas adorns the brightest page in the history of the natives of America. In whatever light we view her character, either as maiden, a wife, or a mother, she is equally entitled to our respect and admiration. Heroic and amiable, constant and courageous, human, generous, discreet and pious, she combined in an extraordinary manner the virtues and perfections of both savage and civilized nature. The union of so many qualities honorable to the female sex and to the human species, should never be forgotten, in forming our estimate of the human race."
[illustrated; juvenile]
[Electronic Version]
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