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To Marry an Indian: The Marriage of Harriett Gold and Elias Boudinot in Letters, 1823-1839
When nineteen-year-old Harriett Gold, from a prominent white family in Cornwall, Connecticut, announced in 1825 her intention to marry a Cherokee man, her shocked family initiated a spirited correspondence debating her decision to marry an Indian. Eventually, Gold's family members reconciled themselves to her wishes, and she married Elias Boudinot in 1826. After the marriage, she returned with Boudinot to the Cherokee Nation, where he went on to become a controversial political figure and editor of the first Native American newspaper.
Providing rare firsthand documentation of race relations in the early nineteenth-century United States, this volume collects the Gold family correspondence during the engagement period as well as letters the young couple sent to the family describing their experiences in New Echota (capital of the Cherokee Nation) during the years prior to the Cherokee Removal. In an introduction providing historical and social contexts, Theresa Strouth Gaul offers a literary reading of the correspondence, highlighting the value of the epistolary form and the gender and racial dynamics of the exchange. As Gaul demonstrates, the correspondence provides a factual accompaniment to the many fictionalized accounts of contacts between Native Americans and Euroamericans and supports an increasing recognition that letters form an important category of literature.
Providing rare firsthand documentation of race relations in the early nineteenth-century United States, this volume collects the Gold family correspondence during the engagement period as well as letters the young couple sent to the family describing their experiences in New Echota (capital of the Cherokee Nation) during the years prior to the Cherokee Removal. In an introduction providing historical and social contexts, Theresa Strouth Gaul offers a literary reading of the correspondence, highlighting the value of the epistolary form and the gender and racial dynamics of the exchange. As Gaul demonstrates, the correspondence provides a factual accompaniment to the many fictionalized accounts of contacts between Native Americans and Euroamericans and supports an increasing recognition that letters form an important category of literature.
- GenresNonfictionHistorySchool
240 pages, Paperback
First published April 4, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 12, 2017
read this for a women's history course. the first half of the letters are really intense. obvious forms of racism are present and the way the gold family deals with it is absolutely crazy. once matters settle and the marriage happens and the gold family accepts it, things get rather boring. not to say that the racism made the story better, i just felt like all of the racism was swept under the rug and no one mentioned it. everyone just decided to revert back to talking about what they did that week, what they're doing next week, etc. i didn't feel any closure, especially at the end with the tragedies they all had to face. just seemed like everyday stuff to them, like no one really cared about what was going on. that's just my personal opinion. fun read for a history class, though.
June 17, 2019
A rare look at the times and controversial topics of the day, through the eyes of people who lived it. By reading letters, and getting some explanation from the narrator, I have a better picture of what it was like to live, "save face", and keep loves ones close no matter how angry they make each other. I picked up many details and search terms that would otherwise have been found haphazardly through third and fourth party sources. I picked this up for research and am glad I did.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews