The Female American

by Unca Eliza Winkfield

When it first appeared in 1767, The Female American was called a "sort of second Robinson Crusoe; full of wonders." Indeed, The Female American is an adventure novel about an English protagonist shipwrecked on a deserted isle, where survival requires both individual ingenuity and careful negotiations with visiting local Indians. But what most distinguishes Winkfield's novel is her protagonist, a woman who is of mixed race. Whereas the era's popular novels typically featured women in the confining contexts of the home and the bourgeois marriage market, Winkfield's novel portrays an autonomous and mobile heroine living alone in the wilds of the New World, independently interacting with both Native Americans and visiting Europeans. The Female American is one of the earliest novelistic efforts to articulate an American identity, and more specifically to investigate what that identity might promise for women, while at the same time, the novel also engages with questions of what a British identity might look like refracted through the experiences of a new world.

While purportedly written by Unca Eliza Winkfield, Burnham has been able to find no historical record that such a person existed, and while the name set her on a number of leads that seemed quite in keeping with the thread of the novel, all led ultimately to dead ends. Accordingly, there is a discussion of authorship issues, and the Broadview edition also contains excerpts from English and American source texts.

This is the only edition available.

Genres: School, Fiction, Classics, Read For School, 18th Century, College, Grad School

308 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1767

Reviews

[Wreade1872 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some elements of interest but not for the casual reader. A desert island story but with no island survival neccessary. Some less racism and sexism than you might expect from the era.

Its version of Native Americans seems more south american than north. Despite being native american and an excellent shot with a bow the female lead isn't shown as having any more survival skills than other women of the period and most of the story is just religious preaching.

While there is some interesting stuff i havn't mentioned i was expecting something more like Hannah Hewit or The Female Crusoe.
However at least it was short, Hannah is a Tony Stark level genius and far more interesting but that work comes in 3 volumes and even i skipped the first one.

I think 2 stars is a fare assessment.

[LPR · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes this was for school. Bite me. [Message to my future self]
Not bad considering how touch-and-go the novel tradition was back then. It came across as so real that we were surprised to find out that it wasn't actually a travel narrative. Tons of interesting ideas of self-building, racial hybridity, what is American-ness etc etc etc etc. It's all in my Transatlantic notes.

[Lisa Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting twist on the standard great-white-male-explorer as ship-wreck victim plot of narrative fiction. While the book (circa 1790 publication) is not a work of literary prowess in a 'canonical' sense, it offers a respite to works like Robinson Crusoe where the protagonist is male.

I think kids would find it interesting.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this one for my American Novel class. I was thinking it was going to be quite different but it wasn't all that bad. Female main character, which is rare in the 1800's, made the entire book definitely more entertaining. Clever women in an age that could barely respect women as humans.

[Asiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had to read for my 19th century American Lit class. This book portrays awful issues regarding the obsession with converting the indigenous peoples to Christianity, the usage of slaves, and marrying only if “one converts.” Definitely not a good book and just a weird read in general.

[Jessica DMJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

This early novel has a really interesting premise—a mixed race (Native American and white) woman is deserted on an island, à la Robinson Crusoe. It's in her POV, and she has to figure out how to survive and escape. Unfortunately, I found the prose to be a slog, and didn't really enjoy reading it.

[Joya · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars

[Cheyenne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started out very interesting and had the potential to have a strong female lead character, but once she started manipulating the native peoples around her and stealing from their mummified bodies and forcing her religion on them (and marrying her cousin), I really hated it. The only reason I gave two stars is for the beginning.

[Tom Sheridan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Particularly interesting as a document of the first literary example of "Showbiz, Baby!"

Unca causes her cousin/pragmatic lover to be marooned with her on their Crusoenian island at the behest of frightened sailors after she introduces herself to the landing company (who had been commissioned by said cousin to search for her after her own marooning years earlier) through the hollowed out statue in the central island - complete with hidden underground passageways and microphonic properties that can cast a voice to all ends of the island, louder than any human capability. She had used this earlier to hide from an indigenous party that she turned to as a Christianizing missionary project. However, when her cuz and sailor friends drop their anchor, Unca specifically says she alarmed them by contact through the statue (rather than simply walking down the beach and saying "Oh hey, sup?") purely for the drama of it all. Absolutely messy and iconic.

Rest of the book is another iteration of the imperial-colonialist propaganda of so much British travel literature of the era (albeit through the fictional mouthpiece of a half-indigenous American woman). But this facet of her identity is subsumed to her British naturalization and really only exists to give her a narrative inroads to communication with the indigenous population she encounters that the Christian-justification for the continued violence of settler-colonialism may continue.

Showbiz, Baby!

[Grace Huff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring

[EmDee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was profound for its time in the 18th century as it had a female protagonist with agency traveling and being able to preach. But reading it from a 21st century viewpoint I can't get over how problematic I'm viewing the contents. I've tried a few times to go back and reread it but the actions that the protagonist takes just irk me and I end up getting frustrated with her. It's probably a good sign that I have such strong emotions towards it instead of being indifferent but it's a book that I'm still deciding if I should keep or throw into the fire!

[Piper · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the style of writing of this but I HATE! IMPERIALISTS! This was 100% total colonial bullshit. The narrator, a half white/half Native American woman discovers native people who speak the language of her Native American mother and what does she do? Pretends to be their sun god and tells them he’s not real and tries to convert them to Christianity!!!! Fuck that ish!!!!!

[Sneha Kannan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read for school. It’s a really odd book about a half Native American and half English woman who ends up stranded on an island and somehow manages to covert the native population of the island to Christianity. Wouldn’t read if I wasn’t forced to read it for school

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

While flawed in many ways as a novel, this work is a surprising example of the ways that Britons were able to invest the indigenous peoples of North America with their own assumptions and fantasies.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sort of female Robinson Crusoe. Quite interesting and entertaining.

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book as a requirement of my Gender and Literature class in college. From a gender and historical standpoint, it was quite interesting.

[Jills_Bookshelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful and sardonic autoethnographic text filled with lots of allusions and plot twists. Definitely worth the read.

[Lily Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robinsonette Win

Actually, this was really kinda good. Better than Robinson Crusoe in many ways--not least of which, it is shorter. I liked it.

[Anna Webster · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for an English course of mine, and this book is very interesting in juxtaposition with the novel of Robinson Crusoe...except this one is much shorter and more interesting.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

this shit was boring as fuuuuuuuuuck

[Sasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Female American is a perplexing book. It's a nearly-utopian, anachronistic vision of an America defined by biracial, intercultural relationships with the Indigenous people and the new colonial powers from the West. Simultaneously, it is a novel that is trendy derivative of Robinson Crusoe. At the same moment, it is a book that offers an alternative to women like Richardson's Pamela--women who use their intellect, physical prowess, and impressive skillset to solve problems, and choose a future. It is "problematic", it is strange, it feels like it is the predecessor of some of the ecopoetics movements and the Feminist/Nature themes that will dominate literature for years to come.

I'll be thinking about this one for a while, I imagine. It speaks to this movement in US history both the left and right seem to skip over--the way that there was always a sense of controversy and a vision of individualism that leads to community.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classic take on castaway fiction (think Tom Hanks' movie if you are unfamiliar with the genre) in which character pisses someone off, gets dumped on an uninhabited island, and must learn to be self sufficient. However, in this rendition the castaway is a woman and she becomes a prominent religious leader to an Indian community who formerly dabbled in idolatry.

Instead of a militant Christianity trope, Unca Winkfield uses deception to convert the Indians. The primary difference between Winkfield and Robinson Crusoe is that her habitation and tools she uses for survival are already there when we washes up on shore. In a way, the land has already been "domesticated" so Winkfield does not need to accomplish this vital step herself.

I did not love this book (but that could be because 18th c. literature is just not my jam), but if you loved Robinson Crusoe this might be for you.

[Clare Baeckeroot · Rating 2 out of 5]

an academic read

WHEW ok. this is intended to be a sort of “female Robinson Crusoe” — the text directly points repeatedly to Defoe but postures itself as superior because “it’s true.” of course this is also an invented narrative but whatever.

the prose has none of the charm of Defoe’s, although Unca Eliza is ever so slightly less obsessed with herself than Robinson Crusoe is. her theology a very slight hair more solid, and at least she has an equal-opportunity God complex as she is just as content to perform elaborate “supernatural” theatrics on her white family members as she is on the natives of the island where she’s marooned. an interesting text to pair with Defoe’s, but yeesh I would not read this of my own choice nor recommend it to others on its own literary merits. the prose is just … so meh, and the plot is deeply predictable. bleh.

[Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked up the book thinking it was a non fiction book about Native American women, and their roles in society or something. Was surprised to find out it was about a 17th century story of a half white half native woman, and surrounding it was the editors giving context to the time and other stories relating to it. The first half of the story I somewhat enjoyed, despite the racism and sexism stuff, but the second half felt like it was dragging, and with it being a direct transcription of the 17th century story, it was a very hard read. The editors did a great job explaining the context and motifs of the time and the story. It’d be a great book for anyone who would like to learn about the origins of the castaway genre. Would not recommend outside of that.

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I give this book points for handling the imperialist propaganda thing in a way that is slightly more tactful than ol' Robinson Crusoe, but all in all this is still Christian missionary propaganda, so can't really say that I'm a fan.

I think more interesting than any of the actual content of the story is the question of the author's true identity. I have to wonder whether or not this was written by anyone who truly was of mixed descent or if the author adopted this anonymous persona to better push their messaging (which would be super gross). This would be more interesting to try to explore than the actual plot (if you can say this book has a plot), which fizzled out into a disjointed blah at the end.

Overall this review feels really negative but I was mostly just ambivalent to this book and more interested in the historical background of it than anything else.

[KT · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.6. This book had a lot of weird themes obviously and usually when that’s the case I try to orient my take on it from the prose and stuff but this one was just so average lol and the end was also just like weird idk. It was okay and the first half was good enough but the second kinda ruined it. Also I wrote a paper on this so I’m being harsh cuz the paper was annoying

[Carmen Cordingley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was rather disappointed in this story I was expecting an early female adventure story instead I got colonial and patriarchal propaganda. The plot was infuriating. The writing was nothing special, it really speaks to the time that it was published.

However I love Broadview editions, they include so much extra and contextual information. It makes me so happy.

[Meredith Stein · Rating 3 out of 5]

read this book for my women and literature class and it was a crazy first assignment! unca makes for such a complicated main character that is almost impossible to form a solid opinion on which led to great deeper reading. i thought the second volume brought down the overall quality a bit though and the writing can be hard to read at times due to the older letter styling.

[Darby Gallagher · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was going to give it three and then I got snared into the most boring, lengthy and illegible description of how Unca's cousin/husband found her, which went three Family Guy-style flashbacks deep, went on for at least 2 chapters, and said absolutely nothing at all.

[Tori Janacek · Rating 4 out of 5]

*3.5