Swindler Sachem: The American Indian Who Sold His Birthright, Dropped Out of Harvard, and Conned the King of England

by Jenny Hale Pulsipher

Indians, too, could play the land game for both personal and political benefit

According to his kin, John Wompas was “no sachem,” although he claimed that status to achieve his economic and political ends. He drew on the legal and political practices of both Indians and the English—even visiting and securing the support of King Charles II—to legitimize the land sales that funded his extravagant spending. But he also used the knowledge acquired in his English education to defend the land and rights of his fellow Nipmucs.

Jenny Hale Pulsipher’s biography offers a window on seventeenth-century New England and the Atlantic world from the unusual perspective of an American Indian who, even though he may not have been what he claimed, was certainly out of the ordinary. Drawing on documentary and anthropological sources as well as consultations with Native people, Pulsipher shows how Wompas turned the opportunities and hardships of economic, cultural, religious, and political forces in the emerging English empire to the benefit of himself and his kin.

Genres: Nonfiction

384 pages, Hardcover

Published June 19, 2018

Reviews

[Mandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book very heavy going and admit to having skipped large chunks of it. I can’t deny that it is a meticulously researched and comprehensive study of Native American John Wompas, who managed to transcend the disadvantages of his time and place to receive an English education and the knowledge and ability to fight for the rights of his fellow Nipmucs – even going so far as to visit King Charles II in England and receiving his support. The book is not just his biography but also an examination of 17th century New England pieced together from what documents remain including many contemporary accounts. The author does an amazing job of recreating the era and its people, but endless squabbles about land ownership, political machinations and court cases really don’t make for riveting reading for the general reader. As a work of scholarship it can’t be faulted, and I certainly learned much of interest from it, but overall I found some of it pretty tedious.

[Catherine Mustread]

From New Book Network: "In Swindler Sachem: The American Indian Who Sold His Birthright, Dropped Out of Harvard, and Conned the King of England (Yale University Press, 2018), Brigham Young University Associate Professor Jenny Hale Pulispher demonstrates that Indians, too, could play the land game for both personal and political benefit. According to his kin, John Wompas was “no sachem,” although he claimed that status to achieve his economic and political ends. He drew on the legal and political practices of both Indians and the English—even visiting and securing the support of King Charles II—to legitimize the land sales that funded his extravagant spending. But he also used the knowledge acquired in his English education to defend the land and rights of his fellow Nipmucs. His biography offers a window on seventeenth-century New England and the Atlantic world from the unusual perspective of an American Indian who, even though he may not have been what he claimed, was certainly out of the ordinary. Drawing on documentary and anthropological sources as well as consultations with Native people, Pulsipher shows how Wompas turned the opportunities and hardships of economic, cultural, religious, and political forces in the emerging English empire to the benefit of himself and his kin."