On the eve of a major treaty conference be
tween Iroquois leaders and European colonists in the distant summer of 172
2\, two white fur traders attacked an Indigenous hunter and left him for d
ead near Conestoga\, Pennsylvania. Though virtually forgotten today\, this
act of brutality set into motion a remarkable series of criminal investig
ations and cross-cultural negotiations that challenged the definition of j
ustice in early America. \;
In Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early Amer ica\, Dr. Eustace reconstructs the crime and its aftermath\, bringing us into the overlapping worlds of white colonists and Indigenous peoples in this formative period. As she shows\, the murder of the Indigenous man set the entire mid-Atlantic on edge\, with many believing war was imminent . Isolated killings often flared into colonial wars in North America\, and colonists now anticipated a vengeful Indigenous uprising. Frantic efforts to resolve the case ignited a dramatic\, far-reaching debate between Nati ve American forms of justice&mdash\;centered on community\, forgiveness\, and reparations&mdash\;and an ideology of harsh reprisal\, unique to the c olonies and based on British law\, which called for the killers&rsquo\; sw ift execution. As Eustace powerfully contends\, the colonial obsession wit h &ldquo\;civility&rdquo\; belied the reality that the Iroquois\, far from being the barbarians of the white imagination\, acted under a mantle of s ophistication and humanity as they tried to make the land- and power-hungr y colonials understand their ways.
\nNicole Eustace is a professor o f history at New York University. A historian of the early modern Atlantic and the early United States\, she specializes in the history of emotion. She is author of Pulitzer-Prize winning Covered with Night: A Story of Mur der and Indigenous Justice in Early America\, as well as Passion Is the Ga le: Emotion\, Power\, and the Coming of the American Revolution and of 181 2: War and the Passions of Patriotism as well as coeditor of Warring for A merica: Cultural Contests in the Era of 1812.
\nBrought
to you in partnership with the Library Speakers Consortium. Visit our
site to see all events\, register and explore recordings of past event
s.