As part of our Online Author Series\, expl ore early-American history during a conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winni ng historian Nicole Eustace as she discusses her 2022 award-winning book " Covered With Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America."
\nOn the eve of a major treaty conference between Iroquois leaders and European colonists in the distant summer of 1722\, two white fur traders attacked an Indigenous hunter and left him for dead near Conestoga\, Penns ylvania. Though virtually forgotten today\, this act of brutality set into motion a remarkable series of criminal investigations and cross-cultural negotiations that challenged the definition of justice in early America.\n
In \;"Covered With Night\," 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 murde r of the Indigenous man set the entire mid-Atlantic on edge\, with many be lieving war was imminent. Isolated killings often flared into colonial war s in North America\, so colonists anticipated a vengeful Indigenous uprisi ng. Frantic efforts to resolve the case ignited a dramatic\, far-reaching debate between Native American forms of justice &mdash\; centered on commu nity\, forgiveness and reparations &mdash\; and an ideology of harsh repri sal\, unique to the colonies and based on British law\, which called for t he killers&rsquo\; swift execution. As Eustace powerfully contends\, the c olonial obsession with &ldquo\;civility&rdquo\; belied the reality that th e Iroquois\, far from being the barbarians of the white imagination\, acte d in sophisticated and humane ways as they tried to make the land- and pow er-hungry colonials understand their customs. \;
\nAbout the Author: \;Nicole Eustace is a professor of history at Ne w York University. A historian of the early modern Atlantic and the early United States\, she specializes in the history of emotion. She is author o f the Pulitzer Prize-winning \;"Covered With Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America\," as well as \;"Passion Is th e Gale: Emotion\, Power and the Coming of the American Revolution" \;a nd of "1812: War and the Passions of Patriotism."
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ne event.
The library will also host a book discussion of "Cover
ed With Night" on December 7 at noon. See details.
This event is part of \;DBRL's&nb sp\;Online Author Series\, support ed by David Lile honorarium funds. A recording will be available for later viewing on the \;author s eries site.
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