Chapter Four is Officially Underway

Chapter Four is what I call the fun chapter--it deals with fornication (among other things). The title, as it stands now, is " 'She defyled her body wth a Pagan:' the religious contexts of interracial intimacy."

The core of the chapter, as it stands now, is a 13-page, 3,351-word paper I gave at the Berks this past summer. The paper, I believe, was favorably received. But of course a paper does not a chapter make. I've been working on what goes into this chapter this weekend (in addition to writing job letters.)

One topic I would like to address is Anglo-Indian marriage. The English seemed to have followed a model for dynastic marriage in the early seventeenth century. That is, raise the daughter of an Indian leader among the English. Teach her Christianity, baptize her. (see above, chapter three) Marry her to a prominent Englishman. Use her children to attempt to lay claim to Indian lands under English law.

If you think I'm describing Pocahontas, I'm not. I'm describing Mary Kittamaquund. After the death of her father (known as the Tayac, translated by the English as Emperor, of Maryland), her godfather Giles Brent married her in order to secure title to her people's land. Giles was attempting to challenge the authority of the Calvert family by taking an eleven-year-old bride. Mary had at least two children before her death; one of them was involved in Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia. Writers at the time described him as having inherited his mother's "brutish" and "heathenish" nature. (see below, chapter five)

So, my project for Columbus Day: write about Mary Kittamaquund.