Apess & Emerson

America was going through an identity crisis early on in our history. The shock of breaking away from the British hasn't fully settled, and everyone is still living like and identifying with Englanders. Emerson and Apess challenged the people of America through their speeches, to stand up and become new individuals. Emerson hinted at new ways of thought mentality, which goes a long way to say that culture comes from the mind and how you think.

Apess addressed this to the public in the way we think about the darker skinned individuals known as the Native Americans. Who would have known that a writer from the earliest days of our nation's history felt that compelled to tackle racism, and at the same time word the speech in a way that it sounds like he's pointing fingers at the white american population. Throughout history we will see people in similarly dire situations trying to uprise or go against what the popular opinion is to encourage peace and coexistence.

Examples of this comparison lie in the heart of black segregation, when motivational speakers like Martin Luther King or Malcolm X were testing what their fellow American's previously thought, and professing of a better way of coexistence that can lead to a higher standard of living for everybody. However, unlike King, Malcolm, and many others... Apess drifted into obscurity and didn't have as much respect as the aforementioned men. He drank himself into alcoholism and died at a very young age. He was also part native american, so he could have been race oppressed. I mean, like I said... racism has been around for a very long time, so even throughout history examining literature, Americans were probably hesitant/reluctant to applaud the writings of an off-white native american man.