A Review of Stockbridge Past and Present

Yesterday I wrote - and posted to the Amazon website - a book review for Electa Jones' 1854 book Stockbridge, Past and Present, or, Records of an Old Mission Station.

With no further adieu, here it is:

This book has been very valuable to historians. It contains quite a few valuable nuggets of history that otherwise would not have been recorded. As such, it has been cited in a number of histories of the Stockbridge Mohican Indians.

In the preface, EWB Canning states "The author laid no claims to profound erudition. She was a plain, sensible woman."
That may be a somewhat euphemistic way to describe Electa Jones' work to modern readers. It might be more accurate to say that she was neither a particularly good author, nor a particularly reliable historian.

It may not be fair to compare Ms. Jones's book with more recent works whose authors had the benefit of a lot more sources, both primary and secondary. Nevertheless, you, as a reader are deciding what you want to read next, so the comparison is apt.

The first thing a prospective reader of this book should know is the author's biases. She was an English-speaking, white Calvinist from the 19th century (1800's). While it would be inexact to say she was a Puritan (true Puritanism was confined to an earlier period), that word may describe her better than any other. It is one thing to have an opinion, but Ms. Jones has no conception of an audience that is not Calvinist. When she states that the Stockbridge Indians' Emigrant Party left Stockbridge, Wisconsin for new lands in present-day Kansas in 1839, a significant point (to her) seems to be that "they started [left] on the Sabbath," and therefore, their leaving was no loss to the tribe. This comes across as judgemental to the modern reader who doesn't think of travelling on Sunday as a sin.

The second thing to keep in mind is that the author accepted some things uncritically from her sources. To put it simply, Ms. Jones didn't have the luxury to follow the Stockbridge Indians to their settlements in New York or Wisconsin. She still manages to include quite a few anecdotes about the tribe after they left Massachusetts, but they cannot be relied on. Fortunately, historians have other sources available that either corroborate or discredit some of these post-Massachusetts anecdotes.

There are other issues. The book isn't organized into much of a narrative. It is largely non-chronological, tending to be organized instead around topics. Typos and/or misspellings are a problem - as is antiquated language. Sometimes Ms. Jones' writing simply lacks clarity.

If you want to read a good book about the Stockbridge Indians in Massachusetts, Patrick Frazier's The Mohicans of Stockbridge (1993) is undoubtedly the best. My own Proud and Determined covers the Stockbridge Mohicans history from 1734 to 2014. I would recommend Stockbridge, Past and Present to you if you are a serious historian. But if you want to read one "good" book about the Stockbridge Indians, this isn't the one.

By the way, Stockbridge Past and Present is available free as an e-book from Google books.

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