Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America (Pulitzer Prize Winner)

by Nicole Eustace

Overview

WINNER • 2022 PULITZER PRIZE IN HISTORY
Winner • Francis Parkman Prize (Society of American Historians)
Finalist • National Book Award for Nonfiction
Best Books of the Year • TIME, Smithsonian, Boston Globe, Kirkus Reviews

The Pulitzer Prize-winning history that transforms a single event in 1722 into an unparalleled portrait of early America.

In the winter of 1722, on the eve of a major conference between the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee (also known as the Iroquois) and Anglo-American colonists, a pair of colonial fur traders brutally assaulted a Seneca hunter near Conestoga, Pennsylvania. Though virtually forgotten today, the crime ignited a contest between Native American forms of justice—rooted in community, forgiveness, and reparations—and the colonial ideology of harsh reprisal that called for the accused killers to be executed if found guilty. In Covered with Night, historian Nicole Eustace reconstructs the attack and its aftermath, introducing a group of unforgettable individuals—from the slain man’s resilient widow to an Indigenous diplomat known as “Captain Civility” to the scheming governor of Pennsylvania—as she narrates a remarkable series of criminal investigations and cross-cultural negotiations. Taking its title from a Haudenosaunee metaphor for mourning, Covered with Night ultimately urges us to consider Indigenous approaches to grief and condolence, rupture and repair, as we seek new avenues of justice in our own era.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631495878
Publisher:	Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	04/27/2021
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	47,262
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Nicole Eustace is professor of history at New York University. She is the author 1812: War and the Passions of Patriotism and Passion Is the Gale: Emotion, Power, and the Coming of the American Revolution. She lives in Mamaroneck, New York.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Tomorrow's Doom 13

July 30-August 1, 1722

Chapter 2 Taquatarensaly (Captain Civility) 40

Chapter 3 When Things Go Ill 46

February 1722

Chapter 4 Sawantaeny 63

Chapter 5 Sorrow Will Come Fast 69

March 6, 1722

Chapter 6 John Cartlidge 87

Chapter 7 What Content and Decency Require 93

March 7-14, 1722

Chapter 8 Peter Bezaillion 112

Chapter 9 Two Heads Are Better Than One 119

March 15-17, 1722

Chapter 10 Weenepeeweytah and Elizabeth Cartlidge 137

Chapter 11 Forgive Anyone Sooner Than Thyself 144

March 21-26, 1722

Chapter 12 Isaac Norris 161

Chapter 13 He Will Go To Law 171

April 4-7, 1722

Chapter 14 Satcheechoe 194

Chapter 15 Stark Naught 200

May 4-11, 1722

Chapter 16 William Keith 219

Chapter 17 Take Him Now 228

June 15-July 2, 1722

Chapter 18 Ousewayteichks (Smith The Ganawese) 244

Chapter 19 Money and Good Men 251

August 3-15, 1722

Chapter 20 James Le Tort 267

Chapter 21 A Word to the Wise 275

August-September 1722

Chapter 22 James Logan 297

Chapter 23 Stiff Obstinacy 307

October 3-5, 1722

Chapter 24 Civility's Last Word 323

Acknowledgments 339

Notes 345

Bibliography 407

Index 429

Editorial Reviews

02/22/2021

NYU history professor Eustace (1812: War and the Passions of Patriotism) delivers an immersive account of the fallout from the 1722 killing of a Seneca Indian hunter by two white fur traders in Pennsylvania. Eustace describes how the assault sparked fears of an all-out war between colonists and the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee, and details months of intense negotiations resulting in the still-recognized Albany Treaty of 1722. She draws a sharp contrast between Indigenous principles of justice, which sought “emotional reconciliation and economic restitution for the resolution of crimes,” and Pennsylvania’s strict new penal code, which required the suspects to be imprisoned and executed if found guilty. Eustace also delves into Indigenous concepts of land ownership and the prominent role of women within the Five Nations; explores the rift between the Quaker founders of Pennsylvania and later Anglican settlers; and notes that the Albany Treaty, which ceded new lands in western Pennsylvania and New York to the colonists, is also a record of restorative justice achieved through condolence ceremonies and reparation payments. Throughout, she makes excellent use of primary sources to convey the sophisticated rhetorical strategies of Native negotiators. Early American history buffs will be fascinated. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"Nicole Eustace crafts a thoroughly original and compelling account of eighteenth-century America, its volatile societies and cultural boundaries, and especially the conflicts between Native people and colonial newcomers over how justice itself might be defined in America. Her answers are surprising, enlightening, and worthy of rediscovery."

Matthew Dennis

"[Eustace] reveals forgotten treasures in America’s attic... She draws from dozens of primary sources and hundreds of secondary ones, yet seamlessly weaves them into a cohesive, compelling narrative full of intrigue and pathos.... Drawing repeated distinctions between rigid, albeit unfairly applied, British law (perpetrator-focused, reprisal-oriented, punishment driven) and the justice of the Haudenosaunee (victim-focused, restitution-oriented, harmony-driven)... Eustace manages to maintain the narrative tension.... formally documenting a more humane, healing vision of what justice could be – and once was – in this country."

Chicago Review of Books - Dana Dunham

"Listening keenly and insightfully to Native voices in colonial records, Nicole Eustace deftly recovers a revealing tale of murder and justice across a cultural frontier at a critical moment for the future of our continent. A great read and an important book."

Alan Taylor

03/01/2021

In 1722, the alcohol-fueled murder of a Seneca man, Sawantaeny, by two white fur traders led to the Great Treaty of 1722, "the oldest continuously recognized Indigenous treaty in Anglo-American law." Yet as Eustace (history, New York Univ.; Passion Is the Gale) explains in this thoroughly detailed book, the criminal trial that informed the land treaty arose out of colonists' desire to hang the murderers, while Haudenosaunee Confederacy diplomats sought emotional reconciliation and economic restitution for the murder. The author covers the lengthy trial and eventual land treaty that brought forth a greater understanding of concepts of justice in Haudenosaunee and other Indigenous traditions and how those conflicted with the beliefs of colonists. Relying on primary sources, including colonial writings, Eustace's account offers not only the history of the trial, but also an inclusive examination of ongoing clashes over the possession of land rights. Black-and-white illustrations of colonial letters throughout add context. VERDICT A scholarly history that questions the misconception that Indigenous concepts of justice were brutal. While well-documented, such a complex historical analysis is best suited for academics and informed subject specialists.—Jessica Bushore, Xenia, OH

Library Journal

★ 2021-02-18
A complex tale of a now-forgotten crime that shaped Native-White relations in the British Colonies of North America.

In Pennsylvania in the winter of 1722, John and Edmund Cartlidge, fur traders, visited a Seneca hunter named Sawantaeny. The brothers plied him with booze, writes NYU history professor Eustace, “hoping to lubricate their negotiations with enough alcohol that Sawantaeny would be too content to desire anything more valuable than second-rate rum for his efforts, if not too compromised to demand a fair deal.” When rum didn’t do the trick and Sawantaeny produced a musket, Edmund, a hulking man, grabbed it and hit Sawantaeny hard enough to shatter his skull. That the proposed trade was unfair was not lost on the nearby Natives who heard the story, including representatives from nations up and down the coast and far inland and powerful members of the Iroquois Nation. A mendacious Colonial governor tried to keep a lid on the murder while the governor of next-door Maryland was quick to order an aide “to contrive to let the Indians know that the Murderers are under the Pennsylvania Government and that we are no ways Concern’d in it.” From these basic elements—and with a vivid cast of characters that expands to include a shrewd go-between named “Captain Civility,” who spoke all the languages of the Susquehanna River Valley and embodied the Indigenous tradition “of assigning a person to take up membership in multiple communities, serving as the living embodiment of civil society”—the author fashions an engrossing historical excavation. The case traveled far, informing treaty agreements that were held in force for decades even as John Cartlidge proved a go-between on his own merits. The story has countless moving parts and one central mystery that demand subtle exposition, and Eustace navigates it all with skill and economy.

A fine contribution to the literature of Colonial America, where peace was far harder to achieve than war.

Kirkus Reviews