4 - The “Hive of America”: James Fenimore Cooper's The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish and the History of King Philip's War

Summary

Then, New England has long since anticipated her revenge, glorifying herself and underrating her neighbors in a way that, in our opinion, fully justifies those who possess a little Dutch blood in expressing their sentiments on the subject. Those who give so freely should know how to take a little in return.

– Cooper, Preface to The Chainbearer (1845)

The common faults of American language are an ambition of effect, a want of simplicity, and a turgid abuse of terms. To these may be added ambiguity of expression.

– Cooper, The American Democrat (1838)

As just about everybody knows, James Fenimore Cooper disliked New Englanders. He appears to have held Yankees accountable for most of the ills plaguing nineteenth-century American society: material acquisitiveness, the restless movements to the west, and the erosion of hierarchical privilege. One critic of Cooper has called his disease “New Anglophobia,” and if it was pathological, it certainly worsened during the 1830s and 1840s, after his return from a seven-year stay in Europe. During this period Cooper faced waning popularity, bitterly launched numerous libel suits against a Whig press that lampooned him, and witnessed what he believed was social anarchy during New York's Anti-Rent turmoil, which led to his writing the Littlepage series, a trilogy of novels (Satanstoe [1845], The Chainbearer [1845], and The Redskins [1846]). These novels largely held the enterprising Yankee accountable for the social problems besetting the republic.

Cooper's critics have noted as well the historical premises of his social criticism.