A Century of Dishonor

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A Century of Dishonor (1881), by Helen Hunt Jackson, chronicles the experiences of Native Americans in the United States, focusing on examples of injustices. Among the episodes it documents are incidents in which Praying Town Indians were eradicated in the colonial period, despite their recent conversion to Christianity, because it was assumed that all Indians were the same. Her book brought to light the moral injustices enacted upon the Native Americans as it chronicled the ruthlessness of white settlers in their greed for land, wealth, and power. By the 1880s, her book had aided in shaking the moral senses of America in regards to the natives of the land. Long out of print, A Century of Dishonor was reprinted in 1993. This book had an effect in regards to Native Americans similar to that Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe in regards to African Americans.