Biography and Memoir

The first edition of Andrew G. Welch’s account of Oceola Nikkanochee, a young Seminole captured by United States troops during the Second Seminole War and subsequently taken into Welch’s care. Published in London in 1841, only three years after Osceola’s death, the work combines Nikkanochee’s story with a history of the Seminoles, material concerning Osceola, descriptions of Native life in Florida, and the Treaty of Moultrie Creek.     COMPLETE WITH ALL THREE LITHOGRAPHIC PLATES.+++ Rebound using the original blind-stamped brown cloth boards, with repaired corners and a later brown leather spine with five raised bands, blind ornaments, and gilt titles.+++ New endpapers supplied; the original endpaper material was retained and is laid in.+++ Illustrated with the three plates called for by Sabin and Howes: the frontispiece portrait of Nikkanochee; a full-length portrait of Osceola; and ‘Oceola’s Mode of Signing the Treaty.’ +++ Octavo; 8.75 inches. [6], 2–228 pages.   CONDITION: +++ Original blind-stamped cloth boards show rubbing, fading, and age-related surface wear; cornersrepaired. Later leather spine clean and sound, with bright gilt lettering. Original endpaper material hasbeen removed during rebinding but importantly retained and laid in.+++ Binding firm and usable. Text generally clean with scattered foxing and occasional spottingconsistent with age. The three lithographic plates are present, including the frontispiece, withoccasional light spotting and toning.+++ Nine pages contain contemporary manuscript annotations and underlining by William Stokes .    THE WILLIAM STOKES WYMAN ANNOTATED COPY.Inscribed ‘W. S. Wyman, Univ. of Ala. 1874’ by William Stokes Wyman (1830–1915), longtime University of Alabama professor and later president. The same ownership inscription survives on the retained original endpaper.     More significantly, nine pages contain manuscript annotations and underlining in Wyman’s hand. His notes concentrate particularly on Seminole words, names, terminology, dress, and material culture, and include a manuscript cross-reference to another work.  The annotations document Wyman actively using Welch’s narrative rather than merely owning it. Wyman’s later scholarship included work on George Stiggins’s Creek Indian History and the Indigenous peoples of Alabama and the Southeast. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: A SEMINOLE NARRATIVE PUBLISHED WHILE THE WAR WAS STILL WITHIN LIVING MEMORY.Welch’s narrative is an important early source for the nineteenth-century representation of Seminole history, Osceola, Native life in Florida, and the conflicts surrounding removal and the Second Seminole War. It also reflects the missionary and the contemporary belief that minorities should absorb into the dominant culture: Welch presented Christianization as the means of preventing what he believed would otherwise be the extinction of Native peoples.      Wyman’s ownership and annotations add a second historical dimension. The copy preserves tangible evidence of an early scholar of southeastern Native American history working directly with an important Seminole narrative. An illustrated PDF prospectus with additional historical context, detailed photographs of the plates, Wyman’s ownership inscriptions, and examples of his manuscript annotations is available with this listing.   LINK PDF HERE – Or by request. GENRES: Americana, Floridiana, Native American History, Seminole History, Biography, Indigenous Studies, Military History, Indian Captivity and Adoption Narratives, Treaty Literature, Association Copies SUBJECTS: Seminole Indians, Osceola, Oceola Nikkanochee, Andrew G. Welch, William Stokes Wyman, Second Seminole War, Florida History, Native Americans, Indigenous Peoples of Florida, Treaty of Moultrie Creek, Seminole Biography, Indian Removal, Native American Assimilation, Southeastern Indians, Creek Indians.   BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES: Sabin 56642. Howes W230.   less