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History of the United States I / Unit 10   USH1 1400 short lesson, about 20 seconds

Cooper's Last of the Mohicans

Captions available

The idea

James Fenimore Cooper's novel of eighteen twenty-six presented romanticised narratives portraying Native peoples as doomed, and as feral and bloodthirsty.

In practice

A best-selling novel teaching readers that Native disappearance was already settled.

Where people slip

A people described as vanishing require no policy to remove them, which is what the romance accomplishes.

Your place on the trail

Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.

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