Walking next to his father through the woods on a cool winter day, young Mason hears the sound of a bullet entering his father's body. As he looks ahead, he sees his mother, Xwelas, lower a shotgun. In the essay The Life and Murder Trial of Xwelas, a S'Klallam Woman, Coll-Peter Thrush and Robert H. Keller, Jr. recall the events before, during, and after the murder of George Phillips, a Welsh immigrant killed by his native wife. Xwelas' the life before the murder, the actions which provoked Phillips' death, and how the trial was influenced all help to describe the unusual history that took place in the seventeenth century.
Xwelas' had an unstable past that may have contributed to the anger toward George Phillips. In the mid-1800's, there were several reasons that it was important to marry a person of a different race. "Â…The threat of slavery, depopulation due to disease, and the breakdown of traditional ways, could have encouraged a young Indian woman to seek relative refuge......
Join Now or Login to view the rest of this paper.
Approximate Word Count: 865
Approximate Pages: 4 (260 words per double-spaced page) |