English 2370: Analysis of William Apess's 'Eulogy on King Philip'

This assignment analyzes William Apess's 'Eulogy on King Philip' within the context of English 2370: Readings in American Leadership. The analysis explores the duality of perspectives on King Philip, contrasting the views of English settlers with William Apess's portrayal of him as a martyr. The assignment identifies key themes, including the disparity of power between colonizers and Native Americans, conflicting leadership roles, and the role of religion and spirituality. It examines specific statements from the text to illustrate leadership characteristics such as putting community needs first, fearlessness, optimism, humility, and empathy. Furthermore, the assignment contemplates the application of these leadership traits across various aspects of life, including academic, civic, social media, professional, and personal contexts. The student utilizes MLA citation format and addresses the requirements of both the Analysis and Application Handout Templates, as outlined in the assignment brief, to provide a comprehensive examination of the assigned reading.

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Student’s name
Professor’s name
English 2370: Readings in American Leadership.
Date:
Analysis handout template.
1. The key thesis of ‘Eulogy on King Philip’ is focused on the duality of perspectives
when looking at King Philip or Metacomet. On one hand, the English settlers and their
successors looked at King Philip as a rebel with a savage nature who led one of the bloodiest
battles ever fought on the American Soil. His death was celebrated with illustrations of his
face down in the mud. In contrast, William Apess portrayed King Philip as a martyr who died
for his own land, painting a contrasting picture of Philip’s noble death as a tragedy. King
Philip’s war, for Apess, held significance in the sense of how it highlights the racial and legal
discriminations that he and his kin, the natives, experienced in their own days.
2. The main claim of the text throughout the reading(s) indicate towards the disparity
of power and social status when it comes to looking at colonial behavior towards the Native
American people. White men coming to native lands has been depicted as a pack of hungry
beasts looking for prey. Indeed the interests of the colonizers were not food, but rather in
resources. Most of the colonial insurgencies into different lands, particularly in the lands of
the Native Americans depict that the natural resources as well as slaves, were the chief
aspects that interested the white people. There are a few facets that become quite prominent
throughout the readings. The most prominent among these as highlighted in Blaisdell’s book,
is the treatment that the Native Americans faced from their white colonizers. As mentioned in
the book, the white people were not looked at as friends to the Indians. They initially asked
only for a small part of land while later their needs became almost as large as the whole

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Indian hunting grounds (Blaisdell 93). This section of the reading also talks about the
overpowering strength of the white people which the Indians cannot match even with their
collective unity (Blaisdell 94), however their faith in their Great Father, who incidentally is
also angry on the white people for their heinous acts of exploitation, prompts them to carry
forward with the rebellion in hopes that the Great Father will send rifles and all necessary
support to his children (Blaisdell 94).
Conflicting leadership roles and changing loyalties is another associated aspect that
has been shed some light upon. Blaisdell (97, 98) point out the dissent that the Indian people
are facing towards their leaders who have turned their back to the cause and left the fighting
rebels alone for personal gains. The text significantly indicates why a strong and devoted
leadership is crucial when it comes to fighting oppressors and reclaiming one’s own lands. At
this juncture, it also becomes important to highlight how religion and spirituality played a key
role in the entire context, as that too becomes one of the key contributing factors to the theme
of the text. As Blaisdell (99) points out with reference to the Great Spirit, the lifestyle of the
Indians was quite different from that of the White people. Respecting this difference is one of
the crucial points that the text indicates towards.
Throughout the reading, loss and suffering is a theme that has been explored in great
depths (Blaisdell 109, 112). The aspect of suffering and loss does not originate simply from
the fact that the Indians were oppressed, but also from the wars for freedom that were raged.
Death and destruction is unarguably one of the strongest themes that the readings highlight.
Considering the Native American history with British colonizers, it becomes evident that
both the facet of oppression and discrimination, including forced slavery, contributed as
much to the sufferings of the people concerned, as the war for freedom that brought
immeasurable death and destruction on them.

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3. He does not wish to destroy his red children, their wives, and families. He wishes
you to separate yourselves from the British, and bury the hatchet you have raised (Blaisdell
104).
This is a statement that captures two distinct aspects quite significantly. Firstly, as a
leader of a community speaking to his people, this is a statement made to indicate precisely,
the purpose of the discord and weed out all possible ambiguous interpretations. Secondly, it
also highlights how the Indian natives held their priorities with clear conviction. The leader
does not tell the people to go to war with the British because they uprooted their homes and
their style of living. Instead it clearly points out that the primary objective is to restore order
to the sustaining chaos and amend the hostilities that have generated between the Indian
people and the British.
The ‘he’ here is a reference to the American Leaders who had taken the responsibility
upon themselves to restore the balance of lives in the land of America. Here this statement
makes vital sense and brings importance to the context by stating that the Americans are not
the enemies and they do not want any harm to befall the natives, their wives and their
children. This statement therefore also acts as a guide to the Indian warriors who are fighting
for the collective freedom, to understand friend from foe as well as collective good from one
– sided chaos.
Father! – You have got the arms and ammunition which our great father sent for his
red children. If you have an idea of going away, give them to us and welcome for us. Our
lives are in the hands of the Great Spirit (Blaisdell 98).
This is a statement that refers to the providers of weaponry as the father and the
overlord. There is a hierarchy that is quite visible here. In the form of a prayer that is
seemingly made to a spiritual entity, the Indians are actually praying to the ones in possession

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of arms and ammunitions, to provide them with the means to fight their oppressors. The
importance of this statement also lies in how the speaker has distinguished between the Great
Father and the Great Spirit. The Great Spirit holds a religious connotation wherein the Indian
people place their faith in the Great Spirit for the spiritual support and power to overcome
their oppressors and regain their life of dignity and pride.
Another key imagery that the statement brings forward is the requisition for physical
power that the Indian fighters are demanding. They know that their traditional ways of
fighting will be obsolete in comparison to the heavy machinery of the Americans. They need
a lot of firepower in order to overcome the disparity of strength that is prevalent in their
discord with the Americans who took their lands by force.
What is this I see before me? a few knives and blankets? Is this all you promised us at
the beginning of the war (Blaisdell 109)?
The significance of this statement also lies in the depiction of the disparity and power
that is prevalent throughout the reading and forms a significant aspect of the entire domain of
the oppression and discrimination against the Red Indian people. The phrase ‘Few knives and
blankets’ is a strong identification of the disparity as well as the gradually lifting illusion that
the natives have been kept in. The knives and blankets represent the frugal reimbursements
that were made to them after the war, much less in both quality and quantity from what they
have been initially promised. At the same time, it also represents how devalued their lives
had become in the eyes of their oppressors so that their requirements were not only not taken
care of, but also not respected.

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Application Handout Template.
1. There are several characteristics of leadership in play and these characteristics and
attributes can be both implied and explicit in nature. It is difficult to separate each of these
characteristics in terms of whether they are explicit or implicit in nature. However, the
following points highlight five key attributes of leadership that can also be connected with the
reading.
Firstly, a leader should always put the problems of the bigger community above the
problems of his own. This includes looking at a particular scenario, justified by the past
events that led to the formulation of the scenario and the outcomes that were expected to have
been received from the action. The leader is responsible for ensuring that the objective
primarily serves a collective good and secondarily becomes the requirement for everyone that
he is leading. Blaisdell’s text depicts certain key incidents, like the statement regarding a few
knives and blankets (109) which is a statement made by a leader upon realizing that the
ultimate objective has not been met. Secondly, a leader must always be fearless. Only by
being fearless can a leader be able to properly and unbiasedly judge a particular case and
formulate alternatives and options that become relevant and important not only for himself
but also for the team.
Similar to fearlessness, optimism is a key trait that should be embedded within all
leaders. A leader should be optimistic in all cases because his subordinates and followers will
always look up to him for support and as a role model. Blaisdell (102) paints the picture of
such a role model, knowing that the strength and fearlessness as well as optimism will be the
key traits that will help the Indians in their current ordeal.
Humility and empathy are the final two traits that needs to be associated with
effective leadership. A leader must be humble, not only in his approaches and actions, but

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also in his desires and wishes. An effective leader is not restricted from wanting something
extravagant, but it is important that whatever he needs is a collective requirement of the
people who are following him. Similarly, it is also important for him to be empathetic as only
by understanding the issues of the people who claim him to be a leader, will he be able to
judge the problem truly. Being Empathetic allows the leader to be able to understand exactly
where the problems lie. It lets him look at the issues from the perspective of the ones
suffering and therefore, make judgements that are beneficial for the entire community
concerned. Being humble allows the leader to be able to voice his opinions based on his
judgements, without the overt emphasis on what he needs as a person. These traits are what I
believe are crucial characteristics of leadership.
2. Academic life requires significant leadership abilities, both from the perspective of
a student as well as an educator. Some of the traits of leadership might not explicitly be
identified with people who are still not in the position of a leader, however they still remain
important characteristics that one requires to succeed in his academic life. Being optimistic
and fearless allows the students to be able to gain clarity on any form of academic / extra
academic queries. At the same time, being humble and empathetic lets the educators
understand the problems of the pupils and make appropriate decisions for them.
In civic life, the leadership attributes are quite significant because of the fact that they
let the leader be able to understand the needs and requirements of the public. Here it is
important to look at the connotation of leadership, not as something where there is a clear
distinction between the leader and the public as subordinates, but rather as something where
the leader is a representative of the problems of the public. Blaisdell, in his book, has cited
countless examples where the person who is responsible for leading the Indian communities,
always puts the problems and sufferings of the people before his personal issues. It is also

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understandable why such a characteristic is visible, given that the community as a whole have
been affected by the oppressors.
In social media life, a person comes across a wide range of people. Apart from simply
connecting with people, social media has also become an important platform where people
come together, share their ideas and opinions, as well as resources. This becomes quite
important when working together as a team. On social media platforms, the aforementioned
leadership characteristics become significant because they allow the leader to maintain the
same level of real life leadership skills and abilities on the social media platforms. It is also
true that social media life is a relatively modern day concept, however if looked at from the
viewpoint of how a society is built and functions with a leader. That is where the key
leadership attributes find significance.
In professional lives, the attributes of leadership become clearly visible when the
person starts working with a particular objective in his mind that will boost his professional
development. It can be observed in the case of almost all professions where the person needs
to pertain to certain key traits that will allow him to be well adept in his professional skills.
This also means that the leadership traits also helps him look at his colleagues and peers and
make decisions that are beneficial for all.
Personal life is an aspect where leadership traits are not explicitly visible but still
plays a crucial role in determining what kind of a person an individual will turn out to be.
Therefore, traits like optimism, humility, fearlessness etc. also become relevant traits in
helping building a person according to the nature of each of the traits. In cases of
understanding and solving personal problems as well as maintaining strong and positive
interpersonal relationships, these traits become key factors which eventually allows the
person to be a leader in his personal life as well.

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Works Cited.
Blaisdell, Bob, ed. Great Speeches by Native Americans. Courier Corporation, 2012.