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The Piscataway people are a Native American tribe who were originally part of a Confederacy under the authority of a Tayac (Emperor). The region in which their Confederacy resided was between the:

“western shore of the Chesapeake Bay to the watershed of the Potomac River in the area now known as Virginia, and all land from the southern tip of St Mary’s County, MD, north to include Baltimore, Montgomery and Anne Arundel Counties MD to include Washington DC.” (Piscataway Conoy Tribe, 2021)

Out of the notable areas in which the Piscataway people lived, there are a few places that are close to where I live. One of these notable areas is the Potomac River, which the Piscataway Tribe is considered to have been located at around 1600. (Wikipedia) Smith’s map in 1608 shows the original Patawomeck River, where the tribe resided.

Because the Piscataway Tribe lived near waterways such as the Potomac River, the Patuxent River, Mattawoman Creek, and the Anacostia, they used a great deal of canoe navigation and agricultural lifestyles. (Piscataway Conoy Tribe, 2021) They had permanent settlements with “farmers, farm foremen, field laborers, guides, fishermen, and domestic servants.” (Piscataway Conoy Tribe, 2021) I imagine that the Piscataway people liked the line between the forest and the rivers because it provided protection from seasonal ailments and unwanted enemies. Their wide access to a multitude of resources (plants, mammals, fish...) must have led to a diverse diet and rich trade system with their Confederacy up and down the river, also aided by ease of access via waterways.

The Clergyman's Almanack; or, and Astronomical Diary & Serious Monitor, or the Year of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ 1811 is an Almanac focusing on the Yankeedom region, specifically in Massachusetts. This almanac is particularly interesting because it has a religious focus, which is reflective of the culture of Yankeedom at the time. Colin Woodard argues in American Nations that Yankeedom “forbade anyone to settle in their colony who failed to pass a test of religious conformity.” (Woodard, 2011)

Indeed, we see this influence as early in the almanac as in the “Editor’s Address to His Patrons”, where he “indulges the hope that you will not fail occasionally to cast your eyes at the respective beads of those pages, and upon such other passages as are designed to lead you ‘to know yourselves.’” (The Clergyman’s Almanack, 1810) The last sentence of this address to his audience is particularly interesting because it encourages the reader to interpret the religious content of the almanac as an inspiration for identity, which could be evidence that Woodard was correct in his interpretation of Yankeedom demanding religious conformity.

The other passages that stood out to me most were “Signs of a Living, and Growing Christian” and “Signs of a Dying, or Decaying Christian”. The passages contain guidelines and rules that outline how to be a good Christian, and what to avoid. I think this is significant for the region of Yankeedom because it’s intended to influence how people act and how they should conform to Christianity. Producing and distributing these guidelines en masse in an almanac is a clever way to spread ideology, because almanacs were common and useful for a large portion of the population. This Christian propaganda did not just have social implications either – this ideology affected cultural, political, and economic relationships within the region as well.

The reading I have chosen to analyze is The works of Virgil: containing his pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis. Translated into English verse; by Mr. Dryden. In three volumes. Adorn'd with above a hundred sculptures. I compared the third and fourth editions, which were printed in 1709 and 1716 respectively. They were both printed in London, the first book by Jacob Tonson at Grays-Inn Gate and the second also by Jacob Tonson in the Strand. Interestingly, even though the editions are printed by the same publisher, they have notable differences in publication.

The difference I noticed between the texts is the variance in text location on the page. It seems as though there is less white space on the paper in the third edition when compared to the fourth edition. There is more white space in the fourth edition because the text is tightly printed onto the page, with large margins on the bottom. This contrasts the third edition, whose text is not as tightly fitted onto the page, with no large margins for the third edition. Originally, I would have thought that this makes the third edition a luxury text, as spaced out texts often indicate expensive production. However, both texts have the same illustrations and the page numbers match for most of the work. This leads me to believe that the difference in production are a result of the location where Jacob Tonson printed the text. As previously mentioned, Tonson printed the third edition at Grays-Inn Gate and the second edition in the Strand. I suspect that there were differences in the printing machines themselves, such as differences in set margins between text and paper.

Olivia Fairfield from The Woman of Colour and Lemuel Gulliver from Gulliver’s Travels parallel one another in their struggles because they both lose bodily autonomy.

Fairfield points to the objectification of her body to the audience: “an unportioned girl of my colour, can never be a dangerous object” (56). This sentence illustrates the oppression that Black women face – a constant objectification that varies in degree of offense based on the Black woman’s position with whiteness. Fairfield must marry a man if she wants access to her white father’s inheritance, essentially she must offer herself as an object to a man if she wants to enjoy any of the finances that her father left behind.

Gulliver experiences a loss of bodily autonomy when he arrives at the island of Brobdingnag, where he is tiny in comparison to the 60 feet giants that inhabit the island. Like Fairfield, he is also treated like an object due to his size, as seen when he is in the family house of one of the giants: “when dinner was almost done, the nurse came in with a child of a year old in her arms...The mother, out of pure indulgence, took me up, and put me towards the child”(Part II, Chapter I). Gulliver is treated like a toy instead of an autonomous being, at the mercy of the child who almost killed him. He is there for the entertainment of the giants.

While Fairfield and Gulliver experience losses of bodily autonomy in society, and while they are both educated, they have very different identities. Fairfield, being a Black woman, has the least amount of power in society, while Gulliver, a white man, has the most amount of power in society. It’s interesting to read their experiences of oppression; Fairfield is used to her experience, while Gulliver is experiencing something entirely new. What an ironic privilege it is for Gulliver to experience lack of bodily autonomy only now, something Fairfield has experienced her entire life.