Twayne's United States classics series

Viewed from today's perspective, The Yemassee dramatically and unflinchingly bares the manipulation, exploitation, and eventual genocide of a proud indigenous nation that preferred extinction to the surrender of its land and the subjugation of its people.

Originally published in 1831, this novel is set in Venice in the bygone days of the Doges. It was inspired by Cooper's travels in Italy. The author has intended to give his countrymen, writes Cooper in his preface, "a picture of the social system of the soi-disant republics of the other hemisphere." Cooper aims to show, William Cullen Bryant said, that all systems which reserve power for the strong, inherently oppress the weak.