Wowaus
Wowaus, also known as James Printer (c. 1640-1709), was an early Nipmuc printer, translator, scholar, and writer from Hassanamesit (today Grafton, Massachusetts). He is best known for his work at the first printing press in the American colonies. He helped produce the first Indian Bibles in the Massachusett language (an Algonquin language), which were used by English colonists in the cultural assimilation of Native Americans. He also set the type for books including the famous Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.[1]
As a young boy, Wowaus's parents sent him and his brother, Job Kattenanit, to attend a grammar school in Roxbury.[2]
Wowaus became fluent in English as a student at an Indian charity school. He attended Harvard's Indian College.
The Cambridge Press
Beginning in 1648, when he was a young boy, Wowaus began working at the printing press near Harvard College that was owned by Elizabeth Glover and operated by Samuel Green.[3] He is believed to have been the first printer's devil in the American colonies. There, he became known by the English name James Printer. In addition to the Indian Bible, Wowaus assisted Samuel Green in printing many of the Algonquian-language texts that were in circulation throughout the American colonies from 1658 to 1710.[4]
King Philip's War
In his late life, Wowaus was a teacher in Hassanemesit. His son, Ami, signed the deed that sold the last of the Hassanamesit tribal lands to the colonists in 1727.[5]
References
- ^ Senier, Siobhan (2014). Dawnland Voices: An Anthology of Indigenous Writer from New England. University of Nebraska Press. p. 374. ISBN 9780803246867.
- ^ Brooks, Lisa (2018). Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip's War. Oxford University Press. p. 77.
- ^ "Cambridge Press". From English to Algonquin: Early New England Translations. americanantiquarian.org. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
- ^ "Wowaus, or James Printer (d. 1717)". From English to Algonquin: Early American Translations. americanantiquarian.org. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
- ^ Daniels, George F. (1892). History of the Town of Oxford, Massachusetts: With Genealogies and Notes on Persons and Estates. Oxford: Pub. by the author with the cooperation of the town, 1892. Oxford: Pub. by the author with the cooperation of the town. p. 756.