Kahgegagahbowh's (George Copway's) Transatlantic Performance

Abstract

Ojibwa Methodist minister, author and Indigenous advocate, Kahgegagahbowh/George Copway (1818–69) has been the subject of a number of scholarly studies, particularly within the context of Indigenous studies, literary studies and Indigenous history in Canada and the United States. Born in the British colony of Upper Canada, Copway is known to scholars for his writings, particularly his The Life, History, and Travels of Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh, and his friendships with a number of prominent American writers and public figures. He also has been seen as a figure whose troubled marriage and complicated relationship to the Methodist church illustrates the difficulties Indigenous people faced in mid-century North America. To no small extent, then, Copway often figures in narratives of North American Indigenous history as a tragic figure, as he was displaced from Ojibwa society and simultaneously faced increased racism within settler society. However, Copway can be seen in a different manner. By focusing on his 1850 travels through Britain and Germany, where he attended the Frankfurt World Peace Congress, and exploring Copway's account of this trip, Running Sketches of Men and Places, in England, France, Germany, Belgium, and Scotland, we can see Copway's narrative as part of a long-standing history of Indigenous peoples' encounters and movements within imperial modernity in metropolitan settings.

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