SOURCE: “Colonization and the American Indian in Simms's ‘Lucas de Ayllon,’” in Southern Quarterly, Vol. 37, Nos. 3-4, Spring, 1999, pp. 277-82.

In the following essay, Murphy contends that although Simms's treatment of the Indian in his short story “Lucas de Ayllon” focuses primarily on physical characteristics, it should still be considered a positive representation of the Combahee people.

William Gilmore Simms's fictional history “Lucas de Ayllon: A Historical Nouvellette” (1845) offers a unique and sympathetic perspective of the American Indian as a tragic victim of colonization. While utilizing a form of colonial language which treats the human subject as a body, Simms succeeds in bringing to light the admirable character of the Indian and the tragedy which marked the fate of many North American indigenous peoples. The use of language which focuses on the body can be interpreted as prejudicial in particular readings of colonial literature, for it treats the...