The Last of the Mohicans

by James Fenimore Cooper

Cooper is in many ways unique in emphasizing the presence of Native Americans as a critical factor in the creation of the new nation. For not only did the land become free of the English and the French. It would also be cleared of the Indian presence. And the novel suggests a dynamic within the movement of history to account for this phenomenon that would favor the creation of the new nation, a nation generated out of violence,

A man had better sleep without his scalp than famish in the midst of plenty.”

It was followed by the swift flashes of the rifles, which sent their leaden messengers across the rock in volleys, as though the assailants would pour out their impotent fury on the insensible scene of the fatal contest.