Perhaps more than any other nineteenth-century American author, James Fenimore Cooper sought to represent the culture and struggles of Native Americans. Although his depictions of indigenous tribes still bear traces of the endemic racism that was part of the larger American culture at the time, they did represent a literary breakthrough in the era. In the novel The Wept of Wish-Ton-Wish, Cooper shifts the focus to the earliest encounters

...

"Haunted since its construction by fraudulent dealings, accusations of witchcraft, and sudden death, the House of the Seven Gables is now home to shop-keeper Hepzibah Pyncheon and her brother Clifford, who has just completed a thirty-year sentence for murder. Their wealthy but unpleasant cousin, Judge Pyncheon, arrives for a visit, hoping to find the deed to the house, but his plans fall apart when someone is murdered. The House of the Seven Gables...