“If I could write a story that would do for the Indian one-hundredth…” — Helen Hunt Jackson

“If I could write a story that would do for the Indian one-hundredth part what ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ did for the Negro, I would be thankful the rest of my life.”

On her ambition to use fiction to awaken public conscience about Native American injustice · Letter (as commonly attributed)

Helen Hunt Jackson

About Helen Hunt Jackson

15 October 1830–12 August 1885

Helen Hunt Jackson, born Helen Maria Fiske on 15 October 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts, and dead on 12 August 1885 in San Francisco, California, lived a life shaped by literary ambition, devastating bereavement, restless travel, and an increasingly fierce commitment to justice for Native peoples. She achieved wide…

More by Helen Hunt Jackson