In his 1829 autobiography, A Son of the Forest, William Apes (also spelled Apess) (1798-1839) identified himself as having been born in the woods of Colrain, Massachusetts, to a formerly enslaved Pequot mother named Candace and a White father (of Scots Irish and unclear Native ancestry) named William. When his parents separated, Apes and his siblings were sent to live with relatives in Colchester, Connecticut. After being severely beaten by his grandmother, William left his kin and served a series of indentures in nearby White families. While living with the Furmans, a Baptist family, he was sent to six terms of school, where he learned to read and write. In 1809, his indenture was sold to William Williams, a judge in New London, Connecticut, who provided Apes with fine clothing and four years of instruction in the law.

After several years of attending evangelical Methodist meetings, William decided to run away from his indenture, and at the age of 15, he enlisted as a soldier and fought at the Battle of Plattsburgh, New York, in 1814. He spent several years traveling while working odd jobs (as a farm laborer, galley cook, baker, and hunting scout), and returned to Connecticut in 1817. There, he reunited with his aunt Sally George, joined a religious revivalist movement, and determined to become a preacher. In 1819, he rejoined his father and began preaching at prayer meetings on Catamount Hill.

Apes became famous as one of the earliest Native American authors in America, publishing five books between 1829 and 1836. His primary focus was speaking against racism and injustices toward Native peoples, past and present. In 1833, he joined in the struggles of Mashpee Wampanoag people against their White neighbors and was adopted into that tribe. His final publication, in 1836, was based on a public speech titled “Eulogy on King Philip,” the Wampanoag name of the sachem Metacom who led the rebellion against English domination in 1675-1676. Apes highlighted the wrongs of colonial warfare and corrected the erasures of White writers by portraying Metacom as a hero who died for his country.