WEST CHESTER, PA — On May 9, 2023, from 6:30-7: pm Author Anita Wills will host a presentation of her 7th book, Minqua Unami Okehocking & the Down River Nations. The book is a Non-Fiction Historical book, detailing the lives of Natives residing throughout the Eastern Woodlands.
Ms. Wills researched and documented her family history which spans thousands of years in America to Britain and Spain in Europe Mali and Guinea in Africa as well as Canada and South America. In the pages of Minqua Unami Okehocking is a continuation of the history and historical figures entangled in her lines which are Native European and African. Ms. Wills Ancestors were the indigenous occupants of the region for at least 10,000 years before Colonization.
Over 30 years, she traced her Native African and European Ancestors. The Author utilized a combination of DNA and Research using the Oral History passed to her by her mother. As in previous books she touches on how Natives were reclassified as Mulatto Colored Negro and even white according to how they were perceived by whites. Around 1705 the Colonial Governments of Virginia Maryland and Pennsylvania used those laws to remove the designation of Indian. Those laws allowed for the removal of Natives from the land which was then granted to Settlers from Europe. The laws are codified in Virginia’s Colonial Law books Henning’s Statutes at Large
“William Waller Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia from the First Session of the Legislature, in the Year 1619. (New York: R. & W. & G. Bartow, 1823), 2:170.
“Historically in the American South, the term Mulatto was applied to persons with mixed Native American and African American ancestry. For example, a 1705 Virginia statute reads as follows: “And for clearing all manner of doubts which hereafter may happen to arise upon the construction of this act, or any other act, who shall be accounted a Mulatto, Be it enacted and declared, and it is hereby enacted and declared, That the child of an Indian and the child, grandchild, or great-grandchild, of a negro shall be deemed, accounted, held and taken to be a Mulatto.”
The Presentation will take place at the West Chester Friends Meeting House. Ms. Wills will be reading excerpts from her book and the presentation will include a Power Point Presentation. She will be available to answer questions and sign copies of the book after the presentation. Ms. Wills will also sign previously purchased books which are available through Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.
Ms. Wills was born and raised in Coatesville Pennsylvania and resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a local author and historian who has been researching and writing about the history of Chester County and the surrounding area for over 30 years. Ms. Wills is a member of the Monacan Indian Nation a Federally Recognized Tribe and a Member of the Daughter’s of the American Revolution (DAR) through her Native Ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War. She is passionate about sharing the history of the region and is excited to share the books she has written about her hometown. She is also the Author of Notes and Documents of Free Persons of Color, Pieces of the Quilt the Mosaic of an African American Family, Black Minqua the Life and Times of Henry Green, Along the Rappahannock Homeland of the Nanzattico Indian Nation, and A Nation of Flaws JustUs in the Homeland.
This event is open to the public. Copies of the book will be available for purchase. The West Chester Public Library is the host of this event. Registration is requested at https://ccls.libcal.com/event/10544509.
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