History of My Own Times: Or, the Life and Adventures of William Otter, Sr.

Book Description
Big Bill Otter was one member of the early American working class not preoccupied with republican principles or the heritage of the Revolution. Big Bill Otter--apprentice, journeyman, master plasterer--was a thug. Otter's autobiography, first published in 1835, provides a rare and fascinating counterpoint to romantic notions of virtuous, respectable craftsmen in the early republic. His Life and Adventures offer an inside account of the brawling racism common in the early nineteenth century and sharply detail the rowdy male subculture of the times.


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This is one of the few first-person accounts of a rural artisan in pre-genteel American. The book depicts the ambiguities of race relation in the early nineteenth century, sheds light on its definition of manhood, and conveys a sense of humor very different from today's.


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