Volume I

The poem opens with a declaration of the author's intention to relate the events of her life, which introduces the first major theme of female adventure outside of the domestic sphere. She describes her grandfather's plantation in Virginia, and the massacre of settlers by the native Indians, which leaves her grandfather dead and her father, Mr. William Winkfield, captured. As her father is about to be put to death by the Indians, a young Indian princess, named Unca, saves his life and secures his liberty by taking a liking to him and putting him in favor with the king. Unfortunately, his troubles mount when the sister of the young princess grows equally fond of him, and solicits him for marriage. He responds unfavorably, claiming love only for Unca, so she poisons him and leaves him for dead. Unca comes upon him and saves his life yet again, and they remove themselves from the village to live with the settlers. They are not there long before their daughter, Unca Eliza, is born, and they are visited by two Indian men sent from Alluca, the jealous sister of princess Unca. The two men reveal daggers and a skirmish leaves Unca and one of the assassins dead, while Mr. Winkfield escapes death and takes the remaining assassin prisoner. Under the council of the other settlers, he decides to set him free, sending him back to the village with a promise of revenge on Alluca from Mr. Winkfield. She dies of grief before revenge can be had, and sends her heart and a request for forgiveness to Mr. Winkfield.

Overcome with grief for his murdered wife, Mr. Winkfield decides to return to England with his daughter in order to take care of his sick brother. While there, Unca Eliza grows up in the company of her cousins, is educated and exposed to Christianity, under which she was baptized, and notes with what great attention the English attend to her due to the complexion of her skin and her mixed Indian and English dress. Shortly after arriving in England, the grief-stricken Mr. Winkfield desires to return to Virginia, but intends for Unca Eliza to remain in England to finish her education. When she is eighteen years old, she is summoned by her father to return, and she makes the journey alongside her cousin, John Winkfield, who solicits her for marriage. She denies him, claiming she will never marry a man who cannot use a bow and arrow any better than she. Soon after arriving back in Virginia, Unca Eliza's father dies, and she is left alone. She desires to return to England when she is twenty-four, so she purchases a sloop and assembles a crew for the journey. On the way, her chosen captain solicits her for marriage to his son, but she refuses in the same manner as before. He is outraged by this, and threatens to leave her on an uninhabited island - securing all her money to him - if she does not reconsider. An altercation ensues, and the captain is thrown overboard by two slaves. (He is later recovered.) He gives Unca Eliza another opportunity to reconsider, but she does not, and he leaves her on an uninhabited island.

Once on the island, Unca Eliza, realizing she is a castaway grieves, then quickly devotes herself to God realizing how lucky she is to be alive. Unca Eliza finds an abandoned hermitage shortly after, which she takes as her shelter. Inside, she finds a manuscript of the previous occupant telling her how to survive as they have. The manuscript implies the occupant may soon be dead. She begins settling into her new lifestyle. She learns how to fend for herself and begrudgingly eats some goats and roots. After several weeks of this, she realizes the gravity of her situation and is much distressed, and comes down with a debilitating fever. Once she recovers, she consults the manuscript for more information, and learns that there is life on the island after all. She decides to explore her new habitation and understands the hermitage to be a religious temple of the sun, which contains numerous mummies. Upon returning from her explorations, she is startled by the presence of the hermit, who she thought was no longer on the island. The hermit dies overnight, and Unca Eliza makes more explorations and discovers an underground passageway leading to an idol of worship. While she is there she discovers that she can climb inside "the oracle" and it allows her voice to be heard for a great distance. A tempest brews outside, trapping her in the passageway. Afterward, the temple is visited by a group of Indians, as the manuscript predicted, and Unca Eliza hides in the secret passageway. While she is in there, she resolves to convert the Indians to Christianity ("from their idolatry") and develops a plan to hide within the body of the idol and to speak to the Indians when they arrive for their worship on the following year. An earthquake ensues during her practicing of the plan, and upon its conclusion, she discovers it has destroyed her abode. When the Indians arrive for their worship, she converses with the high-priest from within the idol, instructing the Indians in Christian principles.

Volume II

Female authority

Female authority is a major theme in The Female American. This is evident from the outset of the novel, beginning with the great power and political influence of the young princess in the Indian tribe. Also, despite the fact that the book follows the Robinsonade genre conventions, it explores the possibility of a female adventurer rather than a typically male one. Unca Eliza is a powerful and independent heroine who commands respect outside of the normal domestic setting. For instance, she displays her dominance in her numerous denials for marriage. In response to her cousin's persistent proposals, she contends:

"I would never marry any man who could not use a bow and arrow as well as I could; but as he still continued his suit, I always laughed at him, and answered in the Indian language, of which he was entirely ignorant; and so by degrees wearied him into silence on that head" (51).

This also exemplifies Unca Eliza's superior worldliness, and her ability to compete on an equal level with her male counterparts. What complicates this theme is that Unca Eliza, though solitary on the deserted island, is aided in survival by the experiences and manuscript of a male character. However, it is ultimately Unca Eliza's decision to trust in God, and the ingenuity of her endeavor to convert the Indians to Christianity, that provide her with a successful way off the island.

However, even with this authority, Unca Eliza, does conform, at the end of the novel, to what is expected of her. She marries. Even when her cousin has not accomplished the task of mastering the bow and arrow. It seems this event is the author's attempt of satisfying the readers of the day. They would expect the woman to marry because isn't that what every 18th century woman strives for? For Unca Eliza the marriage serves more as a way to have companionship. She does not lose her independence and works beside her husband instead of under him. This may not be considered authority but equality.

Performance and gender roles

When Unca decides to convert the Indians to Christianity the use of performance is important to note because the reader can visually see how Unca uses the body of a male cleric to promote her ability as a female missionary, a role usually designated to men. Before Unca’s performance, she describes the sun idol saying that, “The image itself, of gold, greatly exceeded human size: it resembled a man clad in a long rob or vest” (Winkfield 86^[1]). Kristianne Vaccaro is surely right in reference to this part when she says “what is most significant about the text’s—and, ultimately, about Unca’s—performance of these religious “truths” is that she herself cannot access them without first playing the role of male cleric” (Vaccaro 136^[2]). Unca uses the body of the sun idol to instill religious truths because she herself would not be able to do so as a female. Once the performance begins, the reader can clearly see how Unca has used the body of the sun idol to perform her duty as a female missionary. She narrates that “High-Priest. Did God send you to teach us? Answer. He brought me hear, and I will teach you.” (Winkfield 104^[1]). Unca has successfully convinced the Indians of her religious truths and has used the sun idol to her aid in establishing her authority not only over the Indians but the reader as well. Unca no longer refers to herself as Unca but “Answer” signaling that the reader can now take all that she says for truth because she has successfully transformed into her role as a female missionary. This performance was necessary because Unca could not assert her authority without first performing a role she was not physically in reality; the role of a male cleric. Unca’s performance allows her to move through genders fluidly and assert her authority as a female missionary to both the Indians and the reader.

While this performance does help Unca to establish authority in this instance, the loss of Unca's voice towards the end of her narrative complicates her position as both a female authority figure and missionary. The Female American is no longer in the voice of Unca but “we” as she succumbs to marrying her white European cousin, they narrate “ As we never intended to have any more to do with Europe, captain Shore and my husband ordered the ship, by whom, for my father and mother’s satisfaction, I sent over these adventures” (Winkfield 162^[1]). Unca has become a “we”, much different from her previous position as the “Answer” showing that once her cousin came back, societal gender roles were put back into play and it did not matter what Unca did to try and assert herself. She even changes her “history” into “adventures” because it is no longer a history about her life but her helping her husband, the missionary, in this new world. Unca may seem to be a trailblazer at the beginning of her narrative but only exposes herself to be a pawn used to “keep intact the social hierarchies from which [she] arises” (Vaccaro 150^[2]).

Imperialism and religious conversion

Unca's faith in God and her desire to convert the Indians to Christianity prompt her to speak forth from the Idol as a type of "Queen" or female "God." This raises the issue of capitalist accumulation, colonial conquest, and political imperialism which many theorists have associated with Defoe's novel, Robinson Crusoe. There are several situations and events in the novel which portray Unca's relation to this theory. After Unca first speaks to the Indians through the masking of the Idol, she is uncertain whether she had done an evil act. Although she does affirm that Idol Worship is contrary to Christian doctrine, but she bravely used this same idol to dispel a belief in false gods. Then speaking through this idol, she revealed her true intent, and through her diligence, she converts the natives to Christianity.

"I heartily repented that I had ever spoken to them... Thus I was distracted whether I determined to stay, or go; to stay was attended with certain evils; to go, too probably, with very great ones. Miserable wretch! cried I, what shall I do? tears succeeded; and I could think no more, with any coherence" (110).

While she is unsure of the morality of her decision to speak to them as a God, she still goes on to enforce her superiority over them:

"[B]y keeping them ignorant of who I was, or how I came to them, I might preserve a superiority over them, sufficient to keep them in awe, and to excite their obedience: yet I determined to speak no untruth" (110).

Unca's desire to "preserve a superiority over them" stems from an even deep-seated fear and an increased longing for protection and safety. To her, God is a powerful force, yet in a moment of despair, He is not her savior. Unca turns to a statue, a false idol, to give her protection from the unknown and in an attempt to preserve her life, she readily embraces this new found "superiority" and power over the Indians.

She does however, retain her dignity by remaining truthful throughout her conversations with the Indians. The fact that she had slaves who "begged" to go with her on her travels is yet another incident which can be seen as Capitalist Accumulation. And relating her strategies with those of Robinson Crusoe's, hers seem more manipulative than severe. She does have two weapons: a knife and a bow and arrow. However, she only uses them (the knife) when absolutely necessary.

Early in the novel there is another scene that discusses imperialism. In this scene, Unca's father is reflecting on a conversation he once had with his elder brother, who was a clergyman. His brother clearly disagrees with imperialism and tries to dissuade Unca's father from invading other countries:

"We have no right to invade the country of another, and I fear invaders will always meet a curse; but as your youth disenables you from viewing this expedition in that equitable light that it ought to be looked on, may your sufferings be portionably light! for our God is just, and will weigh our actions in a just scale" (37).

Even though Unca's father had this dramatic warning from his brother, he still goes on to try and conquer foreign countries. His brother even tries to infuse guilt into his speech, but it still does not register with Unca's father. Unca's father's attitude is clearly reflected in Unca when she uses the idol statue to convert the Indians.