The Colonizers: Early European Settlers and the Shaping of North America (In Their Own Words) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0399523901 ISBN 13: 9780399523908

Publisher: Prentice-Hall, 2002

Synopsis

Blending original-source documents with narrative, this text covers the era of European settlement in America. From Bacon's Rebellion to the Salem witch trials, from the holocaust of the Hurons to the capture of Quebec, a century and a half of tumultuous history is touched on.

About this title

From the Author

A History of the Colonial Era Through Eyewitness Accounts
The Colonizers is an unusual book. It follows the first century and a half of American history--from the founding of Jamestown and Quebec through the French and Indian War--through first-person accounts, woven together with my own narrative. The words of eyewitnesses bring us face to face with a world long shrouded in myth and legend.

Here, for example, is Captain John Smith, revealing himself to be a ruthless soldier of fortune. He wrote of the Indians: "Now we have just cause to destroy them by all means possible.... What growing state was there ever in the world which did not the like? Rome grew by oppression, and rose upon the backs of her enemies." Here, too, is Samuel de Champlain, describing his alliance-building among the Algonquins and Hurons, and how he joined their attacks on the Five Nations of the Iroquois. Here are the voices of the early colonists in New England, New Netherlands/New York, and Virginia as they struggled with dissent and Indian wars.

As the voices in this book recount the growing European settlements in North America, they describe a world we can scarcely imagine. The experience of Mary Rowlandson, taken captive by the Narragansetts in King Philip's War, which destroyed dozens of New England towns... The twin experiences of captivity, in the story of Rev. John Williams (captured in a raid on Massachusetts by French and Indian warriors), and in the memoirs of Olaudah Equiano, an African of Benin who was carried off to America in chains. Here is the torment of the Salem witch trials, seen in the lament of one sceptic who wrote, "I am afraid ages will not wear off that reproach and those stains which these things will leave behind upon our land." And here, too, is the final, dramatic conflict between the British and French colonists, which set the stage for the American revolution.

It was a fascinating world, a violent world, a world startlingly different from our own. I hope these voices can make it real to us today.

Edition details

• Publisher: Prentice-Hall
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0399523901
• ISBN 13: 9780399523908
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 418
• Editor: Stiles T. J.