In 1773, naturalist and writer William Bartram set out from Philadelphia on a four-year journey ranging from the Carolinas to Florida and Mississippi. Combining precise and detailed scientific observations with a profound appreciation of nature, he produced a written account of his journey that would later influence both scientists and poets. 31 photos. 12 illustrations. 4 maps.
William Bartram traveled throughout the American Southeast from 1773 to 1776. He occupies a unique place as an American Enlightenment explorer, naturalist, writer, and artist whose work was widely admired in his time and thereafter. Coleridge, the Wordsworths, and other leading romantics found inspiration in his pages. Bartram's most famous work, Travels has remained in print since the first publication of the book in 1791. However, his writings on Indians have received less attention than they deserve. This volume contains all of Bartram's known writings on Native Americans: a new version of "Observations on the Creek and Cherokee Indians," originally edited by E. G. Squier and first published in 1853; a previously unpublished essay, "Some Hints and Observations Concerning the Civilization of the Indians, or Aborigines of America"; and extensive excerpts from Travels. These documents are among the most valuable accounts we have of the Creeks and Seminoles in the last half of the eighteenth century. Several illustrations by Bartram are also included. The editors provide information on the history of these documents and supply extensive annotations. The book opens with a biographical essay on Bartram and concludes with a thorough evaluation of his contributions to southeastern Indian ethnohistory, anthropology, and archaeology. The editors have identified and corrected a number of errors found in the extant literature concerning Bartram and his writings Gregory A. Waselkov, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of South Alabama, is coeditor with Peter H. Wood and M. Thomas Hatley of Powhatan's Mantle: Indians in the Colonial Southeast (Nebraska 1989). Kathryn E. Holland Braund is an independent scholar and author of Deerskins and Duffels: The Creek Indian Trade with Anglo-America, 1865–1815 (Nebraska 1993).
Through North & South Carolina, Georgia, East & West Florida, The Cherokee Country, The Extensive Territories of The Muscogulges, Or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of The Chactaws (Hardcover)
Through North & South Carolina, Georgia, East & West Florida, The Cherokee Country, The Extensive Territories of The Muscogulges, Or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of The Chactaws (Hardcover)
William Bartram's journeys around North America in the late 18th century crossed through much of what was then Native American territory. In the 1790s when this book was first published, the United States was newly formed and was expanding beyond its original thirteen colonies. However, American settlement into the distant lands beyond the Appalachians was limited and gradual. The vast expanse of land was unknown, and much was inhabited by Native American tribes. Determined to traverse and discover the lands of North America, William Bartram set out from the city of Philadelphia, making his way toward the south of the continent. Along his way he describes the wilderness terrain, rivers, landscape and peoples he meets. Many of the Native American tribes he encountered were welcoming, viewing Bartram as a strange curiosity. He would join the natives to eat at feasts, observing their lives and customs, learning their dialects and eventually gaining their trust and friendship.
A selection of writings from naturalists John and William Bartram, who explored Florida in 1765 In 1765 father and son naturalists John and William Bartram explored the St. Johns River Valley in Florida, a newly designated British territory and subtropical wonderland. They collected specimens and recorded extensive observations of the region’s plants, animals, geography, ecology, and Native cultures. The chronicle of their adventures provided the world with an intimate look at La Florida. Travels on the St. Johns River includes writings from the Bartrams' journey in a flat-bottomed boat from St. Augustine to the river's swampy headwaters near Lake Loughman, just west of today’s Cape Canaveral. Vivid entries from John's Diary detail the settlement locations of Indigenous people and what vegetation overtook the river's slow current. Excerpts from William's narrative, written a decade later when he tried to make a home in East Florida, contemplate the environment and the river that would come to be regarded as the liquid heart of his celebrated Travels. A selection of personal letters reveal John's misgivings about his son's decision to become a planter in a pine barren with little shelter, but they also speak to William's belated sense of accomplishment for traveling past his father's footsteps. Editors Thomas Hallock and Richard Franz provide valuable commentary and a modern record of the flora and fauna the Bartrams encountered. Taken together, the firsthand accounts and editorial notes help us see the land through the explorers' eyes and witness the many environmental changes the centuries have wrought.
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