Into the American woods : negotiators on the Pennsylvania frontier / James H. Merrell.

Author
Merrell, James Hart, 1953- [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
  • New York : Norton, [1999]
  • ©1999
Description
463 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Availability

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
Firestone Library - Stacks F152 .M48 1999 Browse related items Request
    Forrestal Annex - ReserveF152 .M48 1999 Browse related items Request

      Details

      Subject(s)
      Summary note
      • This book is an award-winning historian's beautifully written reconstruction of how Europeans lived in peace and war with Indians on America's colonial frontier. They've been with us since the mythic past, when Hermes carried messages From the gods to the Greeks and Deganawidah with his disciple Hiawatha built the Great League of Peace among the Iroquois. They are the goal-between, the shadowy figures who moved between us and them, linking different worlds. On the Pennsylvania frontier they were German and Delaware, Irish and Iroquois, French and Shawnee, with names like Weiser, Shickellamy, Montour, and Osternados. These were the "woodsmen," wise in the ways of the American woods, knowledgeable about the other, able to navigate the treacherous shoals of misunderstanding and mistrust. From the Quaker colonies founding in the early 1680s into the 1750s, they did the hard, dirty work that helped maintain the fragile "long peace" between Indians and colonists. But, skilled as they were in the alchemy of translation and negotiation, they could not prevent the sickening plummet from piece to war after 1750. The bloodshed and hatred of frontier conflict at once made go-betweens obsolete and taught the harsh lesson of the woods: the final incompatibility of colonial and native dreams about the continent they shared. Long erased from history -- overlooked even in Benjamin West's famous painting of William Penn's legendary encounter with the Indians -- the go-betweens of early America are recovered here in vivid detail. - Jacket flap.
      • From the Quaker colony's founding in the 1680s into the 1750s, Merrell shows us how the go-betweens survived in the woods, dealing with problems of food, travel, lodging, and safety, and how they sought to bridge the vast cultural gaps between the Europeans and the Indians. The futility of these efforts became clear in the sickening plummet into war after 1750.
      Bibliographic references
      Includes bibliographical references (p. 329-438) and index.
      Contents
      • Introduction: "I Have a Large Intriestt in ye Woods"
      • Prologue: The Killing of Jack Armstrong, 1744
      • "Fitt and Proper Persons to Goe Between": Paths to the Woods
      • Finding Friends: Woodslore, 1699-1723
      • "That Road between Us and You": Passages through the Woods
      • The Lessons of Brinksmanship: Woodslore, 1728 1743
      • "A Good Correspondance": Conversations
      • In the Woods: Woodslore, 1755 1758
      • "A Sort of Confusion": Treaties
      • Epilogue: The Killing of Young Seneca George, 1769.
      Other title(s)
      Negotiators on the Pennsylvania frontier
      ISBN
      • 0393046761
      • 9780393046762
      • 0393319768 ((paperback))
      • 9780393319767 ((paperback))
      LCCN
      98024835
      OCLC
      39116725
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