Heart of American darkness : bewilderment and horror on the early frontier / Robert G. Parkinson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Parkinson, Robert G., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--History--Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775.

United States.

United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783.

United States--Politics and government--18th century.

United States--Race relations--Political aspects--History--18th century.

United States--Race relations--History--18th century.

United States--Politics and government--1775-1783.

Frontier and pioneer life--United States--18th century.

Frontier and pioneer life.

Racism--United States--History--18th century.

Racism.

Genre:

Informational works.

Physical Description:

xxxiii, 443 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : W. W. Norton & Company, [2024]

Summary:

"An acclaimed historian captures the true nature of imperialism in early America, demonstrating how the frontier shaped the nation. We are divided over the history of the United States, and one of the central dividing lines is the frontier. Was it a site of heroism? Or was it where the full force of an all-powerful empire was brought to bear on Native peoples? In this startingly original work, historian Robert Parkinson presents a new account of ever-shifting encounters between white colonists and Native Americans. Drawing skillfully on Joseph Conrad's famous novella, Heart of Darkness, he demonstrates that imperialism in North America was neither heroic nor a perfectly planned conquest. It was, rather, as bewildering, violent, and haphazard as the European colonization of Africa, which Conrad knew firsthand and fictionalized in his masterwork. At the center of Parkinson's story are two families whose entwined histories ended in tragedy. The family of Shickellamy, one of the most renowned Indigenous leaders of the eighteenth century, were Iroquois diplomats laboring to create a world where settlers and Native people could coexist. The Cresaps were frontiersmen who became famous throughout the colonies for their bravado, scheming, and land greed. Together, the families helped determine the fate of the British and French empires, which were battling for control of the Ohio River Valley. From the Seven Years' War to the protests over the Stamp Act to the start of the Revolutionary War, Parkinson recounts the major turning points of the era from a vantage that allows us to see them anew, and to perceive how bewildering they were to people at the time. For the Shickellamy family, it all came to an end on April 30, 1774, when most of the clan were brutally murdered by white settlers associated with the Cresaps at a place called Yellow Creek. That horrific event became news all over the continent, and it led to war in the interior, at the very moment the First Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia. Meanwhile, Michael Cresap, at first blamed for the massacre at Yellow Creek, would be transformed by the Revolution into a hero alongside George Washington. In death, he helped cement the pioneer myth at the heart of the new republic. Parkinson argues that American history is, in fact, tied to the frontier, just not in the ways we are often told. Altering our understanding of the past, he also shows what this new understanding should mean for us today." -- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: In the midst of the incomprehensible

Part 1: The dreams of men. A scramble for Ohio, 1730-1753

Straightforward facts, 1754-1759

Groves of death, 1760-1763

Part 2: The seeds of commonwealths. Messengers of the might, 1764-1768

Feeling very small, very lost, 1769-1770

Backbiting and intriguing, 1771-1773

Approach cautiously, 1774

The horror, 1774

Part 3: The germs of empire. On the threshold of great things, 1775-1776

Whatever he was, he was not common, 1776-1794

The persistent whisper

Conclusion: Darkness was here yesterday

Appendix: The Logan problem.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 389-427) and index.

ISBN:

9781324091776

1324091770

OCLC:

1398569688