Creatures of Empire How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America

by Anderson, Virginia DeJohn

• ISBN13: 9780195304466
• ISBN10: 0195304462
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-01-19
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

When we think of the key figures of early American history, we think of explorers, or pilgrims, or Native Americans--not cattle, or goats, or swine. But as Virginia DeJohn Anderson reveals in this brilliantly original account of colonists in New England and the Chesapeake region, livestockplayed a vitally important role in the settling of the New World. Livestock, Anderson writes, were a central factor in the cultural clash between colonists and Indians as well as a driving force in the expansion west. By bringing livestock across the Atlantic, colonists believed that they provided the means to realize America's potential. It was thoughtthat if the Native Americans learned to keep livestock as well, they would be that much closer to assimilating the colonists' culture, especially their Christian faith. But colonists failed to anticipate the problems that would arise as Indians began encountering free-ranging livestock at almostevery turn, often trespassing in their cornfields. Moreover, when growing populations and an expansive style of husbandry required far more space than they had expected, colonists could see no alternative but to appropriate Indian land. This created tensions that reached the boiling point with KingPhilip's War and Bacon's Rebellion. And it established a pattern that would repeat time and again over the next two centuries. A stunning account that presents our history in a truly new light, Creatures of Empire restores a vital element of our past, illuminating one of the great forces of colonization and the expansion westward.

Author Biography

Virginia DeJohn Anderson is Associate Professor of History at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is the author of New England's Generation and co-author (with David Goldfield, et al.) of The American Journey: A History of the United States.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Maps	xii
Prologue: Seeing Banquo's Ghost	1	(14)
Part I Thinking about Animals
Chickwallop and the Strange Beast: Indians and Animals in Early America	15	(28)
The Deer with the Red Collar: English Ideas about Animals	43	(32)
Part II Settling with Animals
The Company of Cattle: Domestication and Colonization	75	(32)
The Wild Gangs of the Chesapeake: Livestock Husbandry in the South	107	(34)
A World of Pastures and Pounds: Raising Livestock in Early New England	141	(34)
Part III Contending with Animals
Forgiving Trespasses: Living with Livestock in Early America	175	(34)
A Prophecy Fulfilled: From Cooperation to the Displacement of Indians	209	(34)
Epilogue: Full Circle	243	(4)
Notes	247	(64)
Index	311