British Atlantic, American Frontier

by Hornsby, Stephen J.

• ISBN13: 9781584654278
• ISBN10: 1584654279
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-12-03
• Publisher: Univ Pr of New England

Summary

Reflecting the growing scholarly interest in transnational and comparative approaches to studying the past, British Atlantic, American Frontier offers a geographical perspective on the development of British America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It covers in detail not only the American eastern seaboard, but also eastern Canada and the West Indies, as well as the trans-Atlantic links to Western Europe and West Africa. At one level, the book synthesizes much of the current historical and geographical scholarship on these regions; at another level, it offers a provocative interpretation of British America, arguing that profound and long-standing differences existed between the American eastern seaboard and the Atlantic regions of eastern Canada and the West Indies. These differences ultimately led to the break-up of British America, the creation of the United States, and the reconfiguration of the British Empire. British Atlantic, American Frontier is illustrated with more than one hundred photographs, maps, and historical illustrations.

Author Biography

STEPHEN J. HORNSBY is Director of the Canadian-American Center and Associate Professor of Geography and Canadian Studies, University of Maine. He is author of Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton: A Historical Geography (1992).

Table of Contents

List of Figures	ix
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction	1	(7)
Chapter 1. Creating an English Atlantic, 1480-1630	8	(18)
Chapter 2. Atlantic Staple Regions: Newfoundland, the West Indies, and Hudson Bay	26	(47)
Chapter 3. Continental Staple Regions: New England, the Chesapeake, and South Carolina	73	(53)
Chapter 4. Agricultural Frontiers: New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Southern Backcountry	126	(54)
Chapter 5. British American Towns	180	(24)
Chapter 6. The Fracturing of British America	204	(35)
Notes	239	(56)
Index	295