Encounters in the New World A History in Documents

by Lepore, Jill

• ISBN13: 9780195105131
• ISBN10: 0195105133
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-02-17
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

A collection of primary sources documenting the early clash of cultures in the Americas, Encounters in the New World spans the years from Columbus's voyage in 1492 to the publication of the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano, a former slave, in 1789. Emotional eyewitness accounts--memoirs,petitions, diaries, captivity narratives, private correspondence--as well as formal documents, official reports, and journalistic reportage give body and texture to the historical events described. A special 16-page color cartographic section, including maps from both Europe and North America, isfascinating not only for the maps' telltale imperfections, but also because they convey information about how their creators saw themselves and the world around them. A Jesuit priest's chronicle of life among his Iroquois captors, Aztec records of forbidding omens, excerpts from Columbus's ship'slog, John Smith's account of cannibalism among the British residents of Jamestown, slave auction advertisements, memoirs by several members of Cortes's expedition, the reminiscences of an escaped slave-these are just a few examples of the wealth of primary sources collected here. Jill Lepore, winnerof the distinguished Bancroft Prize for history in 1999, provides informed, expert commentary linking the documents into a fascinating and seamless narrative. Textbooks may interpret history, but the books in the Pages from History series are history. Each title, compiled and edited by a prominent historian, is a collection of primary sources relating to a particular topic of historical significance. Documentary evidence including news articles,government documents, memoirs, letters, diaries, fiction, photographs, and facsimiles allows history to speak for itself and turns every reader into a historian. Headnotes, extended captions, sidebars, and introductory essays provide the essential context that frames the documents. All the books areamply illustrated and each spans the years froincludes a documentary picture essay, chronology, further reading, source notes, and index.

Author Biography

Jill Lepore is an Associate Professor of History at Boston University, where she also serves as Director of Undergraduate Studies for American and New England Studies. Her previous works include A is for American: Letters and Other Characters in the Newly United States (Knopf, 2002) and The Name of War: King Philip's War and American Identity (Knopf, 1998), Winner of the Bancroft Prize, Ralph Waldo Emerson Award, Berkshire Prize, and the New England Historical Association Prize, and a selection of the History Book Club.

Table of Contents

What is a Document?
How to Read a Document
Introduction
On the Turtle's Back
Why Europe?
Dealing with the Documents

1. Mapping the World

Ptolemy's Revolution
The Christian World
An Expanding World
America Emerges
Vanishing Maps
Lines and Circles

2. First Encounters

Prophecies, Plans, and Fantasies
First Impressions
Gods? Savages?
Dividing the Sexes
A Catalog of Nature
Indians Abroad

3. Conquest and Resistance

Montezuma, Quetzalcoatl, and Cortes
An Eight-Year Journey
Invading the Interior
The Great Debate
Missions and Presidios

4. Furs, Rivers, and Black Robes

The Peoples of the Longhouse
A New France
The Society of Jesus
New Worlds, New Women
Covenants of War and Peace

5. The English Arrive

Go West
Roanoke, the Lost Colony
Powhatan and His People
Founding Jamestown
Pocahontas and Her Legacy

6. Africans in America

Kidnapped
Tips for Slave Traders
Ships of Death
For Sale
Africans' New Worlds
Two Views
Runaways and Rebels

7. Planting New England

Metacom's Rebellion
Manitou and the City on a Hill
Marking the Landscape
Praying Indians

Timeline
Further Reading
Text Credits
Picture Credits
Index