Description
A detailed look into what Bartram omits in Travels and why
In Travels, the celebrated 1791 account of the "Old Southwest," William Bartram recorded the natural world he saw around him but, rather incredibly, omitted any reference to the epochal events of the American Revolution. Edward J. Cashin places Bartram in the context of his times and explains his conspicuous avoidance of people, places, and events embroiled in revolutionary fervor.
Cashin suggests that while Bartram documented the natural world for plant collector John Fothergill, he wrote Travels for an entirely different audience. Convinced that Providence directed events for the betterment of mankind and that the Constitutional Convention would produce a political model for the rest of the world, Bartram offered Travels as a means of shaping the new country. Cashin illuminates the convictions that motivated Bartram--that if Americans lived in communion with nature, heeded the moral law, and treated the people of the interior with respect, then America would be blessed with greatness.
In addition Cashin offers a detailed portrait of the often overlooked southern frontier on the eve of the Revolutionary War, revealing it to have been a coherent entity united by an uneasy coexistence of Native Americans and British colonials.
Author: Edward J. Cashin
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
Published: 02/04/2007
Pages: 319
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.92lbs
Size: 9.02h x 5.98w x 0.86d
ISBN13: 9781570036859
ISBN10: 1570036853
BISAC Categories:
- History | United States | Revolutionary Period (1775-1800)
- Travel | United States | South | South Atlantic (DC, DE, FL, GA, MD,
- Nature | General
About the Author
A native of Augusta, Georgia, Edward J. Cashin is director of the Center for the Study of Georgia History at Augusta State University and the author of fourteen books.