2nd Edition

Atlantic Lives A Comparative Approach to Early America

By Timothy Shannon Copyright 2019
    228 Pages 15 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    228 Pages 15 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Atlantic Lives offers insight into the lived experiences of a range of actors in the early modern Atlantic World. Organized thematically, each chapter features primary source selections from a variety of non-traditional sources, including travel narratives from West Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America. The fully revised and expanded second edition goes into even greater depth in exploring the diverse roles and experiences of women, Native Americans, and Africans, as well as the critical theme of emerging capitalism and New World slavery. New chapters also address captivity experiences, intercultural religious encounters, and interracial sexuality and marriage. With classroom-focused discussion questions and suggested additional readings accompanying each chapter, Atlantic Lives provides students with a wide-ranging introduction to the many voices and identities that comprised the Atlantic World.

    Preface

    Preface to the Second Edition

     

    Introduction: What Is Atlantic History?

     

    Chapter 1: Into the Atlantic Crucible

    Selection 1: An Early Portuguese Encounter with West Africans

    Selection 2: First News of Native Americans in Europe

    Selection 3: An Indian Perspective on the Europeans' Arrival in North America

    Discussion Questions

    Suggested Readings

     

    Chapter 2: The Columbian Exchange

    Selection 1: An Elizabethan Scientist Admires Indian Agriculture

    Selection 2: The Exchange of Furs and Microbes in New France

    Selection 3: A Military Officer Contemplates Life in a Beaver Lodge

    Selection 4: Black Philadelphians Face a Yellow Fever Epidemic

    Discussion Questions

    Suggested Readings

     

    Chapter 3: Captivities

    Selection 1: A German Soldier Fears being Cannibalized by his Native American Captors

    Selection 2: The Captivities of Captain John Smith and Pocahontas

    Selection 3: A Pennsylvania Woman's Adoption into an Indian Family

    Selection 4: An African-American Sailor’s Serial Captivities

    Discussion Questions

    Suggested Readings

     

    Chapter 4: Religion and Conversion

    Selection 1: A Revolt among Mission Indians in New Mexico

    Selection 2: Native American Converts in Seventeenth-Century Canada

    Selection 3: A Christian Indian Challenges His Colonial Mentor

    Selection 4: An African American’s Conversion Experience during the Great Awakening

    Discussion Questions

    Suggested Readings

     

    Chapter 5: West Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade

    Selection 1: A Scottish Explorer Describes Slavery and the Slave Trade in Africa

    Selection 2: A European Describes a Slave-Trading Post

    Selection 3: A Former Slave Remembers his Enslavement in Africa

    Selection 4: A Surgeon Describes Conditions on a Slave Ship

    Discussion Questions


    Suggested Readings

     

    Chapter 6: The Plantation Complex in the Caribbean

    Selection 1: Servants, Slaves, and Masters in Barbados

    Selection 2: A Description of African Maroon Communities

    Selection 3: A Former Slave Condemns the Inhumanity of Caribbean Slavery

    Discussion Questions

    Suggested Readings

     

    Chapter 7: The Spanish and Portuguese in the Americas

    Selection 1: An English Traveler Explains the Repartimiento System in Spanish America

    Selection 2: An Italian Priest Describes Social Relations in Mexico City

    Selection 3: A Description of Plantation Society in Portuguese Brazil

    Discussion Questions

    Suggested Readings

     

    Chapter 8: The Dutch, French, and English in North America

    Selection 1: An Dutch Traveler in New Netherland/New York, 1679-80

    Selection 2: A French Military Officer Describes the Indians of Canada, 1757

    Selection 3: Benjamin Franklin Calculates the Population of British North America

    Discussion Questions

    Suggested Readings

     

    Chapter 9: The Wooden World: Maritime Labor and Piracy

    Selection 1: A Dutch Pirate in the Seventeenth-Century Caribbean

    Selection 2: A Pirate Faces Execution in Boston

    Selection 3: An American Sailor Experiences Impressment in the British Navy

    Selection 4: A Woman's Perception of Life on a Whaling Ship

    Discussion Questions

    Suggested Readings

     

    Chapter 10: The Atlantic Highway: European Migrations

    Selection 1: An Englishman Enters into an Indenture

    Selection 2: A German Migrant’s Passage to America

    Selection 3: A French Account of a Passage to Canada

    Selection 4: Two Scottish Opinions on the Emigration Experience

    Discussion Questions

    Suggested Readings

     

    Chapter 11: Interracial Marriage and Sexuality in the Atlantic World

    Selection 1: A French Nun Remarks on Native American Women

    Selection 2: A Scottish Woman’s Impressions of Gender and Sexual Relations in the British West Indies and North Carolina

    Selection 3: Interracial Intimacy in the Fur Trade

    Selection 4: An Interracial Marriage Causes Controversy in New England

    Discussion Questions

    Suggested Readings

     

    Chapter 12: Enlightenment and Revolution

    Selection 1: A French Expatriate Describes Colonial Society in British North America

    Selection 2: A Trans-Atlantic Revolutionary's Attack on Monarchy and Aristocracy

    Selection 3: An Anti-Slavery Advocate Defends the Slave Rebels in Saint-Domingue

    Selection 4: A Creole Revolutionary's Vision for the Future of Spanish America

    Discussion Questions

    Suggested Readings

     

    Chapter 13: Out of the Atlantic Crucible

    Selection 1: A German Traveler Describes the Race-Based Social Order of Mexico

    Selection 2: A French Traveler Considers the Future of Race Relations in the United States of America

    Selection 3: A Free Black's Incendiary Call for the Destruction of Slavery

    Selection 4: A Native American Challenges the Pilgrim Story

    Discussion Questions

    Suggested Readings

     

    Chronology of Important Events in Atlantic World History

    Biography

    Timothy J. Shannon is Professor of History at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.