Saturday, March 18, 2017

Booknotes: Great Crossings

New Arrival:
Great Crossings: Indians, Settlers, and Slaves in the Age of Jackson
by Christina Snyder (Oxford Univ Pr, 2017).

Great Crossings is pretty well outside the established topical range of CWBA, but everything that comes in dutifully gets a Booknotes posting. This new study examines the Jacksonian period through the lens of a multi-racial (white, black, and Indian) settlement and school in Kentucky. "These diverse groups met in an experimental community in central Kentucky called Great Crossings, home to the first federal Indian school and a famous interracial family."

According to the author's view, Great Crossings was symbolic of both the territorial and ethnic/racial/cultural expansion of the United States. "Great Crossings, a place of race-mixing and cultural exchange, emerged as a battleground. Its history provides an intimate view of the ambitions and struggles of Indians, settlers, and slaves who were trying to secure their place in a changing world."

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