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This series includes accounts of historical events and movements by eye-witnesses and contemporaries, as well as landmark studies that assembled significant source materials or developed new historiographical methods. The works range from the writings of early U.S. presidents to journals of poor European settlers, from travellers' descriptions of bustling cities and vast landscapes to critiques of racial inequality and descriptions of Native American culture under threat of annihilation. The commercial, political and social aspirations and rivalries of the 'new world' are reflected in these fascinating eighteenth- and nineteenth-century publications.

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163 results in Cambridge Library Collection - North American History

Page 2 of 9

The Treaties of Canada with the Indians of Manitoba and the North-West Territories
  • Including the Negotiations on Which They Are Based, and Other Information Relating Thereto
  • Alexander Morris
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    23 January 2014
    First published in:
    1880
  • Alexander Morris (1826–89) served as lieutenant-governor of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories, not long after Canada purchased the latter from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1869. This colossal land transfer was a source of unrest for the indigenous peoples, who were displeased about the arrival of missionaries and other settlers. Morris was involved in negotiating treaties over issues such as land rights, publishing this account in 1880. He provides some historical context to the many negotiations in which he participated as well as some of his thoughts on how the agreements could best be implemented. The work, which also includes the full texts of these treaties, remains a valuable source on the history of the relationship between Europeans and indigenous peoples during the settlement of the outer reaches of Canada.

Notes on the Mineralogy, Government and Condition of the British West India Islands and North-American Maritime Colonies
  • Thomas Cochrane
  • Published online:
    05 August 2013
    Print publication:
    11 October 2012
    First published in:
    1851
  • The most renowned naval officer of the mid-nineteenth century, Thomas Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald (1775–1860), served in wars against Spain and France, retiring as an admiral in the Royal Navy. He was also an M.P., vociferously calling for naval reform in Parliament. Due to a financial scandal, he left the Royal Navy for a period and became a celebrated mercenary, commanding naval forces in the wars of independence of Chile, Peru, Brazil and Greece. First published in 1851, this work contains notes on a voyage of 1849 around the West Indies and North America. Describing the peoples and geography encountered, it offers progressive remarks on the end of slavery, criticisms of plantation owners, and suggestions for commercial improvements. The book remains of enduring interest to scholars of naval, colonial and Caribbean history.

Transatlantic Sketches
  • Comprising Visits to the Most Interesting Scenes in North and South America, and the West Indies
  • Volume 1
  • James Edward Alexander
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    14 June 2012
    First published in:
    1833
  • Sir James Edward Alexander (1803–85), an officer in the British Army, travelled the world extensively and published over a dozen fascinating accounts of his journeys. A passionate and intrepid explorer, Alexander was instrumental in ensuring the safe transfer of Cleopatra's Needle from Egypt to England in 1877. Demonstrating the same humour with which his writing is imbued, he later buried pictures of the twelve most beautiful English women of the time at the base of the Needle. Published in 1833, this two-volume work offers insights into the landscapes, peoples and practices of the Americas. With wit and eloquence, Alexander takes the reader with him on his adventures, but also provides significant commentary on the slave populations he encountered. Volume 1 covers Alexander's journey through South America and the Caribbean.

Autobiography
  • Memories and Experiences of Moncure Daniel Conway
  • Volume 1
  • Moncure Daniel Conway
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    07 June 2012
    First published in:
    1904
  • Published in 1904, three years before his death, Conway's Autobiography is a peaceful and introspective account of a compelling life. Born to a slave-owning Methodist family in Virginia, Conway (1832–1907) turned away from his roots to become a proponent of anti-slavery, free religion, reform and women's suffrage. Observing and becoming involved in the developments of late nineteenth-century religious, political, scientific, literary and artistic thought, he formed friendships with central figures of the age, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Thomas Carlyle, which feature in the work alongside his devoted family life. Volume 1 describes his childhood and education; antebellum Virginia and Maryland; Concord and Harvard with Emerson, Hawthorne, and Thoreau; and Washington and Cincinnati on the eve of civil war. It also covers his arrival in England in 1863 and his first encounters at London's South Place Chapel and in the circles of social, legal and religious reform.

Travels into North America
  • Containing its Natural History, with the Civil, Ecclesiastical and Commercial State of the Country
  • Volume 3
  • Peter Kalm
  • Translated by John Reinhold Forster
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    25 August 2011
    First published in:
    1771
  • Peter Kalm (1716–79) was a Finnish-Swedish botanist who travelled extensively to observe the natural world in Sweden, Finland, Russia and Ukraine and became a professor of 'oeconomie', - the economic application of subjects such as mineralogy, botany, zoology and chemistry - at the university of Turku. Between 1747 and 1751 he set out on a journey through eastern North America to gather specimens, especially from regions with a similar climate to Sweden. Because Kalm travelled though the area when much of it was still unknown to Europeans, this work has some of the first recorded accounts of places such as Niagara Falls. Kalm played an important part in forging scientific links between Sweden, England and North America. This three-volume work details his travels, and was first published in English in 1770–1. Volume 3 focuses on Kalm's observations of plants and animals in Canada, especially around the French-speaking settlements.

Autobiography
  • Memories and Experiences of Moncure Daniel Conway
  • Volume 2
  • Moncure Daniel Conway
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    07 June 2012
    First published in:
    1904
  • Published in 1904, three years before his death, Conway's Autobiography is a peaceful and introspective account of a compelling life. Born to a slave-owning Methodist family in Virginia, Conway (1832–1907) turned away from his roots to become a proponent of anti-slavery, free religion, reform and women's suffrage. Observing and becoming involved in the developments of late nineteenth-century religious, political, scientific, literary and artistic thought, he formed friendships with central figures of the age, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Thomas Carlyle, which feature in the work alongside his devoted family life. Volume 2 covers his time in Europe, witnessing and reporting on the unifications of Italy and Germany, the Franco-Prussian War, and the birth of the Third Republic. The death of his wife and his own declining years in Paris close the work, which also tracks his ardent anti-war stance and the sad rejection of his long-standing faith in progress.

Threading my Way
  • Twenty-Seven Years of Autobiography
  • Robert Dale Owen
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    02 August 2012
    First published in:
    1874
  • Robert Dale Owen (1801–77) was a social reformer and politician who emigrated to the United States in 1825. He was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1842, and appointed US Minister at Naples in 1853. He was the author of political pamphlets, as well as books inspired by spiritualism, such as Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World (1860; also reissued in this series). First published in 1874, this autobiography focuses on Owen's early life, beginning with the history of his family before his birth. As well as Owen's childhood in New Lanark, it documents the beginnings of the experimental community set up by Robert Owen, the author's father, in New Harmony, Indiana. Owen, who emigrated to the United States to help his father in this project, tells of his own experience of communal life, and sheds light on an early example of Utopian socialism.

Transatlantic Sketches
  • Comprising Visits to the Most Interesting Scenes in North and South America, and the West Indies
  • Volume 2
  • James Edward Alexander
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    14 June 2012
    First published in:
    1833
  • Sir James Edward Alexander (1803–85), an officer in the British Army, travelled the world extensively and published over a dozen fascinating accounts of his journeys. A passionate and intrepid explorer, Alexander was instrumental in ensuring the safe transfer of Cleopatra's Needle from Egypt to England in 1877. Demonstrating the same humour with which his writing is imbued, he later buried pictures of the twelve most beautiful English women of the time at the base of the Needle. Published in 1833, this two-volume work offers insights into the landscapes, peoples and practices of the Americas. With wit and eloquence, Alexander takes the reader with him on his adventures, but also provides significant commentary on the slave populations he encountered. Volume 2 covers Alexander's journey through North America and his return to England.

The American Loyalists
  • Or, Biographical Sketches of Adherents to the British Crown in the War of the Revolution
  • Lorenzo Sabine
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    19 July 2012
    First published in:
    1847
  • Lorenzo Sabine (1803–77) worked as a trader, in customs and for the Treasury Department before he was elected to the United States Congress in 1852. This work, published in 1847, is a series of biographical sketches (some very short, others extensive) of the American Loyalists - those men and women who took the British side during the American Revolution. The alphabetically arranged biographies are preceded by an essay in which Sabine describes the background to the War of Independence, examining geographical and economic as well as political factors. He argues that the documentary evidence from the period demonstrates that the arguments in favour of independence at the time were practical, and not simply the ideologically driven desire for 'liberty' which the founding myth of the United States had since proclaimed. The work is a fascinating reminder that large numbers of Americans stayed loyal to the Crown in 1776.

A Diary in America
  • With Remarks on its Institutions
  • Volume 1
  • Frederick Marryat
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    15 September 2011
    First published in:
    1839
  • Captain Frederick Marryat (1792–1848) was a distinguished naval officer, today best remembered as a novelist (particularly of stories for children), often drawing on his own experiences. He also edited a radical journal, and wrote non-fiction, including an attack on press-gangs, which damaged his career. He spent 1837 and 1838 travelling in North America, publishing his impressions in this unstructured six-volume 'diary' in 1839. He states that the number of contradictory and often trivial accounts of American life being published made him want to see the New World for himself. He found it impossible to make generalisations, given the size of the country and the different origins of new arrivals, and did not believe America would become a nation for many years. Volume 1 includes an introductory essay, a description of the Atlantic crossing, and travel on the eastern seaboard.

Hudson's Bay, or, Every-day Life in the Wilds of North America
  • During Six Years' Residence in the Territories of the Honourable Hudson's Bay Company
  • Robert Michael Ballantyne
  • Published online:
    05 April 2013
    Print publication:
    26 April 2012
    First published in:
    1848
  • In 1841, aged just sixteen, the intrepid young Scotsman Robert M. Ballantyne (1825–94) joined the Hudson's Bay Company. Posted immediately to North-Eastern Canada, he spent five years traversing the region's inhospitable terrain by sleigh and canoe. His journal and letters home were so evocative that, upon his return, he was persuaded to publish an account of his experiences. Combining anthropological observations with descriptions of landscapes, plants, and animals, the account was applauded by the Dundee Courier for 'opening up a mine of information to the curious' and 'describing the everyday life of a novel and singular existence' with 'buoyancy and animation'. Appearing within a year of the first edition in 1848, the second edition reproduced here is illustrated throughout with views and vignettes. 'Free from tedious details and unnecessary wordiness', Ballantyne's fast-moving and readable narrative challenges many misconceptions about nineteenth-century Canada and its indigenous peoples.

A Journal of Travel into the Arkansa Territory, during the Year 1819
  • With Occasional Observations on the Manners of the Aborigines
  • Thomas Nuttall
  • Published online:
    05 April 2013
    Print publication:
    15 September 2011
    First published in:
    1821
  • Thomas Nuttall (1786–1859), an English-born scientist and Fellow of the Linnean Society, is well-known for his botanical and zoological discoveries in North America. By the time this book was first published in 1821, he had spent ten years travelling and recording the natural history of the continent. Nuttall's journal recounts a year-long expedition along the Arkansas River, where he collected and classified many previously unknown species of plants. The book begins with Nuttall's departure from Philadelphia and ends with his arrival in New Orleans. The intermediary chapters include an eclectic mix of geographical and botanical description, travellers' tales, and observations on the various Native Americans Nuttall encountered: his writings demonstrate the great admiration he held for these 'aborigines'. The work also includes substantial appendices which outline the history and customs of the indigenous populations in greater detail.

The Life of Thomas Paine
  • With a History of his Literary, Political and Religious Career in America, France, and England
  • Volume 1
  • Moncure Daniel Conway
  • Published online:
    05 February 2013
    Print publication:
    08 March 2012
    First published in:
    1892
  • Moncure Daniel Conway (1832–1907), the son of a Virginian plantation-owner, became a Unitarian minister, but his anti-slavery views made him controversial. He later became a freethinker, and following the outbreak of the Civil War, which deeply divided his own family, he left the United States for England in 1863. This two-volume biography of Thomas Paine (1737–1809) was published in 1892, and was followed by a four-volume edition of his works, which did much to inspire a reassessment of Paine's importance in the 'age of revolutions'. Conway clearly identified with Paine's radicalism as well as his activities on both sides of the Atlantic. Volume 1 covers his early life, his arrival in America in 1774 and involvement with the cause of American independence, and the subsequent war. In 1787 he returned to Europe, where he witnessed the fall of the Bastille, and published Rights of Man.

Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws
  • William Bartram
  • Published online:
    05 February 2013
    Print publication:
    08 December 2011
    First published in:
    1791
  • The son of a naturalist, William Bartram (1739–1823) was commissioned to undertake a tour of south-eastern North America in 1773. Collecting seeds, taking specimens and making meticulous drawings and observations of previously unknown flora and fauna, his four-year expedition took him from the foothills of the Appalachians, through Florida and on to the Mississippi. First published in 1791, within ten years this account had been translated into German, French and Dutch. A unique historical record now, and of particular interest at the time, his accounts of the Seminole, Creek and Cherokee Indians were seen by contemporaries as being sympathetic towards peoples commonly regarded as little better than savages, but his writings persuaded others of the need for a more humane approach to the indigenous people. This work influenced not only scientists, but writers such as Wordsworth and Coleridge, and it remains a classic of American science, history and literature.

The Life of Thomas Paine
  • With a History of his Literary, Political and Religious Career in America, France, and England
  • Volume 2
  • Moncure Daniel Conway
  • Published online:
    05 February 2013
    Print publication:
    08 March 2012
    First published in:
    1892
  • Moncure Daniel Conway (1832–1907), the son of a Virginian plantation-owner, became a Unitarian minister, but his anti-slavery views made him controversial. He later became a freethinker, and following the outbreak of the Civil War, which deeply divided his own family, he left the United States for England in 1863. This two-volume biography of Thomas Paine (1737–1809) was published in 1892, and was followed by a four-volume edition of his works, which did much to inspire a reassessment of Paine's importance in the 'age of revolutions'. Conway clearly identified with Paine's radicalism as well as his activities on both sides of the Atlantic. Volume 2 begins with the execution of Louis XVI, which Paine had opposed in the French Convention. Paine's subsequent career in Britain and America is then traced until his death in 1809, and Conway also considers his impact on his contemporaries, and his legacy.

North America
  • Volume 2
  • Anthony Trollope
  • Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    15 December 2011
    First published in:
    1862
  • Anthony Trollope (1815–82) was a prolific English Victorian writer, famous for work such as the 'Chronicles of Barsetshire', and his satirical masterpiece The Way We Live Now. He wrote forty-seven novels as well as several travel books and numerous short stories. After a poor and unhappy childhood, he spent much of his life working for the General Post Office, travelling extensively to carry out postal surveys and writing in his spare time. He became a senior civil servant in the organisation and was responsible for the introduction of pillar boxes to Britain. Published in 1862, this two-volume work is Trollope's first-hand account of North American culture during the American Civil War. Volume 2 focuses on Washington and the South. Trollope also describes several key American institutions, including the government and the legal system, and considers the causes of the war.

My Diary North and South
  • Volume 1
  • William Howard Russell
  • Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    15 December 2011
    First published in:
    1863
  • William Howard Russell (1820–1907) was a nineteenth-century war correspondent for The Times. In 1861–2 he visited America to report on the secession crisis that had followed Abraham Lincoln's campaign to abolish slavery, in which eleven southern states had withdrawn from the United States to form their own confederacy, resulting in the American Civil War. First published in 1863, this two-volume work recounts Russell's experiences there. Based on his interviews with Lincoln, other pivotal figures, and ordinary citizens, together with his diaries and his letters to The Times, it documents his impressions of both the northern and the opposing southern states as he travelled through them. His book, thought to have been compiled in response to accusations that he was biased towards the South, provides a revealing eyewitness account of life during a landmark period in America's history. Volume 1 focuses mainly on southern society and slavery.

North America
  • Volume 1
  • Anthony Trollope
  • Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    15 December 2011
    First published in:
    1862
  • Anthony Trollope (1815–82) was a prolific English Victorian writer, famous for work such as the 'Chronicles of Barsetshire', and his satirical masterpiece The Way We Live Now. He wrote forty-seven novels as well as several travel books and numerous short stories. After a poor and unhappy childhood, he spent much of his life working for the General Post Office, travelling extensively to carry out postal surveys and writing in his spare time. He became a senior civil servant in the organisation and was responsible for the introduction of pillar boxes to Britain. Published in 1862, this two-volume work is Trollope's first-hand account of North American culture during the American Civil War. Volume 1 focuses on Canada and the northern United States, in particular Boston, New England and New York. It also discusses women's rights and American education and religion.

My Diary North and South
  • Volume 2
  • William Howard Russell
  • Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    15 December 2011
    First published in:
    1863
  • William Howard Russell (1820–1907) was a nineteenth-century war correspondent for The Times. In 1861–2 he visited America to report on the secession crisis that had followed Abraham Lincoln's campaign to abolish slavery, in which eleven southern states had withdrawn from the United States to form their own confederacy, resulting in the American Civil War. First published in 1863, this two-volume work recounts Russell's experiences there. Based on his interviews with Lincoln, other pivotal figures, and ordinary citizens, together with his diaries and his letters to The Times, it documents his impressions of both the northern and the opposing southern states as he travelled through them. His book, thought to have been compiled in response to accusations that he was biased towards the South, provides a revealing eyewitness account of life during a landmark period in America's history. Volume 2 focuses on the horrors of the unfolding war.

Roughing it in the Bush
  • Or, Life in Canada
  • Volume 1
  • Susanna Moodie
  • Published online:
    05 October 2012
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1852
  • First published in 1852, and in its third edition by 1854, this description of pioneer immigrant life in Canada by Susanna Moodie (1803–85) is unsentimental and frank. In contrast to similar works, which often seem to be advertisements aimed at potential immigrants, Moodie's book emphasises not only the triumphs but also the tribulations as she and her family begin their new lives. Initially criticised in Canada for painting an unflattering picture of the country, it was later recognised as a key work of early Canadian literature, and has influenced writers up to the present day. The family left England reluctantly, as Moodie (née Strickland) makes clear in the introduction to Volume 1. She chronicles their early struggles and describes the characters of the people they encounter, particularly their troublesome 'Yankee' neighbours. Writing with honesty, clarity, humour and a journalistic immediacy, she provides a fascinating insight into the country's infancy.

Page 2 of 9