Q&A with Christopher Parsons

May 29, 2019 By Rachel Herrmann in Interview Tags: Édouard Glissant, Canada, Chistine DeLucia, climate, Epistemology, Francisco Hernández, French Atlantic, Geography, historiography, Iberian history, imperial boundaries, J. H. Elliott, John Smith, José de Acosta, knowledge, New France, Nicolás Monardes, Pays d'en haut, People, Plants, race, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Samuel de Champlain, scientific taxonomy, Wendy Geniusz, Words Leave a comment

Today Rachel Herrmann interviews Christopher Parsons about his book, A Not-So-New World, which Carla Cevasco reviewed yesterday. Parsons is an interdisciplinary historian of science and the environment in the French Atlantic World. He has a longstanding interest in highlighting the contribution of indigenous peoples to the evolution of European and Euro-American environmental sciences. He has published articles in the William & Mary Quarterly, Environmental History, Early American Studies, and several edited collections. He tweets as @cm_parsons.

JUNTO: A Not-So-New World includes a discussion about fraught vocabulary, including the word sauvage and your decision to leave it untranslated. Early Americanists have been thinking for a while now about the language we use when we write about the past, but many of us are just starting to think about the French sources that inform your book. Could you say a little bit more about other word choices you made, and some of the words in translation that non-French Atlanticists might want to use with more care?

Christopher Parsons: Word choice is so important when you are working between subdisciplines such as the history of science and environmental history and across national historiographies such as, here, early Canada and early America. These are such powerful markers of investments in particular fields or the influence of particular works. I was conscious for example, of the Canadian preference for indigenous over native and the familiarity of early Americanists with terms such as the pays d’en haut.

Yet there were real intellectual reasons for leaving key terms untranslated as well. Continue reading →

Guest Post: Did Squanto meet Pocahontas, and What Might they have Discussed?

November 21, 2017 By Rachel Herrmann in Guest Posts Tags: British Empire, Coll Thrush, East India Company, empire, imperialism, Indigenous London, John Chamberlain, John Rolfe, John Slaney, John Smith, King James, London, Matoaka, Newfoundland Company, Pamunkey, Pawtuxet, Philpot Lane, Pocahontas, Powhatan, Queen Anne, Rebecca Rolfe, Squanto, Thanksgiving, Thomas Hunt, Thomas Smythe, Tisquantum, Tsenacomoco, Virginia, Virginia Company, Wahunsonacock, William Bradford 5 Comments

This is a guest post by Dr E. M. Rose. Dr Rose is a Visiting Fellow, Department of History, Harvard University, and can be reached at emrose@fas.harvard.edu. These observations emerged during research Rose conducted in the spring of 2017 as Visiting Fellow at The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture (OIEAHC)/Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation at Historic Jamestowne.

Two of the most famous Native Americans in early colonial history may well have met in London. Matoaka, nicknamed Pocahontas, who lived near the Jamestown settlement in Virginia and Tisquantum, better known as Squanto, who greeted the Pilgrims in Plymouth, Massachusetts, were apparently living near other in the English capital in late 1616. Pocahontas and Squanto were both part of a small and complexly entwined commercial community of merchants, sea captains, and maritime entrepreneurs, whose ventures spanned the globe. The two Native Americans were kidnapped in America within a year of each other and eventually came to England, where they were welcomed enthusiastically.[1] Although there is, as yet, no documentation to prove that such a meeting took place, circumstantial evidence suggests that they met when they were staying only a few hundred yards down the street from each other in the homes of men with interlocking business interests. Although the histories of Jamestown and Plymouth are usually treated as separate chapters in most narratives of American history, they were closely linked. Continue reading →

Columbus Day video roundup

October 13, 2014 By Rachel Herrmann in Academia, Pedagogy Tags: Colonization, Columbus Day, John Smith, Pocahontas, Rage, Snark, teaching, undergraduates 3 Comments

We’ve covered Columbus Day here at the blog before. Sometimes, though, it’s hard to distill academic rage and indignation into something short, pithy, and easily conveyed to undergraduates. I tend to resort to YouTube clips when I’m feeling particularly shouty. So I’d like to issue a call: what videos do you use to teach Columbus Day (or other prickly issues)? Please include a link and a short description of the video + how you use it. Continue reading →