The Revolutionary War: Introduction

There is a large number of books and essays contemporary to the American Revolutionary War that can be found on Google Book Search. I plan to do a whole series on the subject here but for now we'll start with an introduction to the subject with "A Candid Examination of the Mutual Claims of Great Britian and the Colonies" by Joseph Galloway. The book was published in 1775, just before a declaration of independence that would change course of history for the United States of America and countless other countries around the world.

New England's Present Sufferings...

In 1675, Edward Wharton wrote "New-England's Present Sufferings Under Their Cruel Neighboring Indians." It is a gruesome tale of the atrocities committed by Native Americans against their English neighbors. One of the great things about reading historical texts written and published as a contemporary piece of the events that were taking place is that you see a more clear picture of what was actually happening. Hundreds of years later we have a version of American history that has been intentionally filled with political correctness and ignores the fact that not all of our nations bloody history lies in the hands of the "white man." But I would be naive to not consider that because this is a contemporary piece it is being written by an individual who in all likelihood viewed the Native Americans as savages and knew nothing of their culture.

Any individual with an interest in history would do themselves well to seek out books written when the events they are studying actually took place. You will a world of knowledge and perspectives not present in modern history books.

Johnny Appleseed

The other day I chanced upon a novel from 1915 by Eleanor Atkinson titled Johnny Appleseed: The Romance of the Sower. I had never known very much about Johnny Appleseed other than being a man who walked all over America planting apple trees. Atkinson's book gives a much more detailed, if not highly idealized, view of the man whose real name was actually Jonathan Chapman.

The novel peaked my curiosity and I decided to seek more historical records of the man. The oldest reference I was able to find to him is from a magazine from 1846. This magazine however didn't even know Johnny Appleseed's real name. Most later references to the man though contained his name.

Take some time to relive this legendary man from America's past and the next time you are eating an apple keep in mind that that apple may very well be a descendent of trees planted by Johnny Appleseed.