Wilderness at Dawn Book Review
The Settling of the North American Continent
In this book, Ted Morgan states that before any explorers or empires North America was an empty continent until its inhabitants crossed a temporary land bridge or the vast oceans. Morgan brings to his book what “Hawthorne called a sort of home-feeling with the past" and calls his book a "collective biography of ordinary people".
First Settlers in America
Ted Morgan begins with the Asians who crossed the Bering Strait, located between Cape Dezhnev , Russia and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska. The early settlers settled the area from the Seward Peninsula to the Terra del Fuego. These are believed to be the first inhabitants of the new world.
Morgan continues by stating how American history is unique due to the fact that people of other nations came before a formal government existed. Morgan suggests that America is a “much more grassroots-created continent than Europe”. He says America consisted of common people not just political leaders.
Morgan refers to Frederick Jackson Turner who he states, “Taught us not to look toward Europe to understand America”, but to look at “land policies and the appointment of our states.” He refers to the Significance of the Frontier in American History
The author gives details on how one “set-up” encouraged another. For example, the trading post brought forth the railroads and the trails widens into turnpikes. He goes on to say that settlers followed the arteries made by geologist, the tongues of settlement around the rivers, the frontier as it expands and contracts like a human skin covering the continent, the salt springs that enabled the settlers cattle to cross the mountains and the army posts opening the way into Indian territory.
American Frontier Becomes A Melting Pot
Morgan breaks the various frontiers down into three categories: English, French, and Spanish. The Spanish owned Florida for 300 years. The French explored the frontier along the Mississippi River and the English stayed along the Atlantic coast. The Indians were on the edge of the frontier causing many of a conflict between them and the settlers. Eventually all cultures would collide.
Throughout Morgan’s book, he uses maps depicting the location of settlements and the nations that held them. He states that the settling of North America occurred with much blood and sweat of the ordinary men and women. He also includes the oral tales of the Iroquois and other various tribes. He points out that the oral stories of the natives are ones that live on. They speak on nature and distances traveled.
Morgan showed enthusiasm in tales he told in this book. The diaries, journals, letters, and other sources used supports the points in the book His depiction of the common settler of early America is vivid. Clearly depicted are the diseases, cruelty, and unfairness shown to the existing cultures of that time.
As mentioned earlier, Morgan’s overall goal was to write about the common settler and he accomplishes that successfully.
Source:
Morgan, Ted. Wilderness At Dawn. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993.
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