Francis Parkman: The Oregon Trail, The Conspiracy of Pontiac (LOA #53), Volume 1“From boyhood,” wrote Francis Parkman, “I had a taste for the woods and the Indians.” This Library of America volume, containing The Oregon Trail and The Conspiracy of Pontiac, brilliantly demonstrates this lifelong fascination. His first book, The Oregon Trail, is a vivid account of his frontier adventures and his encounters with Plains Indians in their final era of nomadic life. The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada, Parkman’s first historical work, portrays the fierce conflict that erupted along the Great Lakes in the aftermath of the Seven Years’ War and chronicles the defeats in which the eastern Native American tribes “received their final doom.” The Oregon Trail (1849) opens on a Missouri River steamboat crowded with traders, gamblers, speculators, Oregon emigrants, “mountain men,” and Kansas Indians. In his search for Natives untouched by white culture, Parkman meets the Whirlwind, a Sioux chieftain, and follows him through the Black Hills. His descriptions of natives’ buffalo hunts, feasts and games, feuds, and gift-giving derive their intensity from his awareness that he was recording a vanishing way of life. Praised by Herman Melville for its “true wild-game flavor,” The Oregon Trail is a classic tale of adventure that celebrates the rich variety of life Parkman found on the frontier and the immensity and grandeur of America’s western landscapes. In The Conspiracy of Pontiac (1851), Parkman chronicles the consequences of the French defeat in Canada for the eastern Native American tribes. At the head of the Native American resistance to the Anglo-American advance in the 1760s was the daring Ottawa leader Pontiac, whose attacks on the frontier forts and settlements put in doubt the continuation of western expansion. A powerful narrative of battles and skirmishes, treaties and betrayals, written with eloquence and fervor and filled with episodes of heroism and endurance, The Conspiracy of Pontiac captures the spirit of a tragic and tumultuous age. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries. |
Contents
The Frontier | 9 |
Breaking the Ice | 16 |
Fort Leavenworth | 22 |
Copyright | |
24 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Francis Parkman: The Oregon Trail, The Conspiracy of Pontiac (LOA #53) Francis Parkman Limited preview - 1991 |
Francis Parkman: The Oregon Trail, The Conspiracy of Pontiac (LOA #53) Francis Parkman No preview available - 1991 |
Common terms and phrases
¹MS Amherst arms army attack bank began Bent's Fort Bouquet buffalo buffalo-robes camp Canadian canoes Captain chief close command crowded Dahcotah dark Delawares Delorier Detroit distance emigrants encamped enemy English eyes farther fire forest Fort Laramie Fort Leavenworth Fort Pitt French frontier galloped garrison Gladwyn grass ground guns hand head heard Henry Chatillon hill horses hundred Illinois Indians Iroquois journey killed Lake Lake Erie Laramie Lenape length lodge looked Michillimackinac miles morning mountains mules Nations night officers Ojibwas Ottawas party passed peace Pitt plain Pontiac prairie prisoners Quakers reached rest Reynal rifle river rode saddle savage scalp seemed settlements Shaw Shawanoes side siege of Detroit Sir William Johnson smoke soldiers soon spirit squaws stood stream tent Tête Rouge tion traders trees tribes troops village wagons wampum warriors whole wild woods Wyandots