Indians, Settlers, and Slaves in a Frontier Exchange Economy: The Lower Mississippi Valley Before 1783
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Book Overview
In this pioneering book Daniel Usner examines the economic and cultural interactions among the Indians, Europeans, and African slaves of colonial Louisiana, including the province of West Florida. Rather than focusing on a single cultural group or on a particular economic activity, this study traces the complex social linkages among Indian villages, colonial plantations, hunting camps, military outposts, and port towns across a large region of pre-cotton South.
Usner begins by providing a chronological overview of events from French settlement of the area in 1699 to Spanish acquisition of West Florida after the Revolution. He then shows how early confrontations and transactions shaped the formation of Louisiana into a distinct colonial region with a social system based on mutual needs of subsistence. Usner's focus on commerce allows him to illuminate the motives in the contest for empire among the French, English, and Spanish, as well as to trace the personal networks of communication and exchange that existed among the territory's inhabitants. By revealing the economic and social world of early Louisianians, he lays the groundwork for a better understanding of later Southern society.
Usner begins by providing a chronological overview of events from French settlement of the area in 1699 to Spanish acquisition of West Florida after the Revolution. He then shows how early confrontations and transactions shaped the formation of Louisiana into a distinct colonial region with a social system based on mutual needs of subsistence. Usner's focus on commerce allows him to illuminate the motives in the contest for empire among the French, English, and Spanish, as well as to trace the personal networks of communication and exchange that existed among the territory's inhabitants. By revealing the economic and social world of early Louisianians, he lays the groundwork for a better understanding of later Southern society.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:080784358X
ISBN13:9780807843581
Release Date:April 1992
Publisher:Omohundro Institute and Unc Press
Length:314 Pages
Weight:1.10 lbs.
Dimensions:0.9" x 6.0" x 9.3"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
Fascinating Study of a Neglected Subject
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 24 years ago
Usner's Indians, Settlers and Slaves is a highly readable and path-breaking study of economic interactions in southern Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama before the formation of the 'Old South.' Here is a world of great social complexity, and surprising equality, featuring the Upper Mississippi Valley in a time of low settlement density. A must for anyone trying to understand the long-term settlement dynamic of the South.
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