Michigan Voices: Our State's History in the Words of the People Who Lived It

Many folks do not realize the rich history and important role Michigan played in our country's history. It was being colonized at the same time - and was every bit of a colony - as the original thirteen. Detroit was founded in 1701, just 19 years after Philadelphia, and has thrived (for better or worse) ever since. What makes this book such a find is that it is soley written in the hand and language of those early settlers, going back to 1665 when the French settlers were spreading God's word to the Indians and continuing through the Indian wars of Pontiac, the Revolutionary War, early settlements in the lower penninsula, the Civil War, through the automobile industry, up into recent times. The most interesting entries are those written by the simple folk trying to etch out a life in this wilderness, such as the life of a new school teacher in 1866 who writes of having 89 students in her one room schoolhouse, as well as the surveyors who wrote off Michigan as a water logged wasteland. The life of a logger, a first hand description of the sounds of the Civil War, the birth of the GOP in 1854, and into the electric light and telephone age of 1907. This book is a wealth of information, taking the reader back into time, visiting the early folks of our great state. A must for local history buffs and social historians.