Native Americans in the American Revolution: How the War Divided, Devastated, and Transformed the Early American Indian World

by Ethan A.. Schmidt

Overview

This valuable book provides a succinct, readable account of an oft-neglected topic in the historiography of the American Revolution: the role of Native Americans in the Revolution's outbreak, progress, and conclusion.

There has not been an all-encompassing narrative of the Native American experience during the American Revolutionary War period—until now. Native Americans in the American Revolution: How the War Divided, Devastated, and Transformed the Early American Indian World fills that gap in the literature, provides full coverage of the Revolution's effects on Native Americans, and details how Native Americans were critical to the Revolution's outbreak, its progress, and its conclusion.

The work covers the experiences of specific Native American groups such as the Abenaki, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Delaware, Iroquois, Seminole, and Shawnee peoples with information presented by chronological period and geographic area. The first part of the book examines the effects of the Imperial Crisis of the 1760s and early 1770s on Native peoples in the Northern colonies, Southern colonies, and Ohio Valley respectively. The second section focuses on the effects of the Revolutionary War itself on these three regions during the years of ongoing conflict, and the final section concentrates on the postwar years.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798216121626
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	05/12/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	7 - 17 Years

About the Author

Ethan A. Schmidt, PhD, is assistant professor of history at Delta State University in Cleveland, MS.
Ethan A. Schmidt, PhD, is assistant professor of history at Delta State University in Cleveland, MS.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Guide to the Principal Native American Groups during the Revolutionary Era, Grouped by Region
Timeline of the Major Events of the American Revolution, Including Those Relating to Native Americans
Introduction: The Great War for Empire and the End of Triangular Native Diplomacy
1 Pontiac's Rebellion, the Proclamation of 1763, and the New British Indian Policy
2 The Collapse of British Indian Policy in the South
3 The Collapse of British Indian Policy in the North
4 The Collapse of British Indian Policy in the West
5 The Revolutionary War in the South
6 The Revolutionary War in the North
7 The Revolutionary War in the West
8 "Like We Should Soon Become No People": The Assault on Indian Land in the Immediate Aftermath of the American Revolution
Conclusion: The Struggle Continues
Notes
Bibliographic Essay
Index

What People are Saying About This

Jacob J. Isaacson

"Ethan Schmidt's Native Americans in the American Revolution will become notable as a richly rewarding, comprehensive account that knits together a massive amount of evidence and commentary on many Native peoples' roles in these events. This work also is lucidly written and valuable for its scope (beginning with events in the 1750s) as well as its empathy for Native points of view, which often portray the revolution as a setback, not a victory. This book is at its best with original sources that illustrate the brutality of the war, as well as the betrayal of Native American allies by both sides once their military usefulness had ended and the rush of immigration exploded."

Brady DeSanti

"Ethan Schmidt’s Native Americans in the American Revolution: How the War Divided, Devastated, and Transformed the Early American Indian World, is a magisterial accomplishment that provides a much needed synthesis of Native people’s involvement in the American Revolution. Previous studies, while offering important insights into Native American involvement in the Revolutionary period, tended to focus exclusively on individual tribal experiences and presented Native peoples' participation as purely reactionary to European colonial activities. Schmidt focuses with laser-like precision on how deeply involved diverse Native American tribal nations were in shaping the events prior to the American Revolution, how thoroughly engaged they were during it, and how they strove in novel ways to maintain control over their destinies in the aftermath of the newly created United States."

Bruce E. Johansen

"Ethan Schmidt’s Native Americans in the American Revolution will become notable as a richly rewarding, comprehensive account that knits together a massive amount of evidence and commentary on many Native peoples’ roles in these events. This work also is lucidly written and valuable for its scope (beginning with events in the 1750s) as well as its empathy for Native points of view, which often portray the revolution as a setback, not a victory. This book is at its best with original sources that illustrate the brutality of the war, as well as the betrayal of Native American allies by both sides once their military usefulness had ended and the rush of immigration exploded."

Ron McCoy

"It has been wisely noted that the story of colonial/early America is a counterfactual construct absent key players too often missing in the narrative: Native Americans. Ethan Schmidt fills that gap with his new book, one that decidedly (and refreshingly) includes the drama's Native American participants who affected (and were affected by) the Revolution's challenges and opportunities—and he does so with a stylistic flair informed by a familiarity with the subject that is notable for both its breadth and depth."

Paul Kelton

"Anyone interested in the monumental impact that the Revolution had on Native Americans must start with Schmidt’s eloquent and informative synthesis . . . a much needed and excellent contribution that expands our understanding of the American Republic’s founding.”

Editorial Reviews

Summing Up: Recommended. General readers.” —Choice

From the Publisher