The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution

In the 20th century, American history shifted its focus away from Frederick Jackson Turner s landmark Frontier Thesis towards borderland, studies, which focus on the fluidity of culture and power areas where national borders are yet well defined University of California Davis Historian Alan Taylor s latest book, The Divided Ground, is one such study Its title purposefully recalls Richard White s The Middle Ground, a book that focused on the interactions and accommodations between cultures of the [...]

Pulitzer prize winning author Alan Taylor has subtitled this scholarly yet accessible history Indians, Settlers and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution Beginning with the French and Indian war and concluding during the early nineteenth century, Taylor sheds new light upon European Native relations by following the parallel careers of two men, the charismatic Mohawk Indian leader Joseph Brant, and Presbyterian missionary turned speculator Samuel Kirkland The focus is New York State [...]

Taylor argues that Native Americans didn t stubbornly cling to their old views of land ownership in the face of settler expansion Rather, by looking at Upstate NY, Iroquois, Taylor shows how they adapted their views to preserve their traditional lifestyle by leasing directly to nearby land buyers to preserve their traditional lifestyle which gave them an annual revenue replacing losses in animal population A la The Middle Ground, Iroquois wanted to preserve a middle position between Britain and [...]

I ve lived in western NY for over 30 years without understanding most of what preceded the modern era This is revisionist in the sense that it s perspective is much nuanced and balanced then typical milestone based history that focus on battles and treaties illuminating the conflicted motivations of both natives and settlers Taylor brings to life the humanity of many players both Iroquois and European but by focusing on two in particular gives us unique access to what lay behind the actions on [...]

While reading The World of Odysseus, I came across a footnote concerning the matriarcal society of the Iroquois I was aware of this but knew little else Intrigued, and wanting to learn , I found the only book at our local library on the subject.OK, I was mistaken It seams to be just another dry, scholarly history Besides, summer s comin so why waste my time on something I m b not enthusiastic about You know what I want to read.

The Divided Ground tells the story of a Mohawk and and a colonial clergyman who s friendship helped redefine colonial America It was skillfully written shifting back and forth between examining the friendship on a micro level and the relationship between Europeans and Native on a whole While cooperation might I have worked on a singular level, it becomes clear that with the American Revolution, and the struggle of Native to preserve their own land, cooperation could not last.

Everyone living in the upstate New York area should read this book We need to know the real history of our land The relations between the European Americans and the Native Americans between 1750 and 1820 is the focus of this book It is a story far interesting than what we have all learned in school This books makes that history seem important and fascinating The characters of the major players are vividly sketched.

I wish everyone I knew who lives in this area would read this book Not only historically fascinating, the arguments about native creativity in dealing with new and unjust legal decisions is as relevant as ever, especially when you look at what s going on with the Cayuga Nation work to have land put into trust.

A quite complex examination of the wars fought for my old neighborhood upstate New York during the American Revolution It examines the different understandings of this borderland region that the British, the Americans, and the Native Americans specifically, the Haudonosee People the Iroquois held.

Excellent book describing early American history focusing on the Iroquois The book told me about land dealings than I really wanted to know, but the accumulation of detail was probably necessary to convince the reader of the accuracy of the revisionist history It changed my ideas about the founding of the United States and taught me a lot about the Iroquois.

Reads a little too much like a doctoral dissertation turned into a book I m not opposed to exhaustive detail, but this just didn t keep my attention to all the detail Even though I read it as background for a very interesting workshop, I kept wishing the author had paid attention to giving the reader a reason to keep on reading

A powerful, sad story of how the Iroquois lost most of their lands and were forced on to reservations in the decades following the American Revolution In part the story is told through the lives of Mohawk leader Joseph Brant and Samuel Kirkland, a white missionary to the Oneida.

Definitely not a quick read I read this book in preparation for a summer workshop offered at Niagara University sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities Chock full of information that must be slowly savored in order to fully appreciate the detail.

Taylor s history of the many treaties and alliances of the new nation after the Revolution shuns non of the complexity of the story Thoroughly researched and well told.

No one can fault Taylor s research, but this book isn t strong enough to make readers care about the anecdotal minutiae The Divided Ground spends much time discussing