The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815An acclaimed book and widely acknowledged classic, The Middle Ground steps outside the simple stories of Indian-white relations - stories of conquest and assimilation and stories of cultural persistence. It is, instead, about a search for accommodation and common meaning. It tells how Europeans and Indians met, regarding each other as alien, as other, as virtually nonhuman, and how between 1650 and 1815 they constructed a common, mutually comprehensible world in the region around the Great Lakes that the French called pays d'en haut. Here the older worlds of the Algonquians and of various Europeans overlapped, and their mixture created new systems of meaning and of exchange. Finally, the book tells of the breakdown of accommodation and common meanings and the re-creation of the Indians as alien and exotic. First published in 1991, the 20th anniversary edition includes a new preface by the author examining the impact and legacy of this study. |
Contents
| 1 | |
The middle ground | 50 |
The fur trade | 94 |
The alliance | 142 |
Republicans and rebels | 186 |
The clash of empires | 223 |
Pontiac and the restoration of the middle ground | 269 |
Other editions - View all
The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region ... Richard White No preview available - 2010 |
The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region ... Richard White No preview available - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
Algonquians alliance chiefs allies Americans Amherst Papers attack backcountry Beauharnois beaver Bouquet Papers British Cadillac Canada Chippewas Clair Clark confederation Contrecoeur council Croghan cultural Delawares Detroit Draper Mss English European exchange father Fort Pitt French Frenchmen fur trade Gage Papers Gage to Johnson gifts Governor Green Bay Haldimand Haldimand Papers Hamilton Hamtramck Harmar Papers History Hocquart hunting Huron-Petuns Hurons ibid Illinois country Indians Iroquois Jesuits Johnson to Gage Jonquière Journal July June Kaskaskia killed Lake land leader Mascoutens McKee mediation Memoir Miamis Michilimackinac middle ground Mingos Ministre Montreal Moravian MPHC murders negotiations Neolin NYCD officers Ohio Onontio Ottawas pays d'en haut peace Pennsylvania Perrot Peyster phratry Piankashaws political Pontiac posts Potawatomis Potherie prisoners quotation Sauks savages Sept Shawnees Simcoe Papers Tanacharison Tecumseh Tenskwatawa Thwaites treaty tribes Vaudreuil villages Vincennes Wabash warriors Weas West western whites women Wyandots