| From Furs to Farms: The Transformation of the Mississippi Valley, 1762-1825 Contributor(s): Reda, John (Author) |
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ISBN: 0875807860 ISBN-13: 9780875807867 Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press OUR PRICE: $34.60 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: December 2017 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | United States - Colonial Period (1600-1775) - History | United States - Revolutionary Period (1775-1800) - History | United States - 19th Century |
| Dewey: 977.01 |
| Physical Information: 0.51" H x 6" W x 9" (0.73 lbs) 212 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 18th Century - Chronological Period - 19th Century - Chronological Period - 1800-1850 - Cultural Region - Mississippi River Basin - Cultural Region - Midwest |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This original study tells the story of the Illinois Country, a collection of French villages that straddled the Mississippi River for nearly a century before it was divided by the treaties that ended the Seven Years' War in the early 1760s. Spain acquired the territory on the west side of the river and Great Britain the territory on the east. After the 1783 Treaty of Paris and the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, the entire region was controlled by the United States, and the white inhabitants were transformed from subjects to citizens. By 1825, Indian claims to the land that had become the states of Illinois and Missouri were nearly all extinguished, and most of the Indians had moved west. John Reda focuses on the people behind the Illinois Country's transformation from a society based on the fur trade between Europeans, Indians, and mixed-race (métis) peoples to one based on the commodification of land and the development of commercial agriculture. Many of these people were white and became active participants in the development of local, state, and federal governmental institutions. But many were Indian or métis people who lost both their lands and livelihoods, or black people who arrived-and remained-in bondage. In From Furs to Farms, Reda rewrites early national American history to include the specific people and places that make the period far more complex and compelling than what is depicted in the standard narrative. This fascinating work will interest historians, students, and general readers of US history and Midwestern studies. |