The Making of John Ledyard: Empire and Ambition in the Life of an Early American TravelerYale University Press, 1. okt 2008 - 224 pages During the course of his short but extraordinary life, John Ledyard (1751–1789) came in contact with some of the most remarkable figures of his era: the British explorer Captain James Cook, American financier Robert Morris, Revolutionary naval commander John Paul Jones, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and others. Ledyard lived and traveled in remarkable places as well, journeying from the New England backcountry to Tahiti, Hawaii, the American Northwest coast, Alaska, and the Russian Far East. In this engaging biography, the historian Edward Gray offers not only a full account of Ledyard’s eventful life but also an illuminating view of the late eighteenth-century world in which he lived. Ledyard was both a product of empire and an agent in its creation, Gray shows, and through this adventurer’s life it is possible to discern the many ways empire shaped the lives of nations, peoples, and individuals in the era of the American Revolution, the world’s first modern revolt against empire. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 40
Page 2
... wrote Thomas Jefferson, then the American minister to France, “if he escapes through this journey, he will go to Kentucky and endeavour to penetrate Westwardly from thence to the South sea.”1 He was unable to keep his promise. A ...
... wrote Thomas Jefferson, then the American minister to France, “if he escapes through this journey, he will go to Kentucky and endeavour to penetrate Westwardly from thence to the South sea.”1 He was unable to keep his promise. A ...
Page 7
... wrote a carefully researched introduction to Ledyard's Journal of Captain Cook's Last Voyage to the Pacific Ocean for an edition published in 1963. Three years later , Stephen D. Watrous , now emeritus professor INTRODUCTION 7.
... wrote a carefully researched introduction to Ledyard's Journal of Captain Cook's Last Voyage to the Pacific Ocean for an edition published in 1963. Three years later , Stephen D. Watrous , now emeritus professor INTRODUCTION 7.
Page 34
... wrote to Thomas Seymour, “but the College lies out of what has been due along for his expences, and [the] needy state of the college is such that I can't do without punctual payment.” Ledyard, it seems, had squandered the inheritance ...
... wrote to Thomas Seymour, “but the College lies out of what has been due along for his expences, and [the] needy state of the college is such that I can't do without punctual payment.” Ledyard, it seems, had squandered the inheritance ...
Page 36
... wrote of a forty - two - foot craft that was lowered into the river near the college in the fall of 1773. These boats , fashioned from huge pine trunks , remained a staple of American river transport into the nineteenth century . Using ...
... wrote of a forty - two - foot craft that was lowered into the river near the college in the fall of 1773. These boats , fashioned from huge pine trunks , remained a staple of American river transport into the nineteenth century . Using ...
Page 37
... wrote of his overdrafts , and “ when I saw the letters and account , I was ever after so ashamed of my inadvertency and so justly culpable before you Sir that I could not compose myself to come before you & answer for my misconduct ...
... wrote of his overdrafts , and “ when I saw the letters and account , I was ever after so ashamed of my inadvertency and so justly culpable before you Sir that I could not compose myself to come before you & answer for my misconduct ...
Contents
1 | |
9 | |
23 | |
43 | |
IV Seeking Distinction with the Pen Aboard the Resolution | 69 |
V Following the Revolution Home | 83 |
VI From Author to Fur Trader | 101 |
VII Becoming a Traveler in Thomas Jeffersons Paris | 124 |
VIII Across the Russian Empire | 136 |
IX Despotism and Human Nature in Catherine IIs Russia | 153 |
X To Africa | 170 |
Memories of the Traveler | 186 |
Notes | 195 |
Index | 217 |
Other editions - View all
The Making of John Ledyard: Empire and Ambition in the Life of an Early ... Edward G. Gray No preview available - 2007 |
Common terms and phrases
Abigail aboard the Resolution Africa African Association appeared Banks Beaufoy Britain British Captain John Catherine chap character China colonial command Connecticut River Cook’s Cook's Last Voyage crew Dartmouth College death despotism Discovery eighteenth-century Eleazar Wheelock elite Empress England ethnic European expedition explained French frontier fur trade Hartford Hawaiian History human Ibid imperial Imperial Russia Irkutsk Islands Jared Sparks JCJC John Ledyard John Ledyard's Journey John Paul Jones Jones journal labor land letter Library London luxury marines merchants military moral Munford native nature naval navy never North America North Pacific northwest coast officers Pacific Ocean Palais Paris patrons perhaps political reprint returned revolutionary Russian Empire Russian Far East seemed Shelikov ships Siberia simply slavery slaves social Society South Squire John suggested Syphax Tahitian tattooed Thomas Jefferson tion Unalaska vessels Watrous West Whitman William writing Yakutsk yard York young