Categories: History - American Studies
Year: 2005
Edition: 1
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Language: English
Pages: 604
ISBN 10: 0817313931
ISBN 13: 9780817313937
File: PDF, 5.27 MB
James Adair was an Englishman who lived and traded among the southeastern Indians for more than 30 years, from 1735 to 1768. During that time he covered the territory from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River. He encountered and lived among Indians, advised governors, spent time with settlers, and worked tirelessly for the expansion of British interests against the French and the Spanish. Adair's acceptance by the Creeks, Choctaws, Cherokees, and Chickasaws provided him the opportunity to record, compare, and analyze their cultures and traditions. Adair's written work, first published in England in 1775, is considered one of the finest histories of the Native Americans. His observations provide one of the earliest and what many modern scholars regard as the best account of southeastern Indian cultures. This edition adheres to current standards of documentary editing, following the original closely, and provides fully annotated and indexed critical apparatus.