Crossing the Continent 1527-1540: The Story of the First African-American Explorer of the American South Author: Visit Amazon's Robert Goodwin Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0061140457 | Format: EPUB
Crossing the Continent 1527-1540: The Story of the First African-American Explorer of the American South Description
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*Starred Review* In the book prepared from his Bampton Lectures in America, Riley-Smith devotes two chapters each to conceptions of crusading in two periods, that of the original Crusades, 1095–1300, and that of imperialism and nationalism in Africa and the Middle East, 1800–2007. In the earlier period, a crusade was, Riley-Smith unequivocally asserts and demonstrates from the theological and historical records, a “penitential war pilgrimage”; that is, it was a military action waged on behalf of God by soldiers who journeyed to the Holy Land and fought to free it from non-Christian rule in penitence for their sins. In the latter period came nineteenth-century attempts to revive the military religious orders of the Crusades, most notably by a French Catholic archbishop for the defense of missionaries and the abolition of slavery in north central Africa. Overlapping that brief, unsuccessful venture and continuing to this day, interpretations of the Crusades by novelist Walter Scott and historian Joseph-Francois Michaud have been employed to facilitate Western rapprochement with Islam and, contrarily, to formulate the historical-economic interpretation of Western-Islamic relations with which Muslim militants justify violent jihad (the Islamic form of crusade, Riley-Smith says). Full of major revelations for most readers, this richly informed little book should be considered essential for understanding crusading, then and now. --Ray Olson
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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"Goodwin succeeds in lifting an important historical figure out of the fog of myth." ---The Washington Post
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- Paperback: 432 pages
- Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (September 22, 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0061140457
- ISBN-13: 978-0061140457
- Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
I have known the story of the 4 travelers, since my dad recounted the tales to us as bedtime stories. In college, I took his course in Southwestern Literature (UofAZ)and he took two class periods to tell the story. We had to read "La Relacion" aka "Shipwrecks" which was a popular version told by Cabeza de Vaca himself, who was one of the 4 survivors after a shipwreck on Galveston Island and 4-5 years of slavery to Texas tribes before they crossed the land to Mexico and found Spaniards. In my twenties, I didn't think much about it and took it at face value.
In my 40's I recounted the story to a group of people among whom were African Americans.I was astounded that they didn't know it. I went back to CdeV's telling again and read it carefully. I had always talked up Esteban, because I loved him as a kid. Now I saw that although not mentioned much,Esteban was pivotal to the success of the journey. He was able to learn languages quickly and served as interpreter. He also seemed to fit right in with the native tribes and danced with them, ate with them and lead the way to the shamanism the others learned. It appeared women and children loved him. I scoured La Relacion, then went back to the Uof A and read everybody's ideas about him. No one really seemed to understand what he did- he was the real leader of the crossing and smoothed the way for the 3 Spanish aristocrats who made the journey with him- one of whom was his owner.
I also reached my own conclusion based on spending years as a teenager on the Navajo Reservation and visiting Zuni many times. I was stunned that the Zunis killed him. I could not believe they would act that out of character for the tribal values. I never felt right about the accounts of Esteban's death.
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