When we study the history of colonial North America, we tend to focus on European colonists and their rivalries with each other and with Native Americans. But humans weren’t the only living beings occupying North America during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.
Rivalries existed between humans and animals too. And these human-animal rivalries impacted and shaped how European colonists used and settled North American lands.
Andrea Smalley, an associate professor of history at Northern Illinois University and author of Wild By Nature: North American Animals Confront Colonization, joins us to explore the many ways wild animals shaped colonists’ ideas and behavior as they settled and interacted with North American lands.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/168
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Complementary Episodes
Episode 049: Malcolm Gaskill, How the English Became American
Episode 067: John Ryan Fischer, An Environmental History of Early California & Hawaii
Episode 079: James Horn, What is a Historical Source? (History of Jamestown)
Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America
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