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Recollections of the Last Ten Years in the Valley of the Mississippi
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
367 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1968
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July 28, 2019
Timothy Flint, author of RECOLLECTIONS, was a Congregationalist minister sent to the west in 1815, and who, after ten years on the frontier, recorded his impressions of the areas in which he travelled by 'letters' written to his cousin, James Flint. While they do roughly follow a chronological course, each of Flint's letters are more concerned with a particular subject rather than the daily events of his sojourn. Therefore, one letter might treat with the subject of the Native Americans Flint associated with and met, and attempted to minister to, and another might deal with the arduous task of river travel.
Along with these are the travails his family suffered through, the character of the people in different locales, and the flora, fauna, and agricultural diversity he found. Beginning in Cincinnati, Flint moved to St. Louis (then a town of two thousand inhabitants), and then to New Orleans, travelling widely in Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri and the Delta region. The RECOLLECTIONS, rather than taken from a journal, are truly Flint's recollections after a ten year period, so while the details may not be as clear as a daily log would have made them, Flint's very readable prose shapes the period into context that closer observation would have missed.
Parts of RECOLLECTIONS were fascinating, such as the descriptions of river travel, and especially of one harrowing trip up-river where Flint's wife gave birth in the middle of a torrential downpour, miles from any civilization. Overall, I found his cultural descriptions to be well worth the time, though I tended to gloss over some of the agricultural lists. More than anything, though, I thought the book gave me a clearer picture than any other I've read concerning this time and place in America, and how truly rugged life was just along the Mississippi river valley. Today, this area seems so tame as to be mind-numbingly boring--I know, I live here--but only two hundred years ago, it was a wild and frightening border.
Not too long ago, I read Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson, which overlapped some with this same period. While that book also examined some of the cultural tendencies of the time, I thought RECOLLECTIONS did a much better job at making the people of the time seem more real to me, and less like a footnote to history. RECOLLECTIONS belongs in any library devoted to the history of the early American republic, both as a resource and as an entertaining read.
Along with these are the travails his family suffered through, the character of the people in different locales, and the flora, fauna, and agricultural diversity he found. Beginning in Cincinnati, Flint moved to St. Louis (then a town of two thousand inhabitants), and then to New Orleans, travelling widely in Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri and the Delta region. The RECOLLECTIONS, rather than taken from a journal, are truly Flint's recollections after a ten year period, so while the details may not be as clear as a daily log would have made them, Flint's very readable prose shapes the period into context that closer observation would have missed.
Parts of RECOLLECTIONS were fascinating, such as the descriptions of river travel, and especially of one harrowing trip up-river where Flint's wife gave birth in the middle of a torrential downpour, miles from any civilization. Overall, I found his cultural descriptions to be well worth the time, though I tended to gloss over some of the agricultural lists. More than anything, though, I thought the book gave me a clearer picture than any other I've read concerning this time and place in America, and how truly rugged life was just along the Mississippi river valley. Today, this area seems so tame as to be mind-numbingly boring--I know, I live here--but only two hundred years ago, it was a wild and frightening border.
Not too long ago, I read Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson, which overlapped some with this same period. While that book also examined some of the cultural tendencies of the time, I thought RECOLLECTIONS did a much better job at making the people of the time seem more real to me, and less like a footnote to history. RECOLLECTIONS belongs in any library devoted to the history of the early American republic, both as a resource and as an entertaining read.
Displaying 1 of 1 review