Research Catalog
Indian captive, Indian king : Peter Williamson in America and Britain
- Title
- Indian captive, Indian king : Peter Williamson in America and Britain / Timothy J. Shannon.
- Author
- Shannon, Timothy J. (Timothy John), 1964-
- Publication
- Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2018.
- ©2018
Items in the Library & Off-site
Filter by
1 Item
| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person. | Text | Use in library | JFE 18-1925 | Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315 |
Details
- Description
- viii, 343 pages : illustrations, maps; 25 cm
- Summary
- In 1758, Peter Williamson appeared in the streets of Aberdeen, Scotland, dressed as a Native American Indian and telling a remarkable tale. He claimed that as a young boy many years earlier, he had been kidnapped from the city and sold into slavery in America. In performances he gave in taverns and coffeehouses and in a printed narrative he peddled to his audiences, Williamson described his serial tribulations on the fringes of the British Empire as an indentured servant, Indian captive, soldier, and prisoner of war. In his performances and publications, Williamson offered British audiences a distinctly plebian perspective on the British Empire in North America. His unique career capitalized on the curiosity that the Seven Years' War ignited among the British public for news and information about America and its Native inhabitants, but his reputation for fabrication also made his contemporaries and historians reluctant to believe him. Indian Captive, Indian King is the first biography of Williamson to separate the fact from fiction in his tale and explain what it tells us about how the working people of eighteenth-century Britain, so often depicted as victims of empire, found their own ways to create lives and exploit opportunities within it.--
- Subjects
- Genre/Form
- History.
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Contents
- Prologue: Aberdeen, 1758 -- Part One. Hard fate: Kidnapped -- Sold as a slave -- Captive -- Soldier -- Prisoner of war -- Part Two. The interesting tale: Strolling adventurer -- Poor Peter Williamson -- Peter Williamson, pursuer -- From the other world -- Bookseller, printer, and postman -- King of the Indians -- Epilogue: Edinburgh, 1822.
- Call Number
- JFE 18-1925
- ISBN
- 9780674976320
- 0674976320
- LCCN
- 2017016494
- 13956848
- OCLC
- 988256025
- Author
- Shannon, Timothy J. (Timothy John), 1964- author.
- Title
- Indian captive, Indian king : Peter Williamson in America and Britain / Timothy J. Shannon.
- Publisher
- Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2018.
- Copyright Date
- ©2018
- Type of Content
- text
- Type of Medium
- unmediated
- Type of Carrier
- volume
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Chronological Term
- 1700-1799
- Other Standard Identifier
- 13956848
- Research Call Number
- JFE 18-1925