The Pilgrims and Pocahontas: Rival Myths of American Origin

ISBN-13: 9780813334974 / Angielski / Twarda / 1999 / 400 str.

Ann U. Abrams

Opis

From colonial times, Americans have sought to create a vision of our nation from the stories of our origin. Who were our founding fathers? From what roots, from what histories, have we created our country and our identity? In this pursuit, Virginians have embellished the saga of Jamestown and Pocahontas, the Indian woman who, by popular accounts, saved the colony. Similarly, New Englanders have sanctified the Pilgrims and their mythical first step on Plymouth Rock.By comparing these two origin myths, investigating them in art, literature, and popular memory, Ann Uhry Abrams uncovers surprising similarities in traditions of remembrance as well as striking differences in the character of the myths and the messages they convey. During these heated debates of antebellum America, the escalating rivalry between North and South prompted an array of artists, authors, and politicians to refashion the legends to their needs, portraying the North as the pragmatic urban industrialist, the South as chivalric plantation cavalier.