Author Description
David Ingram Was An Ordinary Seaman Of The Elizabethan Age. He Served On A Slave Ship Captained By John Hawkins, The Queen's Slaver. After Sailing First To Africa And Then Taking Enslaved People To Sell In The Caribbean, The Little Fleet Was Nearly Destroyed In A Furious Battle With The Spanish. Ingram And Two Other Marooned Men Then Walked Over 3600 Miles From Mexico To New Brunswick In Eleven Months Before Being Rescued. A Dozen Years Later Ingram Was Brought In For Interrogation By The Queen's Spymaster, Francis Walsingham, As Investors Tried To Learn More About America In Anticipation Of Colonization. The Contemporary Historian Richard Hakluyt Soon Used The Records Of The Interrogation To Publish His Version Of Ingram's Testimony. However, When Editing It Hakluyt Mistakenly Assumed That Everything Ingram Described About Africa, The Caribbean, And North America Applied Only To Ingram's Long Walk Through America. For Over Four Centuries, Hakluyt's Scrambled Publication Of 1589 Has Been Ridiculed As The Fantastic Ramblings Of A Liar. Examination Of The Original Documents Surviving From The Interrogation Has Revealed That Hakluyt Was A Poor Editor, And That Ingram Had Told The Truth About His Extraordinary Journey. Ingram's Story Can Now Be Told As He Related It, Revealing Things About Africa And The Americas In The Age Of European Discovery That Would Otherwise Be Unknown To History
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
Did David Ingram, a sixteenth-century seaman, fabricate his accounts of a 3,600-mile trek across North America, or was his testimony distorted by the editorial errors of his contemporaries? Dean R. Snow, a scholar of history and archaeology, re-examines the original interrogation records of David Ingram to challenge the long-standing academic consensus that dismissed the sailor's claims as mere fantasy. By separating Ingram's actual observations from the conflated narrative published by Richard Hakluyt in 1589, Snow provides a corrected account of the sailor's experiences across Africa, the Caribbean, and North America.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- A detailed reconstruction of the 1568 battle between John Hawkins' fleet and the Spanish forces.
- An analysis of the 1589 interrogation records conducted by Francis Walsingham.
- A critical comparison between Richard Hakluyt's published version and the surviving primary source documents.
- New insights into the geography and indigenous cultures of North America as observed during the Elizabethan era.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Historians and researchers view this work as a significant correction to the historical record regarding early European exploration. The text is noted for its meticulous archival research and its success in rehabilitating the credibility of a previously maligned historical figure.
Page Count:
0
Publication Date:
2023-01-01
Publisher:
New York : Oxford University Press,
ISBN-10:
0197648037
ISBN-13:
9780197648032
Biography
History
Exploration
Early works
Colonial History
Maritime history
Discovery and exploration
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