UI Press | Edited by Susan Kalter | Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania, and the First Nations: The Treaties of 1736-62

Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania, and the First Nations

The Treaties of 1736-62

Awards and Recognition:

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title (2007)

British colonial relations with the native peoples of eastern North America

This is an annotated edition of the treaties between the British colonies and Indian nations, originally printed and sold by Benjamin Franklin. Last published in 1938, Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania, and the First Nations makes these important treaties available once again, featuring a simpler, easier-to-read format, extensive explanatory notes, and maps. A detailed introduction by Susan Kalter puts the treaties in their proper historical and cultural context.

This carefully researched edition shows these treaties to be complex intercultural documents, and provides significant insight into the British colonists' relationship with native peoples of North America. They also reveal the complexity of Benjamin Franklin's perceptions of Native Americans, showing him in some negotiations as a promoter of the Indian word against the colonial one. Finally, the treaties offer an enormous wealth of linguistic, aesthetic, and cultural information about the Iroquois, the Delawares, and their allies and neighbors.

"This new edition of the treaties will be indispensable for anyone working on native or imperial history in this region and period. . . . Readers with an interest in Pennsylvania's colonial history or early American literature will be grateful for this attractive and affordable new edition of the treaties."--Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography

"Kalter . . . has done students of early America a service, not only providing the first annotated edition of the fourteen treaties printed and sold by Franklin since Julian Boyd's 1938 volume but also welcoming the opportunity to employ the theoretical and methodological advances of the intervening decades. . . . There is much to admire in Kalter's effort. . . . She has done her part to ensure that more voices will be heard as the dialogue of interpretation continues."--Journal of the Early Republic

Susan Kalter is an assistant professor of English at Illinois State University, Normal.

To order online:
http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/46kyy3gn9780252030352.html

To order by phone:
(800) 621-2736 (USA/Canada)
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