Background
He was born on October 3, 1800, in Worcester, Massachussets, United States, the son of Aaron Bancroft, a prominent Unitarian clergyman.
(This volume (I of II) is a republish of the SIXTH EDITION...)
This volume (I of II) is a republish of the SIXTH EDITION published in 1889 which incorporates all inaccuracies or additional information discovered by Mr. Bancroft since the FIRST EDITION was published in 1882. We have attempted to accurately duplicate the original publishers format, language, phrasing and spelling. However, differences in older linotype layup and newer word processing formatting made an exact duplication in publishing next to impossible to accomplish. The two historical periods involved, the late eighteenth century when most of the quotes and letters were written, and the middle nineteenth century when the original authors narrative text of this volume was written, the phraseology and spelling were sometimes different. We have also been careful to accurately reproduce each and every character of the original interior text. The cover was designed to reflect modern paperback standards. We also added the watermark text in all original blank pages. The page count and sequence has been left unchanged.
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(CHAPTER I. EARLY VOYAGES. FRENCH SETl'LEMENTS IN AMERICA....)
CHAPTER I. EARLY VOYAGES. FRENCH SETl'LEMENTS IN AMERICA. THE enterprise of Columbus, the most memorable maritime enterprise in the history of the world, formed between Europe and America the communication which will never cease. Nearly three centuries before tlle Christian era, Aristotle, following the lessons of the Pythagoreans, had taught that the earth is a sphere, and that the water which bounds Europe on the west washes the eastern shores of Asia. Instructed by him, the Spaniard Seneca believed that a ship, with a fair wind, could sail from Spain to the Indies in a few days. The opinion was revived in the middle ages by A verroes, the Arab commentator of Aristotle. Science and observation assisted to confirm it; and poets of ancient and of more recent times had foretold that empires beyond the ocean would one day be revealed to the daring navigator. The genial country of Dante and Buonarotti ga.ve birth to Christopher Columbus, by whom these lessons were so re Table of Contents CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME; THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AS COLONIES; PART I; THE ENGLISH PEOPLE FOUND A NATION IN AMERICA; OHAPTER I; EARLY VOYAGES FRENOH SETTLEMENTS IN AHEBIOA; PA9B; Columbus, taught by Aristotle, discovers the New World 7; John Cabot discovers the western continent for England 10; Second and third voyages of Columbus 11; Sebastian Cabot and Vasco da Gama sail west and east 11; Death of Columbus Cabot enters the service of Spain 18; Portuguese voyage First voyages of the French U; James Cartier discovers and ascends the St Lawrence lIS; Oartier at Quebec Voyage of Roberval 17; De III Roche attempts colonization Samuel Ohamplain at Quebec 18; A French colony at Port Royal, now Annapolis 19; Anival of Jesuit priests 20; Of Franciscans Last years of Champlain 21; OHAPTER IL; THB SPANIARDS IN FLORIDA AND ON
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He was born on October 3, 1800, in Worcester, Massachussets, United States, the son of Aaron Bancroft, a prominent Unitarian clergyman.
The younger Bancroft attended Phillips Academy at Exeter and Harvard College, graduating from the latter in 1817.
Intending to enter the ministry, he studied at Göttingen and elsewhere in Germany, returning in 1822, more interested in education, literature, and philosophy than in theology. With Joseph Green Cogswell, Bancroft founded the Round Hill School, an experimental preparatory school in Northampton, Massachussets. He remained there for seven years, writing extensively, meanwhile, on German philosophy and literature for the journals, one of the first Americans to do so.
Throughout his lifetime he fitted his research and writing around his political requirements, so that the compilation of his 10-volume History of the United States extended over a period of 40 years (1834–74). With a few exceptions, earlier American historians had been collectors or annalists, concerned chiefly with state or Revolutionary War histories. Influenced by the nationalistic German school of historians, he approached his subject philosophically, molding it to fit his preconceived thesis that the American political and social system represented the highest point yet reached in humanity’s quest for the perfect state. He placed great emphasis on the use of original sources, building a vast collection of documents and hiring copyists to translate materials from European archives.
Many critics thought that, in the first three volumes (1834–40), the writer was too strongly influenced by the political attitudes of President Andrew Jackson. Nevertheless, Bancroft’s reputation as the country’s leading historian was firmly established by 1850. Seven succeeding volumes were published between 1852 and 1874. A revised centenary edition (1876) reduced the number of volumes to six, but the author’s basic approach to American history remained unchanged. A still later edition (1885) included a two-volume study, The History of the Formation of the Federal Constitution (1882).
Although Bancroft neglected economic and social forces and wrote what are essentially political and military narratives, he was nevertheless the first to recognize the importance of the colonial period, foreign relations, and the frontier as forces in the history of the United States.
(This volume (I of II) is a republish of the SIXTH EDITION...)
(CHAPTER I. EARLY VOYAGES. FRENCH SETl'LEMENTS IN AMERICA....)
Bancroft’s life presented a curious blend of scholarship and politics. Although he was educated at Harvard and several German universities, he initially eschewed an academic career for an eight-year experiment in elementary education at Round Hill, his private school for boys at Northampton, Massachusetts (1823–31). He then turned to anti-Masonic and Democratic politics in Massachusetts. He received his first patronage post as collector of the Port of Boston (1838) and became U. S. secretary of the navy (1845–46) and minister to England (1846–49). Though not an abolitionist, Bancroft broke with the Democrats over the slavery issue in the 1850s and shifted his support to the Republican Party. As a result, he served as minister to Prussia (1867–71) and to the German Empire (1871–74). While in Germany he became closely identified with the German intellectual community.
Bancroft was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1838.