Francis Jennings

Francis Jennings (born September 19, 1918 in Pottsville, Pennsylvania ; died November 17, 2000 in Evanston, Illinois ) was an American historian.

life and work

Jennings' research interests were in the relationships between the Indians and the white settlers and conquerors of North America from colonial times to the present day. He became known in the 1960s for harsh attacks against racist and imperialist tendencies in American historiography in general, and the works of Francis Parkman in particular; through the application of ethnological methods he distinguished himself in the following decades as one of the outstanding representatives of "ethno-history". His main work is the trilogy The Covenant Chain (named after the Covenant Chain , the British-Iroquois alliance of the 17th and 18th centuries), published between 1975 and 1988, in which he describes the history of Indian-British relations up to the end of the colonial period traces. The subtitle of his 1993 volume The Founders of America summarizes his view of history concisely: “How the Indians discovered the land, opened it up, founded great classical civilizations, how they were plunged into a dark age by an invasion, and how they are today recover from it. "

It was not until 1966 that he began teaching and taught first at Moore College of Art (until 1968), then at Cedar Crest College (1968–1976). He spent the final years of his career at the Newberry Library in Chicago, first as director of the D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History , then as a senior research fellow .

Works

Essays

• A Vanishing Indian: Francis Parkman Versus His Sources . In: Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 87, 1963. pp. 306-23.
• The Delaware Interregnum . In: The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 89: 2, 1965. pp. 174-198.
• The Indian Trade of the Susquehanna Valley . In: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 110: 6, 1966. pp. 406-424.
• Incident at Tulpehocken . In: Pennsylvania History 35: 4, pp. 335-355.
• The Scandalous Indian Policy of William Penn's Sons: Deeds and Documents of the Walking Purchase . In: Pennsylvania History 37: 1, 1970. pp. 19-39.
• Goals and Functions of Puritan Missions to the Indians . In: Ethnohistory 18: 3, 1971. pp. 197-212.
• Virgin Land and Savage People . In: American Quarterly 23: 4, 1971. pp. 519-541.
• The Constitutional Evolution of the Covenant Chain . In: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 115: 2, 1971. pp. 88-96.
• A Growing Partnership: Historians, Anthropologists and American Indian History . In: Ethnohistory 29: 1, 1982. pp. 21-34.
• Francis Parkman: A Brahmin among Untouchables . In: The William and Mary Quarterly (3rd episode) 42, 1985. pp. 305-328.

Monographs

• The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism, and the Cant of Conquest . University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill 1975. Reprint 2010: ISBN 0807871443
• The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire: The Covenant Chain Confederation of Indian Tribes with English Colonies from its Beginnings to the Lancaster Treaty of 1744 . Norton, New York 1984. ISBN 0393017192
• Empire of Fortune: Crowns, Colonies, and Tribes in the Seven Years War in America . Norton, New York 1988. ISBN 0393025373
• The Founders of America: How Indians Discovered the Land, Pioneered in It, and Created Great Classical Civilizations, how They Were Plunged Into a Dark Age by Invasion, and how They are Reviving . Norton 1993. ISBN 0393033732
• Benjamin Franklin, Politician . Norton, New York 1996. ISBN 0393039838
• The Creation of America: Through Revolution to Empire . Cambridge University Press, New York 2000. ISBN 0521662559

Editing

• (Ed.): The History and Culture of Iroquois Diplomacy: An Interdisciplinary Guide to the Treaties of the Six Nations and Their League . Syracuse University Press, Syracuse NY 1985. ISBN 0815622716

Secondary literature

• Richard S. Dunn: Obituary: Francis Jennings (1918-2000) . In: Pennsylvania History 68: 2, 2000. pp. 244-246.
• Kirsten Fischer: In Retrospect: The Career of Francis Jennings . In: Reviews in American History 30: 4, 2002. pp. 517-529.
• Frederick E. Hoxie: In memoriam: Francis Jennings . In: Newsletter of the Organization of American Historians 29, 2001.
• Timothy J. Shannon: Footnotes and Bloodsport: Francis Jennings on the Early American Frontier . In: Reviews in American History 38: 2, 2010. pp. 199-208.