ON SAVAGE SHORES

This new perspective on Colonial history centers the experiences and cultural influences of Indigenous people.

By drawing on accounts of the many Indigenous people who traveled to Europe—by force or by choice—during the Colonial period between Columbus’ first contact in 1492 and the founding of Jamestown in 1607, Pennock, a professor of international history, develops a rich understanding of how these complex, varied people lived in the shadow of European imperialism. Across chapters on slavery, intermediation, families, diplomacy, and spectacle, Pennock considers the breadth of the Indigenous experience in Europe, ranging from people kidnapped and sold into slavery to high-status nobles arguing for their peoples’ rights in royal courtrooms. As the author demonstrates, these people “and the vast network of global connections they inhabited…sowed the seeds of our cosmopolitan modern world more than a century before the…pilgrims supposedly set foot on Plymouth Rock.” While each chapter establishes historical context in broad strokes, the detailed narratives of individual people are rendered as fully as possible, as the author decodes what little information exists in surviving shipping and property records, court documents, and journals. Reading between the lines of the colonizers' obfuscatory language, Pennock applies current knowledge of Indigenous histories and cultures to make some guesses about their lives while maintaining a high level of academic rigor. “Only by accumulating many tiny slivers of these lives, which touched so many but have seemingly made so shallow an imprint on western traditions, can we start to build a picture of the past that sees these travelers as they were—sometimes remarkable, and at other times mundane, but above all there.” In bringing these stories to light, Pennock creates a sharp challenge to Eurocentrism during the Colonial age. The author includes a timeline, two maps, and a glossary.

A convincing history of Indigenous peoples’ deep integration into—and surprising influence on—European politics and culture.