Product Description

In this lively collection of essays, historians reassess the events and meaning of Minnesota Territory 150 years after its creation. They describe how its birth in 1849 during the growing national conflict over slavery forever changed the lives of Minnesota's native and mixed-blood residents. Reinterpreting the rush to statehood in 1858, these writers offer fresh insights into the roles played by wildly optimistic territorial promoters and the no-holds-barred newspapers of the time. Eight fictional "Day in the Life" essays, as well as more than 75 historical daguerreotypes, paintings, photographs, and curators'-choice artifacts, call up the sights, sounds, and surroundings of ordinary people living in tumultuous territorial times. An essay on surviving buildings and landscapes offers readers the opportunity to see and experience territorial Minnesota today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1496839 in Books
• Published on: 1999-03-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

From the Publisher
Book contains 90 photographs, 5 maps, and 52 color illustrations.

About the Author
Anne Kaplan, Editor

Customer Reviews

From wilderness to territory to state
In the nine territorial years, the Minnesota European-American population exploded from 5,000 to 150,000. It is hard to comprehend what such a dramatic change meant for the environment, the Native American population and the old fur trading culture. This book goes some way in trying to make real for the modern reader what the shift from one way of life to another was like for the people living it. On the back cover is a quote excerpted from Rhoda Gilman's essay that I particularly liked for the way it opened up my thinking:

"With the signing of the Indian treaties a subtle but profound change had already taken place. Prairie and oak openings had become acres; forests had become timber stands; tumbling rivers had become water rights. A world of natural features once invested with mystery and power of their own had become resources for human manipulation."

The maps, photographs, and illustrations are excellent.