Ferdinand De Soto, The Discoverer of the Mississippi

Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot), 1805-1877Project Gutenberg · United StatesMar 2023

Rating 3.3
Word count
456K words
Chapters
46

Tags

Motivation and Growth Historical ReappraisalDiscovery of AmericaLegendary LivesAdventure JourneyGroup BiographyHeroismPatriotismGeography ScienceExpeditionSocial Observation

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Ferdinand De Soto, The Discoverer of the Mississippi by John S. C. AbbottAuthor: Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot), 1805-1877,Language: English, Class: E011: History: America: America, Release Date: Jun 20, 2009

Editor's review

Ferdinand De Soto, The Discoverer of the Mississippi is a historical biography by John S. C. Abbott, classified under American history. Abbott was a prolific nineteenth-century writer who often wrote lively stories of historical figures; this book centers on the Spanish explorer De Soto's expedition through the southeastern North America, recounting his search for wealth, his crossing of unfamiliar lands, and his eventual arrival in the Mississippi region. As a Project Gutenberg public-domain ebook, its value lies in giving readers zero-cost access to earlier popular historical writing and showing how the nineteenth-century English-speaking world narrated the Age of Discovery and colonial exploration. Read with historical criticism: the book's judgments of explorers carry the stance of the author's era, and its treatment of Indigenous peoples and colonial violence may differ from contemporary historiography. It suits as an entry point for interest in early American and exploration history, or as extensive reading in English historical texts, but not as the sole or latest scholarly reference.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the table of contents and chapter summaries first to grasp the timeline and geographical route of De Soto's expedition.
  2. Use a map while reading to locate southeastern North America and the Mississippi basin, strengthening spatial sense.
  3. Note the author's judgments on exploration and colonization, and jot down differences from contemporary historical views.
  4. Read alongside encyclopedia entries or other general history chapters to avoid bias from a single narrative.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46

FAQ

Is this a rigorous academic history? No. It is a nineteenth-century popular historical biography, lively in narration but limited by the verification and perspectives of its time. It suits beginners seeking the basic outline of De Soto's expedition; professional research should consult modern scholarship and primary sources.
What should I note about the book's portrayal of Indigenous peoples? Influenced by the author's era, the book's account of Indigenous peoples may be brief or biased. Read critically and combine contemporary scholarship on colonial contact to understand different narrative stances on the same events.
How difficult is the English, and what level is it for? The original is in English with a nineteenth-century popular history style; overall not very difficult, but the vocabulary involves geographical and historical proper names. Intermediate to advanced readers will progress more easily; beginners can read a Chinese summary first and then try selected passages.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot), 1805-1877 Author

John S. C. Abbott (1805–1877) was a nineteenth-century American writer of history known for popular biographies and narrative histories. Our catalog holds thirty of his works, covering subjects such as King Philip, Madame Roland, John Paul Jones, Daniel Boone: The Pioneer of Kentucky, Peter Stuyvesant, George Washington, the French Revolution, and the buccaneers of the Caribbean. He typically presented lives and their historical settings in a lively, readable style, turning history into engaging story, and he had some influence in bringing history to a general readership. His works are often grouped under inspirational and personal-growth reading, suited to readers seeking lessons from the lives of notable figures. Public information about him is limited, and details of his life and scholarly assessment require further verification.