The Best Land
eBook - ePub

The Best Land

Four Hundred Years of Love and Betrayal on Oneida Territory

  1. 384 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Best Land

Four Hundred Years of Love and Betrayal on Oneida Territory

About this book

In Susan A. Brewer's fascinating The Best Land, she recounts the story of the parcel of central New York land on which she grew up. Brewer and her family had worked and lived on this land for generations when the Oneida Indians claimed that it rightfully belonged to them. Why, she wondered, did she not know what had happened to this place her grandfather called the best land. Here, she tells its story, tracing over the past four hundred years the two families—her own European settler family and the Oneida/Mohawk family of Polly Denny—who called the best land home.

Situated on the passageway to the west, the ancestral land of the Oneidas was coveted by European colonizers and the founders of the Empire State. The Brewer and Denny families took part in imperial wars, the American Revolution, broken treaties, the building of the Erie Canal, Native removal, the rise and decline of family farms, bitter land claims controversies, and the revival of the Oneida Indian Nation. As Brewer makes clear in The Best Land, through centuries of violence, bravery, greed, generosity, racism, and love, the lives of the Brewer and Denny families were profoundly intertwined. The story of this homeland, she discovers, unsettles the history she thought she knew.

With clear determination to tell history as it was, without sugarcoating or ignoring the pain and suffering of both families, Brewer navigates the interconnected stories with grace, humility, and a deep love for the land. The Best Land is a beautiful homage to the people, the place, and the environment itself.

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Yes, you can access The Best Land by Susan A. Brewer in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & North American History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Preface
  2. Note to Readers
  3. My Family
  4. Family of Polly Denny and Jacob Doxtator
  5. 1. The People of the Standing Stone and the Axe Makers
  6. 2. Of One and Many People in the Mohawk Valley
  7. 3. For King or Country
  8. 4. As Long as the Grass Shall Grow
  9. 5. “We Shall All Be Americans”: The Story of Polly and Angel
  10. 6. Making Way for the Erie Canal
  11. 7. Squatters, Tenants, Owners
  12. 8. Realms of Orchards
  13. 9. Fire and Water
  14. 10. Ancestral Claims
  15. Acknowledgments
  16. List of Abbreviations
  17. Notes
  18. Bibliographic Essay
  19. Index