Episode 168: Andrea Smalley, Wild By Nature: Colonists and Animals in North America

by Liz CovartJanuary 9, 2018

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When we study the history of colonial North America, we tend to focus on European colonists and their rivalries with each other and with Native Americans. But humans weren’t the only living beings occupying North America during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.

Rivalries existed between humans and animals too. And these human-animal rivalries impacted and shaped how European colonists used and settled North American lands.

Andrea Smalley, an associate professor of history at Northern Illinois University and author of Wild By Nature: North American Animals Confront Colonization, joins us to explore the many ways wild animals shaped colonists’ ideas and behavior as they settled and interacted with North American lands.

About the Show

Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.

It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.

Each episode features a conversation with a historian who helps us shed light on important people and events in early American history.

Ben Franklin’s World is a production of the Omohundro Institute.

Episode Summary

Andrea Smalley, an associate professor of history at Northern Illinois University and author of Wild By Nature: North American Animals Confront Colonization, joins us to explore the many ways wild animals shaped colonists’ ideas and behavior as they settled and interacted with North American lands.

During our investigation, Andrea reveals the different kinds of wild animals colonists encountered in North America and what they thought about these animals; How specific animals like the beaver, wolf, and fish impacted and shaped early English colonists’ ideas about what it meant to tame and possess land in North America; And, how North American animals served as tools Native Americans used to stymie English and Anglo-American colonization.

What You’ll Discover

Environmental history
The animals early North American colonists encountered
How European colonists reacted to North American animals
How and where we find animals in the historical record
How animals impacted English settlement of the Chesapeake and Southeast
Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676
How the fur trade impacted and shaped Bacon’s Rebellion and English settlement
How wolves challenged English ideas about legal possession
Ways fish challenged English ideas about legal possession
Early American regulation of fishing rights and waterways
Animals as tools of resistance against English and Anglo-American colonization

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Time Warp Question

In your opinion, what might have happened if say the Spanish, French, or Dutch–instead of the English and their descendants– had been largely responsible for colonizing most of North America? How would changing the dominant settlers’, and therefore the dominant cultural perception of wildlife, change the history of North American colonization? 