Episode 267: Thomas Wickman, Snowshoe Country

by Holly WhiteDecember 3, 2019

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How did the people of early America experience and feel about winter?

Thomas Wickman, an Associate Professor of History and American Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and author of Snowshoe Country: An Environmental and Cultural Winter in the Early American Northeast, joins us to investigate how Native Americans and early Americans experienced and felt about winter during the 17th and early 18th centuries.

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

Thomas Wickman, an Associate Professor of History and American Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and author of Snowshoe Country: An Environmental and Cultural Winter in the Early American Northeast, joins us to investigate how Native Americans and early Americans experienced and felt about winter during the 17th and early 18th centuries.

As we trek through what Tom describes as snowshoe country, Tom reveals details about winter in the 17th- and early 18th-century northeast; Information about how northeastern Native Americans thought about and experienced winter during the 17th and early 18th centuries; And what the English colonists of New England made of winter and its cold and snowy weather.

What You’ll Discover

Winter in the early American northeast
Definition of the northeast
Northeastern Native American experiences with winter
Native American stories about winter
Oral histories as historical sources
The tradition and technology of snowshoes
The ways winter supported Native American family dynamics
European colonists’ experiences with winter
Ways Native Americans influenced colonial experiences with winter
Wintertime foods
Ways Europeans influenced Native American experiences with winter
Why we should study winter in early America

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Time Warp Question

Tom, in your opinion, what might have happened if winters in the North American northeast had been warmer? How would the early American history of the northeast be different if winter had been more mild?