Jonathan Carver

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Jonathan Carver (April 13, 1710 – January 31, 1780) was an American explorer and writer. He was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts and then moved with his family to Canterbury, Connecticut. He later married Abigail Robbins and became a shoemaker.

In 1755 Carver joined the militia at the start of the French and Indian War. He was successful in the military and eventually became captain of a Massachusetts regiment in 1761. Two years later he quit the army with a determination to explore the new territories acquired by the British as a result of the war.

Initially Carver was unable to find a sponsor for his proposed explorations but in 1766, Robert Rogers contracted Carver to lead an expedition to find a western water route to the Pacific Ocean, the Northwest Passage. Carver explored up the Mississippi river through what is now Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Carver County, MN is named after him. On this trip he discovered Carver's Cave.

Rogers was unable to pay Carver after the expedition, so Carver turned to writing to make money. In 1769 Carver returned to England to write his Travels... book. The book was published in 1778. The book proved immensely popular, and many editions, in several different languages, were issued. The profits did not come soon enough for him, however. He died in poverty on January 31, 1780 in London.

In the 20th century, the reliability of Carver's narrative has been debated by scholars; examination of Carver's manuscript journal establishes that it differs in important respects from the published version. More recent research points to the conclusion that while Carver actually made the tour he describes, he suppressed the fact that he performed it as a hired agent of Major Robert Rogers, rather than on his own responsibility.

[edit] Works

• Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768, first published in 1778.
• A Treatise on the Culture of the Tobacco plant; with the manner in which it is usually cured adapted to northern climates and designed for the use of the landholders of Great Britain. London, 1779 - "Written during the American War of Independence (1775–1783), or as Carver delicately puts it ‘the present unhappy dissentions,’ when trade was disrupted, this treatise details the methods required to grow tobacco in Britain. Carver argues that two acts of parliament from the reign of Charles II prohibiting the cultivation of tobacco should be repealed. Carver felt that the landowner would profit, revenue could be restored to the treasury by means of a duty on the plants, and smokers would be more than satisfied with the ‘powerful aromatic’ tobacco produced in a northern climate."¹

[edit] Notes

• Note 1: Smokescreen: the Victorian Vogue for Tobacco - An exhibition based on the collection of John Fraser, quoted with Permission.

[edit] References

• Brown, Leanne. Who Was Jonathan Carver?. Carver County Historical Society. Retrieved on 2006-11-09.
• Myers, Ann K.D. (2001). Jonathan Carver. James Ford Bell Library, University of Minnesota. Retrieved on 2006-11-09.
• Savage, Henry (1959). Discovering America 1700-1875. Harper & Row, 42-48. ISBN 0060907401.
• "Jonathan Carver". Encyclopedia of World Biography. Thomson Gale. Retrieved on 2006-11-09.