Bartram the Gator-hater Update

After some old-fashioned research (well, not really—there was no card catalogue involved) I uncovered the 1998 naturalist edition of The Travels of William Bartram.  I compared this recent version with a micro film copy of the original text and the preface, introduction, commentary, and edited appendix seem to be the only editions; the original text reads the same. 

I opened Travels with the expectation of finding more (literal) animal bashing.  Based on the excerpt of Bartram’s travels in my undergraduate Early American Literature Anthology, I thought I could prove that though Bartram saw the natives with an unusually un-colonial eye he viewed nature as something to be conquered.  However, as far as I have read into this lengthy text I have only encountered Bartram’s deep appreciation and scientific observation of nature.  Bartram records his experience of Florida in great detail, even noting that “the Live Oaks are of an astonishing magnitude” and observing “the plunging and roaring of the crocodiles, and the croaking of the frogs” at night (54; 57). 

Though I do see how Bartram’s text can be used to further the pastoral myth that nature is America’s cultural capital.  At one point, he pauses to describe the land is a “retired spot of earth . . . where the wandering Seminole, the naked red warrior, roams at large . . .  sublime enchanting scenes of primitive nature . . . visions of terrestrial happiness” (69).  Though this passage uses the myth of the noble savage, it does what Bartram seems to do throughout his travel journal—actually view the land as other than empty. 

Though he sees Florida as a lush landscape, he does not stress that it is ready for colonization.  His tone is surprisingly genuine.  For example, when he remarks that “It is really astonishing to behold the Grape-Vines in this place,” I believe the excitement in his narrative voice (56). 

My findings lead me to realize that the excerpt chosen for the anthology seem to be the exception to a text full of nature-loving prose (I still need to finish the 300 page text).  Why was this one passage where it appears that Bartram has a dominating attitude towards nature used to represent the entire work in an anthology?  I believe that the alligator passage is not representative of the text as a whole and actually conveys Bartram as having a colonizing and superior attitude about nature.  However, once observing the rest of the text, I really do not think this is true.  Then, it seems that my problem is not with Bartram’s text but with the anthology.  Though they introduce Bartram as a naturalist and as respectful to natives the passage chosen seems to indicate otherwise.  I need know why this passage was chosen.  Was it chosen because the editors thought the sensational battle with alligators would intrigue undergraduates?  Did they realize that it is not representational of Bartram’s attitude about nature as a whole?

As an undergraduate, I certainly finished that passage thinking Bartram was a masculine explorer out to conquer nature and take no names.  I was sad for the alligator that he shot and viewed his “exploration” as invasion.  If the editors really wanted to show that Bartram was the patient naturalist (a more feminine profession in early America) they should not have chosen this passage.  I am excited to read the peer-reviewed articles that I requested through interlibrary loan to see what other scholars have said about Bartram. 

Well, I have finished my post and not even discussed this week’s reading.  I will post my formal reading response tomorrow.  Here is a preview:  

Nina Baym, in her book Woman’s Fiction: A Guide to Novels by and about Women in America 1820-70 describes writers of woman’s fiction as envisioning many different ideal relationships with nature.  The most interesting writers are the women who “imagined the new West as the eventual locale of garden cities, wherein urban life preserved greenery and natural pace of the country” (46).  Could these texts contain early American women imagining a respectful relationship between humans and nature? Could I find early American women engaging with concepts that for their time were eco-conscience?

~Stay Gator friendly ;-)