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In the spring of 1775, James Adair’s History of the American Indians was released by publishers Edward and Charles Dilly of London. The book was actually a study of the major tribes residing adjacent to Britain’s southern colonies, particularly the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, and Choctaw Indians . In addition to providing a survey of southern Indian history from the 1740s through the 1760s, a review of the book in the May 1775 issue of London Magazine promised “an Account of their Origin, Manners, Religious and Civil Customs,and other Particulars suf¤cient to render it a complete Indian System.” Central to that goal was a carefully formulated thesis, consisting of twenty-three arguments, proposing to prove that the Indians of America were of Hebrew descent. Speci¤c chapters devoted to the history of each major southern tribe followed. The book concluded with an appendix bearing advice to British policy makers regarding the southern backcountry. From the start,the author’s elaborate origin thesis proved controversial.As the reviewer for Scots Magazine ( June 1775) observed, once Adair’s “fancy” had been taken with the notion of Hebrew descent, he had attempted “to evince it by every consideration which his ingenuity could suggest . . . his imagination being strongly impressed with the preconceived opinion.” But debates were then raging over the subject, and others found themselves agreeing that there was “indeed an amazing similarity between their rites and customs.” Adair’s supporters pointed to the author’s long years among the Indians and his stated high regard for the truth. The London Magazine review of May 1775 recommended the work to the public for “information, entertainment, and solid instruction.” Today, historians, ethnohistorians, and anthropologists regard Adair’s History of the American Indians as one of the most valuable primary accounts of the southeastern Indians. It has been, as the ¤rst reviewer promised, a source James Adair’s History of the American Indians A Note on This Edition of “information, entertainment, and solid instruction” about the southeastern Indians for over two centuries. Adair’s long tenure among the southern tribes as a deerskin trader presented many opportunities for intimate observation of Indian culture, and his broad education and literary skill provided him with the tools to build an incredibly detailed and singular account of life among the eighteenth-century southern Indians. His unique and perceptive work offers a telling glimpse of backcountry life absent from of¤cial reports and narratives left by those whose lives were spent as colonials rather than cultural brokers. This new edition of Adair’s History is designed to introduce general readers to Adair and his famous work, as well as make it more accessible to scholars. To that end, this edition carries an introductory essay as well as annotations and a bibliography. The introductory essay includes a summary of Adair’s career and attempts to place his history in perspective so that the nonspecialist reader may better appraise the text. Annotations to the work itself vary in character from entries designed to provide readers with general introductory information on the topic under consideration to more detailed discussion of sources for those who wish to do further reading on a topic.Where possible, people, places, and events mentioned by Adair are identi¤ed, as are obscure terms and foreign phrases. Comparative evidence by Adair’s near contemporaries is also included where appropriate. These comparative notes are not intended to be de¤nitive but rather to illustrate the kind of material available to support Adair’s work and expand upon details provided by him. The nature of this endeavor, as well as the rambling quality of A History of the American Indians itself, has necessarily led to some minor repetition in a few cases, but was judged appropriate in light of the convenience this affords the reader. The book shares a number of peculiarities common to books of the period .The most striking to the eyes of modern readers was the use of the old style f. In The History of the American Indians, like other eighteenth-century texts, s was rendered f, except at the conclusion of a word. In this version , the modern s has been substituted for the old style f.To aid the reader, eighteenth-century books usually printed the ¤rst word of a following page immediately below the last word on every page. The History of the American Indians followed this practice, which, of necessity, was not retained in a modern version. There are numerous inconsistencies...

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