Wilderness and the Continental Soldiers' Mind: Eighteenth-Century Ideas about the Environment of Eastern Massachusetts, 1775

This talk, part of a larger doctoral dissertation project titled, “Navigating Wilderness and Borderland: Environment and Culture in the Northern Americas during the American Revolution, 1775 - 1779,” focuses on Benedict Arnold's invasion of Canada in 1775 through the Eastern Country of Massachusetts - present day Maine - to the fortifications at Quebec. Using the diaries, letters, and military reports produced by this campaign, this project elucidates eighteenth-century ideas about the environment which fluctuated between fear, intrigue, scrutiny, and reverence.