The unknown travels and dubious pursuits of William Clark
By: Jo Ann Trogdon
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 469
ISBN-13: 9780826220493
Subjects: Discovery and exploration; Description and travel; Diaries; Explorers
Description: In 1798 - more than five years before he led the epic western journey that would make him and Meriwether Lewis national heroes - William Clark set off by flatboat from his Louisville, Kentucky home with a cargo of tobacco and furs to sell downriver in Spanish New Orleans. He also carried with him a leather-trimmed journal to record his travels and notes on his activities. In this vivid history, Jo Ann Trogdon reveals William Clark's highly questionable activities during the years before his famous journey west of the Mississippi. Delving into the details of Clark's diary and ledger entries, Trogdon investigates evidence linking Clark to a series of plots - often called the Spanish Conspiracy - in which corrupt officials sought to line their pockets with Spanish money and to separate Kentucky from the United States. The Unknown Travels and Dubious Pursuits of William Clark gives readers a more complex portrait of the American icon than has been previously written.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 431-451) and index.
Table of contents: title: Part I. A small adventure of tobacco, March 8 to April 23, 1798; title: Part II. Important connections from New Orleans to Natchez and back again, April 24 to August 15, 1798; title: Part III. The homeward journey, August 16 to December 24, 1798; title: Part IV. More hardship and challenge, 1799 to 1807; title: Epilogue: The mammoth of iniquity escaped; title: So, did "nothing extraordinary" happen?