Reviews of Books
A History of the United States, Vol. IV. By Edward Channing, Professor in Harvard University. New York, MacMillan Company, 1917. Pp. 575. Price $2.75.
This is the fourth volume of what promises to be the most interesting and possibly the most valuable single work hitherto produced in this field. It begins with the discovery of the New World and when completed will come down to 1910. The volume herein referred to covers the period of "Federalists and Republicans from 1789 to 1815." The work, therefore, goes over ground which has been extensively treated by such writers as Richard Hildreth, James Schouler, Herman von Holst, and James B. McMaster. Professor Channing, however, has given this period an original treatment and incorporated into his narrative so much material of human interest that his history makes a more readable and at the same time a more informing work than any of the general histories of the United States.
Professor Channing does not fall a victim to the mistakes of his predecessors. Hildreth is prejudiced, Schouler is dry and ex parte, von Holst is lost in the debates over slavery, and McMaster, at times, sinks beneath the load of his undigested material. Realizing that the problems of peace are greater than those of war and that the mere proceedings of legislative bodies cannot altogether be depended upon to reflect the political development of a country, Professor Channing is making his history economic as well as political. It is just as important to him to know the prices of commodities in 1800 as to know the terms of Jay's treaty. In other words, Professor Channing has a new point of view. He aims not to set forth an interesting narrative but to marshall his facts so as to make interesting his well-balanced account of the various forces which have operated to make this country what it is to-day. The smooth style, common sense, and thoroughness with which he is now doing this task will doubtless make this the standard history of the United States.
In reading this valuable work, however, one cannot but express regret that Professor Channing did not see fit to spell the word "Negro" with a capital letter and to say more about the people of color. In the volumes to follow the treatment of this element of our population will probably be more extensive in keeping with the increasing importance of the Negro as a factor in history of the later period. Professor Channing will hardly be so unfortunate as most writers of American history, who in their voluminous works give space for honorable mention of every race but the black, considering it sufficient to mention it, merely as the cause of the great agitation which finally rent the nation and the present cause of the race problem in the United States. The bearing of worthy achievements of the Negroes on the development of this country should be mentioned along with the deeds of others who have helped to make the nation.
The Early History of Cuba, 1492 to 1586. By I. A. Wright. The MacMillan Company, New York, 1916. Pp. 390.
This book begins with the discovery of Cuba by Columbus and ends with the raid of Sir Francis Drake in the West Indies in 1586, by which it was demonstrated that Great Britain ruled the sea and that the retention of the Spanish possessions in the New World required that they be provided with means of local defence rather than be left in the position of dependence on protection from Spain. With this change is connected the subsequent economic development of Cuba and the success of the Spanish colonial policy.
In writing this book the author had an advantage over most historians in this field. It was compiled from documents now available at Seville, Spain. Miss Wright, however, did not use the documents found in other archives. What documents she had access to, however, are considered sufficient as they contain "letters and reports of the island's governors, of royal officials and lesser clergy, of municipal and ecclesiastical councils, of distinguished and humble citizens." This large collection, too, contains some of the documents copied by Munoz in his collection preserved at Madrid and some printed in the unsatisfactory series of Documentos Ineditos. The author, therefore, gives this book to the public as the only exhaustive treatment of Cuban history of this period, which has hitherto been published, despite the estimate we have placed on such works as those of De las Casas, Oviedo, Gomara, Solis, Bernal Diaz del Costillo, and Herrera.
The introduction of slavery and the treatment of the bondmen, although not objective points in this treatise, are given considerable space. The slave trade was authorized in Cuba in 1513 and we hear of Bishop Ubite in the possession of as many as 200 slaves in 1523 and later of Bishop Maestro Miguel Ramirez with a license from the crown to take half a dozen slaves and two white slave women. The writer shows how the failure of the native captives to meet the demand for labor eventually led to declaration making them the free vassals of the crown and authorizing the enslavement of Negroes in sufficiently large numbers to make up the deficiency. It was necessary to issue another order rescinding the license of the slave-traders because of the fear of servile insurrection, should the slave population too far exceed that of the whites. This restricted importation of Negroes, however, did not prevent their uprising in 1533, which, however, was easily quelled, the four Negroes defending themselves to death.