On 24 June 1497 John Cabot landed somewhere on the eastern seaboard of what is now Canada, yet even today, five hundred years later, no one knows precisely where. Once an issue in diplomatic negotiations over title to a continent, Cabot's landfall has also been the subject, especially in centennial years, of competing attempts to appropriate the meaning of the event.
Beginning with the historical context of Cabot's journey, Pope traces the various landfall theories which have placed his landing in locations from the Strait of Belle Isle to Cape Breton. The very uncertainty of our knowledge, he argues, has allowed nationalists in both Newfoundland and Canada to shape the debate about Cabot's itinerary and to stake claims to the landfall that amount to the invention of differing national traditions. As well, Pope concludes, the invented tradition of 'discovery' has allowed Europeans and their descendants to overlook the fact that their possession of North America is based on appropriation from Aboriginal peoples.
Well-illustrated with period maps, engravings, and stamps, The Many Landfalls of John Cabot will appeal to readers interested in early European transatlantic voyages, in the nature of the anniversaries that have celebrated Cabot's landing, and in the question of how national pasts are constructed, often from ambiguous sources.
The North American Society for Oceanic History, John Lyman Book Award 1997 (in the area of Canadian Naval and Maritime History.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references and index
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 970.01/7/092
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- Geographic Area Code
- n------
- ISBN
- 0802007864 9781442681699
- LCCN
- E129.C1
- LCCN Item number
- P67 1997eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaOTU
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (xii, 244 p.)
- Published in
- Canada
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)thg00600135 (OCoLC)244766826 (CaOOCEL)417748
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaOTU
Table of Contents
- CONTENTS 6
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 8
- PREFACE 12
- 1 An Introduction 16
- 2 Everything We Know about John Cabot 24
- The Documents We Lack 24
- Cabot 26
- Bristol Explorations 28
- The Voyage of 1497 29
- The Landfall 37
- After the Landfall 49
- 3 Legends of Sebastian 56
- The Cabot That Time Forgot 56
- The Achievement of Sebastian Cabot 61
- Sebastian Cabot Lied 71
- The Resurrection of John 78
- 4 The Many Landfalls 82
- Newfoundland: Bonavista 83
- Labrador 91
- Cape Breton Island 94
- Maine or Southern Nova Scotia 99
- The Strait of Belle Isle 101
- 5 Traditions of Invention, 1897: Columbus, Cartier, and Cabot 104
- The Invention of Tradition 104
- Columbus in America, 1892 108
- Cabot in Canada, 1897 111
- Cabot in Newfoundland, 1897 115
- Cabot versus Cartier 122
- The Contest of Traditions 128
- Philatelic Commemoratives 132
- 6 The History of Discovery 140
- The Legendary History of Britain 140
- Before History 144
- 'Discovery' 150
- Atlantic Asymmetry 154
- Old World Traditions 165
- 7 A Memory Perpetual 172
- Discovery and Possession 172
- 1502/1761/1897: Savage Men, Dominion, and a Picturesque Incident 180
- Cabot in 1997 186
- In Summary 189
- NOTES 192
- CREDITS AND PERMISSIONS 242
- INDEX 244
- A 244
- B 244
- C 246
- D 248
- E 248
- F 249
- G 249
- H 250
- I 251
- J 251
- K 251
- L 251
- M 251
- N 253
- O 253
- P 253
- Q 254
- R 254
- S 255
- T 256
- U 256
- V 257
- W 257
