COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up, electrotyped and published March, 1904. Norwood Press J. S. Cushing & Co. - Berwick & Smith Co. LIBRARY Leland Stanford, Jr. UNIVERSITY PREFACE THIS is the first of three volumes of American History Stories for use in intermediate grades. It contains the accounts of the early explorers and frontiersmen along the Atlantic coast and of the voyages of the great ocean pioneers. They deal with great events and persons in the simple setting of pioneer life. The importance of these stories to American children. in the intermediate grades is now fully seen. In the simple and interesting form of personal biography they photograph the liveliest scenes of our early history. European teachers may well envy us this copious stream of pioneer story. No European country has anything that can be safely compared with it in richness and value. The myths and early traditions of Europe we are making good use of in our schools, but in entering upon the field of real history, the pioneer and frontier life of America abounds in the striking scenes of simple folklife in its rude beginnings. It is easy for children to lose themselves in this frontier scenery and to partake of its spirit. 8 These narratives are based on the most trustworthy historical documents, source materials which have been tested by our best historians, as Parkman, Fiske, Bancroft, Hart, and others. Some of the narratives are taken directly from undoubted source materials, the testimony of eye-witnesses and chief actors. In connection with the story of Champlain the teacher should read Parkman's "Pioneers of France in the New World," from which some quotations are made. In working up the stories of Columbus, Magellan, and Cortes, John Fiske's two volumes on "The Discovery of America" have been freely consulted and occasionally quoted. Fiske's "Dutch and Quaker Settlements" and "Old Virginia and Her Neighbors" have also been used in the stories of Hudson and John Smith. If the use of these stories in schools should lead teachers and children to a closer acquaintance with the full works of Parkman and Fiske it would be a very fortunate result. Scudder's "Life of Washington," from which much of the story of Washington's early life is derived, is probably the best biography of him for grammar grades, and should become familiar to all the children in our schools; likewise the Fiske-Irving "Life of Washington." The chronology of history stories in the pioneer period is of little consequence to the children. A first-class story, full and rich in local color, personal and concrete in its whole setting, is desired. Two or three years later, in the grammar grades, these stories will find their proper place and connections in a chronological outline. Maps are required at every step in these stories. They are necessary not only to a proper understanding of the stories, but they illuminate the whole early geography of North America and contribute much interest to the parallel lessons in American geography in these grades. For children of the eastern states these stories, which are nearest home, are the best beginnings of history. The two following volumes, "Pioneers of the Mississippi Valley" and "Pioneers of the Rocky Mountains and the West" are the natural continuation of the series. The "Special Method in History" in Chapter III discusses in full the value of these stories and the method of handling them in classes. DE KALB, ILLINOIS, October 2, 1903. |