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Into the woods of 19th-century America

The pressing need for timber in the 1830s led to tree-felling on vast scale – and the displacement of countless Native Americans as a result

6 May 2023

9:00 AM

6 May 2023

9:00 AM

The Forest: A Fable of America in the 1830s Alexander Nemerov

Princeton University Press, pp.336, 30

Early American settlers said that a squirrel could climb up a tree on the coast of Massachusetts, set off westwards and not touch the ground until it reached the Ohio river. The squirrels, like the Native Americans, were pushed out and west. Timber was the settlers’ main resource, and they stripped New England of wood for their farms, buildings and fuel.

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