There are
many who are captivated by the adventure of Lewis and Clark. But what these two
military men accomplished, both positive and negative, was far more important
than just an exciting story. Their exploration helped to expand a nation from
Atlantic to Pacific under one flag. It also facilitated the genocide of western
Native American nations. During their travels, Meriwether Lewis described 122
species of fauna and 178 species of flora that were formerly unknown to US and
European science. Conversely, this journey also sped the widespread extinction
of flora and fauna across this continent. However one chooses to assess the
value of their effort, the mission, (established by Thomas Jefferson to map a
water route to the Pacific and describe the land, flora, fauna and tribes along
the way), had an immense impact on the history of North America.
Undaunted Courage is both a biography of Meriwether
Lewis and a chronicle of his famous journey. By taking Lewis separately from
his co-commander, we are able to delve more deeply into the mind, demons, character,
motivations and personal history of this complex Enlightenment man. Ambrose
writes a popular history, rather than a strictly factual academic history. As a
result, there are several speculative pictures he paints, such as the
rendezvous of Lewis and Clark off of the Ohio River at Clarksville where the
expedition began. Characteristically, the author indicates that his description
is how it might have gone, given that
“we don’t have a single word of description of the meeting of Lewis and Clark.”
(Ambrose, p. 117). While Ambrose knows the audience wants an adventure tale, he
is usually careful to point out when his description of a buffalo hunt or a confrontation
with Native Americans is colored, for public consumption. Even where he does
not, discerning non-fiction readers will be able to extract the facts from the
legend, by assessing where the author is attempting to get one’s blood
pressure to rise.
It is a difficult task, for any author, to write a biography
of a Virginia planter turned western explorer. One must provide a fair enough
account of the era’s injustices, while presenting the individual as a product
of his time. The skill, to give slavery, sexism, and Native American genocide
the place they deserve, while not judging an Eighteenth Century man by
Twenty-first Century values, will remain a perplexing challenge for historians.
Lewis owned slaves. We don’t know if he personally whipped them, but he had an
overseer and they were, no doubt beaten. We do not know if he raped slave
women, but he would have been unusual among his peers if he had not. While
Ambrose will speculate, offering imaginative description regarding travel
events throughout his story, he does not offer speculation on these subjects. He
comments that “the glittering social, intellectual, economic and political life
of Virginia rested on the backs of slaves. Those backs were crisscrossed with
scars.” (Ambrose, p. 34). Slavery is covered sporadically throughout the book.
Ambrose sensitively portrays the plight of York, Captain Clark’s slave on the
journey, who “crossed the continent and returned with his childhood companion,
only to be beaten because he was insolent and sulky” when he was “denied not
only his freedom but his wife.” (Ambrose, p. 458). This historian covers the
constricted lives of white women in less detail. Also, his descriptions of
Sacajawea’s role in the party are not as prominent as those in feminist
accounts. There is slightly more attention given to the destruction of Native
American cultures, and the white attitude of “get out of the way or get killed”
(Ambrose, p. 348). This author intersperses
his narrative with brief discussions concerning all of these issues, but they
are not principal themes no matter how much they shaped the lives of both
oppressor and oppressed. We cannot separate the planters from the slaves, the
Native Americans from the pioneers or the men from the women, and hope to have
an accurate account of Lewis’s environment. Though the theme of Undaunted
Courage was not about these issues, they are an integral part of the
history surrounding both the journey and the life of Lewis. While Ambrose did
not ignore these concerns, neither did he permit a generous focus upon them.
Though Ambrose only touches upon injustice, he is not
uncritical of Lewis. Certainly, he portrays this figure as a superb explorer
for his leadership, woodcraft and scientific skills. But the author is quick to
point-out failures in judgment or problems of temperament. Ambrose critically
examines Lewis’s decisions, (like his determination to divide the party on the
return trip), his depressions and his suicide, with as thorough a view as
possible given the available information.
The entire project of Undaunted Courage is
accomplished without the use of primary sources. Even the letters of Lewis and
Clark to their contemporaries are quoted from other historian’s compilations.
No new data is contributed by the author. On a positive note, there are also no
hare-brained theories or misleading views. There is nothing wrong with
marshalling existing resources into an exciting tale; especially when that tale
permits a wider audience to access a wealth of history they would not otherwise
read. Ambrose created a bestseller that informed hundreds of thousands of readers
on a subject they would never have approached. For a non-fiction
reader who is looking for an entertaining account of Lewis and the expedition
that covers its most important facts, this book is a fine choice.
Ambrose, Stephen E. Undaunted Courage. Meriwether Lewis,
Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West. New York: Simon and
Schuster, 2003.
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