Jonathan Carver (1710-1780) was an explorer of the North American continent. He was born on April 13, 1710 in Weymouth, Massachusetts.

He achieved the rank of Captain in the Massachusetts militia, having fought in the French and Indian War.

in 1766, Robert Rogers contracted Jonathan to lead an expedition to find a western water route to the Pacific Ocean, the Northwest Passage. Carver explored up the Mississippi river to what is now Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Carver County, MN is named after him.

Rogers was unable to pay Carver after the expedition, so Carver turned to writing to make money. In 1769 Carver returned to England to write his Travels... book. The book was published in 1778. The book proved immensely popular, and many editions, in several different languages, were issued. The profits did not come soon enough for him, however. He died in poverty on January 31, 1780 in London.

In the 20th century, the reliability of Carver's narrative has been debated by scholars; examination of Carver's manuscript journal establishes that it differs in important respects from the published version. More recent research points to the conclusion that while Carver actually made the tour he describes, he suppressed the fact that he performed it as a hired agent of Major Robert Rogers, rather than on his own responsibility.

Works

• Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768, first published in 1778.
• A Treatise on the Culture of the Tobacco plant; with the manner in which it is usually cured adapted to northern climates and designed for the use of the landholders of Great Britain. London, 1779 - "Written during the American War of Independence (1775-1783), or as Carver delicately puts it ‘the present unhappy dissentions,’ when trade was disrupted, this treatise details the methods required to grow tobacco in Britain. Carver argues that two acts of parliament from the reign of Charles II prohibiting the cultivation of tobacco should be repealed. Carver felt that the landowner would profit, revenue could be restored to the treasury by means of a duty on the plants, and smokers would be more than satisfied with the ‘powerful aromatic’ tobacco produced in a northern climate."

External links

• Carver County Historical Society

References

• Smokescreen: the Victorian Vogue for Tobacco - An exhibition based on the collection of John Fraser, quoted with Permission.

1710 births | 1780 deaths | American explorers | Explorers of North America

Jonathan Carver | Карвер, Джонатан