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[[File: Indians,_Settlers,_and_Slaves_in_a_Frontier_Exchange_Economy.jpg|left|250px|thumbnail|<i>Indians, Settlers, and Slaves in a Frontier Exchange Economy: The Lower Mississippi Valley Before 1783</i> by Daniel H. Usner Jr.]]__NOTOC__
Daniel Usner's <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZVEZUW8/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00ZVEZUW8&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=aa3e6b6ce9758de3d804aee1b5daf2d0 Indians, Settlers, and Slaves in a Frontier Economy]</i> demonstrates that the idea of the Old South of both postwar and colonial southern history should not obscure historians views of the Deep South before Americans colonized it. We should not read antebellum racism, relationships, and categories back into the deeper past. We need to break down Louisiana - it was not just a massive, boundless territory of scattered Frenchmen. The Lower Mississippi Valley was its own world, if not self-contained at least coherent on its own terms.
"In the responses of Indians, settlers, and slaves to changing demographics and economic conditions between 1763 and 1783, we observe 'frontier exchange' beginning to evolve from a network of interaction into a strategy of survival. Toward the end of the eighteenth century, Indians, settlers and slaves had to struggle harder to preserve means of production and exchange that had routinely provided them flexibility and autonomy." 8-9
Usner insists that the old ways may have been crushed under the heel of the advancing plantation economy in the Lower MS Valley, but they persisted on a small scale long after the "frontier exchange economy" fell apart. As proof, he points to "itinerant camps of Indians selling games and herbs" in the nineteenth century, and African American street peddlers in Natchez and New Orleans. People clung to these old ways to survive since there was little place for Indians in the plantation system and the new order abhorred any black autonomy. He also argues that food, like okra and rice, is the best evidence of lasting traditions from the lost world of the 18th century.
''This article was originally published on [http://videri.org/index.php?title=Indians,_Settlers,_and_Slaves_in_a_Frontier_Exchange_Economy| Videri.org] and is republished here with their permission. [http://videri.org/index.php?title=Guide_to_the_Literature Check out other great articles at Videri.org.]
[[Category:Book Review]] [[Category:United States History]][[Category:Native American History]] [[Category:Videri.org]] [[Category:Historiography]] [[Category:Colonial American History]]
