William Bartram

1739-1823

Major work : Travels through North and South Carolina …. 1791.

William Bartram was a botanist and natural historian famed for the one book he wrote. That book is an account of his travels in southeastern U.S. from 1773-1777. The book has been called the first substantial work in American nature writing. It was very influential both in the colonies and in Europe (especially for the romantics) for its vivid descriptions of nature and strong spirit of appreciation of the wilderness. The book is also significant because of the complexity of its view of nature and the variety of traditions it represents, some of which are often considered contradictory.

1. Travel to exotic and wild places. This has been one major type of nature writing and remains important today. Some of John Muir’s books fit this category, and contemporary writers such as Peter Matthiessen and Barry Lopez continue the tradition. The focus on developing a sense of place is, in a way, an opposite direction in nature writing.

2. Spiritual awe at pristine nature. Characteristic of the romanticism that was beginning to develop in Europe and the veneration of the “sublime” in nature – the rough but beautiful majesty of nature that suggested human insignificance and the vastness of God’s creation (and thus of God). Bartram at times displays rapture at the beauty, glory, and complexity of wild nature. He spoke of walking through an “earthly paradise” and “Elysian fields.” In addition, he sees even insects as marvelous creations, suggesting a modern trend to comprehensive and inclusive valuing of nature.

3. Focus on the orderliness and coherence of nature. Characteristic of the Enlightenment mentality and a belief that nature reflected the supreme rationality of the deity that created it. This view led to the scientific emphasis of cataloging species into a rigid hierarchical classification system.

4. Apprehension at the violence and uncertainty of wild nature and Indians. Metaphors of war are often used in describing nature. In many scenes the wilderness is at one moment serene and inviting, then it suddenly becomes violent and dangerous, and later returns to calm beauty. Bartram is frequently concerned about being attacked by Indians. Some believe that these qualities reflect Bartram’s skepticism about human nature and human history. On the other hand this could represent a balanced and dialectical view of the different aspects of nature.

5. Prizing the utilitarian value of nature and the importance of human control in order to maximize its utility. While Bartram spoke of the value of the wilderness and even insects, he felt that nature exists to be used by humans. He saw part of his mission as the discovery of new places for human exploitation. He spoke of how the wilderness could drained in order to create agricultural areas.

6. Idealizing the “middle landscape.” While he praised wild nature, his ideal was neither the completely wild nor urban life but the farm. This tradition was represented by Thomas Jefferson and Crevecoeur, and today by Wendell Berry.

7. Criticism of the vices of civilization and appreciation of life lived close to nature. A concern with people becoming overcivilized and a belief that life in nature can bring virtue and wholesomeness was common in the 18 th century.

8. Anthropomorphizing nature. Bartram at times would describe nature with human characteristics and with analogies to human affairs. His attribution of positive human qualities to animals may reflect his desire for those qualities to be more prevalent in human society.

9. Qualified respect for native peoples. Bartram refused to see Indians as inferior to whites or to blame all conflicts with whites on the natives. He represented certain Indians as living in “divine simplicity” and harmony with creation. However, he did not propose a noble savage view: many Indians showed the same flaws – such as being warlike – as whites did.

William Bartram: Selected quotations

Travels of William Bartram. New York , Dover Publications, 1955, c1928.

Spirituality

Whilst I, continually impelled by a restless spirit of curiosity, in pursuit of new productions of nature, my chief happiness consisted in tracing and admiring the infinite power, majesty and perfection of the great Almighty Creator, and in the contemplation, that through divine aid and permission, I might be instrumental in discovering, and introducing into my native country, some original productions of nature, which might become useful to society. (82)

Bartram spoke of beholding “with rapture and astonishment a sublimely awful scene of power and magnificence, a world of mountains piled upon mountains . . . [an] amazing prospect of grandeur” (293).

“This world as a glorious apartment of the boundless palace of the sovereign Creator, is furnished with an infinite variety of animated scenes, inexpressibly beautiful and pleasing, equally free to the inspection and enjoyment of all his creatures.” (15)

“O thou Creator supreme, almighty! how infinite and incomprehensible they works! most perfect, and every way astonishing!” (72)

Plants “excite love, gratitude, and adoration to the great Creator, who was pleased to endow them to us for our sustenance, amusement, and delight.” The animal world “excites our admiration, and equally manifests the almighty power, wisdom, and beneficence of the Supreme Creator and Sovereign Lord of the universe.” (20-21)

"It was now after noon ; I approached a charming vale, amidst sublimely high forests, awful shades! darkness gathers around, far distant thunder rolls over the trembling hills; the black clouds with august majesty and power, moves slowly forwards, shading regions of towering hills, and threatening all the destructions of a thunderstorm; all around is now still as death, not a whisper is heard, but a total inactivity and silence seems to pervade the earth; the birds afraid to utter a chirrup, and in low tremulous voices take leave of each other, seeking covert and safety; every insect is silenced, and nothing heard but the roaring of the approaching hurricane; the mighty cloud now expands its sable wings, extending from North to South, and is driven irresistibly on by the tumultuous winds, spreading his livid wings around the gloomy concave, armed with terrors of thunder and fiery shafts of lightning; now the lofty forests bend low beneath its fury, their limbs and wavy boughs are tossed about and catch hold of each other; the mountains tremble and seem to reel about, and the ancient hills to be shaken to their foundations: the furious storm sweeps along, smoking through the vale and over the resounding hills; the face of the earth is obscured by the deluge descending from the firmament, and I am deafened by the din of thunder; the tempestuous scene damps my spirits, and my horse sinks under me at the tremendous peals, as I hasten for the plain."

An orderly, mechanistic creation

“[H]ow wonderful is the mechanism of these finely formed self-moving beings, how complicated their system, yet what unerring university prevail through every tribe and particular species!” (21)

Bartram compared the intricacy of nature to the “mechanism of a watch” and spoke of animals as “inimitable machines.” (21)

“At the return of the mornings by the powerful influence of light, the pulse of nature becomes active, and the universal vibration of life insensibly and irresistibly moves the wondrous machine.” (159)

Animals

        I am sensible that the general opinion of philosophers, has distinguished the moral system of the brute creature from that of mankind, by an epithet wich implies a mere mechanical impulse, which leads and impels them to necessary action without any premeditated design or contrivance, this we term instinct which faculty we suppose to be inferior to reason in man.

        The parental, and filial affections seem to be as ardent, their sensibility and attachment, as active and faithful, as those observed to be in human nature. (21)

When travelling on the East coast of the isthmus of Florida, ascending the South Musquitoe river, in a canoe, we observed numbers of deer and bears, near the banks, and on the islands of the river, the bear were feeding on the fruit of the dwarf creeping Chamerops, (this fruit is of the form and size of dates, and are delicious and nourishing food:) we saw eleven bears in the course of the day, they seemed no way surprized or affrighted at the sight of us; in the evening my hunter, who was an excellent marksman, said that he would shoot one of them, for the sake of the skin and oil, for we had plenty and variety of provisions in our bark. We accordingly, on sight of two of them, planned our approaches, as artfully as possible, by crossing over to the opposite shore, in order to get under cover of a small island, this we cautiously coasted round, to a point, which we apprehended would take us within shot of the bear, but here finding ourselves at too great a distance from them, and discovering that we must openly show ourselves, we had no other alternative to effect our purpose, but making oblique approaches; we gained gradually on our prey by this artifice, without their noticing us, finding ourselves near enough, the hunter fired, and laid the largest dead on the spot, where she stood, when presently the other, not seeming the least moved, at the report of our piece, approached the dead body, smelled, and pawed it, and appearing in agony, fell to weeping and looking upwards, then towards us, and cried out like a child. whilst our boat approached very near, the hunter was loading his rifle in order to shoot the survivor, which was a young cub, and the slain supposed to be the dam; the continual cries of this afflicted child, bereft of its parent, affected me very sensibly, I was moved with compassion, and charging myself as if accessary to what now appeared to be a cruel murder, and endeavoured to prevail on the hunter to save its life, but to no effect! for by habit he had become insensible to compassion towards the brute creation, being now within a few yards of the harmless devoted victim, he fired, and laid it dead, upon the body of the dam. (21-22)

I am known to be an advocate or vindicator of the benevolent and peaceable disposition of animal creation in general, not only towards mankind, whom they seem to venerate, but also towards one another, except where hunger or the rational and necessary provocations of the sensual appetites interfere. (222)

        And O sovereign Lord! since it has pleased thee to endue man with power, and pre-eminence, here on earth, and establish his dominion over all creatures, may we look up to thee, that our understanding may be so illuminated with wisdom and our hearts warmed and animated, with a due sense of charity, that we may be enabled to do thy will, and perform our duty towards those submitted to our service, and protection, and be merciful to them even as we hope for mercy.

        Thus may we be worthy of the dignity, and superiority of the high, and distinguished station, in which thou hast placed us here on earth. (103)

Peace of primitive nature

        Thus secure and tranquil, and meditating on the marvellous scenes of primitive nature, as yet unmodified by the hand of man, I gently descended the peaceful stream, on whose polished surface were depicted the mutable shadows from its pensile banks; whilst myriads of finny inhabitants sported in its pellucid floods. The glorious sovereign of day, clothed in light refulgent, rolling on his gilded chariot, speeds to revisit the western realms. Grey pensive eve now admonishes us of gloomy night's hasty approach: I am roused by care to seek a place of secure repose, ere darkness comes on. (65)

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