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Crossing the Continent 1527-1540: The Story of the First African American Explorer of the American South
Crossing the Continent 1527-1540: The Story of the First African American Explorer of the American South
Crossing the Continent 1527-1540: The Story of the First African American Explorer of the American South
Audiobook11 hours

Crossing the Continent 1527-1540: The Story of the First African American Explorer of the American South

Written by Robert Goodwin

Narrated by Simon Prebble

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

Nearly two centuries before Meriwether Lewis and William Clark began their epic trek to the Pacific coast, a group of three Spanish noblemen and an African survived shipwreck, famine, Indian attack, and disease to make the first crossing of North America in recorded history. Drawing on contemporary accounts and long-lost records, Robert Goodwin tells the amazing story of their odyssey through the American South. Goodwin's groundbreaking research in original Spanish archives has led him to a radical new interpretation of American history-one in which an African slave named Esteban emerges as the nation's first great explorer and adventurer.

Esteban (1500–1539) is the first man born in Africa to die in North America about whom anything is known. The first African American with a name, he was also the first great pioneer from the Old World to explore the entirety of the American South with his three companions. In a feat of historical research, Goodwin takes us on an incredible adventure from Africa to Europe to America, filled with physical endurance, natural calamities, cannibalism, witchcraft, miraculous shamanism, and divine intervention-challenging the traditional history of the nation's discovery and placing Esteban at the heart of our historical record.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateOct 28, 2008
ISBN9781400179725
Crossing the Continent 1527-1540: The Story of the First African American Explorer of the American South
Author

Robert Goodwin

Dr Robert T. C. Goodwin was born and educated in London and was awarded his PhD by the University of London for his thesis on Golden Age Spain. His first major book, Crossing the Continent 1527–1540: The Story of the First African-American Explorer of the American South, was published in 2008. He is currently a full-time writer and historian and is a Research Associate at University College. He divides his time between London and Seville.

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Very little about the actual journey. Based on historical facts, Esteban was an amazing character. However, the author creates an unrealistic, overly simplified, and stereotypical narrative of a noble, nearly god-like person; heroic virtues, morally incorruptable, always the smartest and bravest. Perhaps he was, but, at least, based on the author's own research, there is no evidence. Never meet your heroes, they have faults just like anybody else.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Amazing history that I knew very little about. I grew up in Arizona and learned about Coronado, but did not know about Esteban. He deserves recognition for his accomplishments.