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Re-Interpreting Champlain's Map of 1632: The Great Lakes. Robert J. Thaler, Saginaw Valley State University, Department of Sociology, University Center, MI 48710

A renewed examination of Samuel de Champlain's famed map of 1632 suggests that it is a far more accurate representation of Michigan and the Great Lakes area than has heretofore been acknowledged. Most previous interpreters have been misled by their lack of familiarity with details of Michigan's inland and coastal landscapes, as well as by distortions of scale and longitudinal direction common in maps of this era. Analysis of Native American legends, and seventeenth-century archaeological sites in the Great Lakes region, tend to confirm many aspects of the map which were previously questioned or unrecognized. The sources of Champlain's information at this early date remain unknown, but could indicate a French presence in Michigan earlier than is generally accepted.

The Influence of Colonial America on the Golden Age of Piracy. Christiana Erin Hanson, Kalamazoo College, Department of History, Kalamazoo, MI 49006

For all the bloodthirsty tactics and thievery of pirate crews, piracy flourished in the later 1600s until about the 1720s--a time period that is known as the "Golden Age" of piracy. Many historians have tried to determine the causes for the rise piracy during this time, though few have looked specifically at the vital roll Colonial America played in helping piracy survive and flourish in the waters along the coast. Many colonies, particularly those in the north, welcomed trade with pirates as a way of bolstering their economy or increasing their own personal wealth, while other colonies, mostly in the south, served as victims of pirate raids, providing the booty that was sold in the more welcoming marketplaces. Without northern colonial support in the 16 and 17 hundreds, the Golden Age of piracy could never have occurred. This paper examines colonial government papers, sermons, and trial records in order to analyze the political, economic, and social reasons behind the success of piracy in the 1700s, focusing especially on the role that the northern American colonies played in the bolstering, and the eventual failure, of the pirate trade.

"In Decency of ... Oconomy:" Race and Respectability in Early National Philadelphian Benevolence. Jayne Ptolemy, Albion College, Department of History, Albion, MI 49422

In confronting the challenges of the post-revolutionary era, Philadelphia's residents faced a rapidly expanding and changing urban demography in the late eighteenth century. Focusing on Philadelphia in the period between Pennsylvania's Gradual Abolition Act in 1780 and the rise of hardening racial distinctions in the 1820s, my research explores the implications of elite whites' benevolent stances. I consider the social impact of elites' conflating their stereotypes of the white lower sorts' disorderliness with their perceptions of the growing free black population. This...

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