Ebook History of Long Island

Benjamin Franklin Thompson was keen historian and one of a bygone era’s polymaths. He was a born Long Islander whose ancestors had lived on Long Island. He was an eminent lawyer in the area and was held in high esteem by his colleagues. Dr. Thompson was eventually made district attorney and in this position as well as both before and after he was able to achieve unprecedented depth of research on his subject.

His ‘History of Long Island’ contains an excellent overview of a range of features of the island including its geological history, modern flora and fauna, types of farming, an anthropological history of the area from the perspective of white Europeans as well as a review of major political developments in the area.

Whilst his account of the Native American peoples of Long Island is undoubtedly from a colonialist perspective, he is a meticulous recorder of the relationships between groups and the history of the tribes and their trading patterns. He gives a very thorough and engaging account of the negotiations between various factions among the settlers, particularly the tension between a Dutch led administration and English settlers, as well as the major world events of the period which affected the New World.

Thompson takes a lawyer’s eye to the historical record regarding changes within the British Monarchy and analyses shrewdly the changes sweeping over the colonies as a whole and their use as proxies for their European rulers. Writing right up to the beginning of his own century and giving some contemporary commentary, Thompson has left nothing of interest out which is to the enormous benefit of the reader.