an affluent sense of status in colonial society. That connection is not new among colonial trade histories, but Desrosiers’s incredible sourcing fleshes out this aspect of colonial trade with the intricate details of Banister’s daily life and his business conduct. She includes, for example, lists of Banister’s specific fabric imports with quantities and values, and demonstrates exactly what types of garments and goods would have been made with the cargoes, and who their market was. Although this book does not particularly seek to give meaning to Banister as an individual historical figure, Desrosiers uses the minutiae of his business as a lens to understanding the broader patterns of trade that he participated in and contributed to. By listing Banister’s exact cargoes, their origins and destinations, Desrosiers demonstrates just how varied the trade was, and in turn backs up assertions that the smuggling trade and the rest of the West Indian markets were a crucial element of the North American economy. Similarly, in the details of Banister’s shipbuilding and outfitting, Desrosiers is able to depict how the fledgling shipbuilding industry in the region worked, and why. Banister’s records show merchants in the American colonies were not only building for their own use, but for sale to their existing Caribbean customers, some of whom were in non-British colonies. Desrosiers connects Banister’s disparate lists of materials and equipment to the final product, highlighting the logistical, physical, and financial effort required to get a merchant ship afloat. In addition to merchant ships, Banister had a business interest in several privateers, whose costs and income are similarly laid out by the author. Desrosiers provides context for understanding how Banister viewed his investments in privateers as an obligation to country that would enhance his business reputation in the community, even if they ultimately proved unprofitable financially. Desrosiers’s dense text is likely to prove tedious for readers of popular maritime histories. There is little drama here and no effort is made to entertain the reader, but John Banister of Newport does serve as an excellent insight into the hard work
historians often undertake in assessing mundane records of history and giving them meaning. For students of colonial trade and shipping, the author’s efforts in this work have produced a treasure trove of data and interesting details that paint a much clearer picture of a prominent early American merchant and the business of trade. Carl Herzog Falmouth, Massachusetts White Pine: American History and the Tree That Made a Nation by Andrew Vietze (Globe Pequot, Guilford, CT, 2018, 186pp, notes, index, 978-1-4930-0907-7; $18.95pb) If you live in the Northeast, you have likely made pilgrimages to the region’s most northern relaxation spots, in the White Mountains and the wilds of Maine. Inevitably, you comment to the locals on the beauty of the pine trees. They cryptically respond with “Ah, yes, the King’s Pines,” and walk away. When the first European explorers scoped out the region for settlement and natural resources extraction, they saw the majestic white pines standing legion along the ocean’s edge and saw neither forests nor trees, but masts. So began a century and a half of controversy that ultimately erupted into violence between agents of the King of England and local settlers. Vietze, a talented New England historian and park ranger with a deep passion for the natural and human history of the pinus strobus, explains the origins of the simmering conflict that led to war. The same divisive undercurrents that are attached to sugar, tea, and other commodities symbolically tied to the American Revolution—mostly concerning private ownership against royal prerogative, taxation without representation, etc.—can be tied to the white pine. When the Revolution did break out, one of the earliest British raids was on Falmouth (now Portland), Maine, an attempt to wrest trees destined to be masts for the Royal Navy away from the locals. The pine tree became a rallying symbol for all of New England. The most famous portrait of the Battle of Bunker Hill, John Trumbull’s depiction of the death of General Joseph Warren, features the flag of New
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by Kurt D. Voss All proceeds from this pictorial history benefit the ELISSA preservation fund.
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SEA HISTORY 165, WINTER 2018–19 53