Читать книгу Lost Worlds of 1863. Relocation and Removal of American Indians in the Central Rockies and the Greater Southwest онлайн
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John C. Frémont, Pathfinder and Not so Free Soiler
On January 21, 1813, John Charles Fremon was born out of wedlock in Savannah, Georgia, the child of Ann Pryor, the daughter of a socially prominent Virginia planter, and Charles Fremon, a French-Canadian refugee from Quebec who taught foreign languages, fencing, and dancing, painted frescoes, and attracted the fancy of Mrs. Pryor. A household slave called Black Hannah aided in raising young John. His father died when John was a youngster of five years of age. A truant in the private schools, he went on to college to study mathematics and the natural sciences. At age 25 he changed his surname to Frémont, adding the accent and the “t.” This was to take his father’s name. His father originally had been called Louis-René Frémont and had changed his name in order to avoid pursuit by British authorities in Canada. Thus John C. Frémont had now reclaimed his father’s true name. Between 1838 and 1841 he served in the Corps of Topographical Engineers, assisting in mapping the country between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.38