Crossing the Continent 1527-1540 - by Robert Goodwin (Paperback)

About the Book

A triumph of historical detective work, Crossing the Continent is the remarkable, never-before-told story of the first black explorer and adventurer in America, Esteban Dorantes. An African slave, Dorantes led an eight-year journey from Florida to California in the early sixteenth century--three hundred years before Lewis and Clark ventured west. An extraordinary true-life saga of courage, trials, and discovery that the Philadelphia Inquirercalls, "an adventure story more thrilling than Defoe or Melville could have imagined," Crossing the Continent breaks new ground as it challenges the traditional view of American history.

Book Synopsis

"An adventure story more thrilling than Defoe or Melville could have imagined." --The Philadelphia Inquirer

The true story of America's first great explorer and adventurer--an African slave named Esteban Dorantes

Crossing the Continent takes us on an epic journey from Africa to Europe and America as Dr. Robert Goodwin chronicles the incredible adventures of the African slave Esteban Dorantes (1500-1539), the first pioneer from the Old World to explore the entirety of the American south and the first African-born man to die in North America about whom anything is known. Goodwin's groundbreaking research in Spanish archives has led to a radical new interpretation of American history--one in which an African slave emerges as the nation's first great explorer and adventurer.

Nearly three centuries before Lewis and Clark's epic trek to the Pacific coast, Esteban and three Spanish noblemen survived shipwreck, famine, disease, and Native American hostility to make the first crossing of North America in recorded history. Drawing on contemporary accounts and long-lost records, Goodwin recounts the extraordinary story of Esteban's sixteenth-century odyssey, which began in Florida and wound through what is now Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, as far as the Gulf of California. Born in Africa and captured at a young age by slave traders, Esteban was serving his owner, a Spanish captain, when their disastrous sea voyage to the New World nearly claimed his life. Eventually he emerged as the leader of the few survivors of this expedition, guiding them on an extraordinary eight-year march westward to safety.

Filled with tales of physical endurance, natural calamities, geographical wonders, strange discoveries, and Esteban's almost mystical dealings with Native Americans, Crossing the Continent challenges the traditional telling of our nation's early history, placing an African and his relationship with the Indians he encountered at the heart of a new historical record.

From the Back Cover

Nearly three centuries before Lewis and Clark's epic trek to the Pacific coast, an African slave named Esteban Dorantes became America's first great explorer and adventurer--the first pioneer from the Old World to explore the entirety of the American South. Shipwrecked off the Florida coast, Esteban guided a small band of survivors on an incredible, eight-year-long journey westward--enduring famine, disease, and Native American hostility as the company made their way across what is now Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, traveling as far as the Gulf of California.

Drawing on contemporary accounts, long-lost records, and Dr. Robert Goodwin's groundbreaking research in Spanish archives, Crossing the Continent is a riveting true story of physical endurance, natural calamities, geographical wonders, and strange discoveries--a remarkable chronicle that offers a radical new interpretation of American history.

Review Quotes

"Goodwin's discussion of the politics and publishing histories behind the survivor's differing accounts of their wanderings is illuminating, and he has dug up some wonderful tales." - San Francisco Chronicle
"Esteban Dorantes lived the most remarkable life of anyone you've never heard of. . . . Goodwin has pieced together his story from sources as diverse as Spanish histories and Indian legends passed on through oral tradition. He has melded them into an adventure story more thrilling than Defoe or Melville could have imagined." - Philadelphia Inquirer
"More than the history of the African slave who was an explorer of the American South, this extraordinary book is about the history of history; how and why it gets written. . . . Goodwin brings exuberance as well as detailed resaerch to a gripping account of the hardships and travails of Esteban's odyssey." - Booklist (starred review)