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Between Land and Sea: The Atlantic Coast and the Transformation of New England
One of the largest estuaries on the North Atlantic coast, Narragansett Bay served as a gateway for colonial expansion in the seventeenth century and the birthplace of American industrialization in the late eighteenth. Christopher Pastore presents an environmental history of this watery corner of the Atlantic world, beginning with the first European settlement in 1636 and ending with the dissolution of the Blackstone Canal Company in 1849. Between Land and Sea traces how the Bay’s complex ecology shaped the contours of European habitation, trade, and resource use, and how littoral settlers in turn reconfigured the physical and cultural boundaries between humans and nature.Narragansett Bay emerges in Pastore’s account as much more than a geological formation. Rather, he reimagines the nexus of land and sea as a brackish borderland shaped by the tension between what English settlers saw as improvable land and the perpetual forces of the North Atlantic Ocean. By draining swamps, damming rivers, and digging canals, settlers transformed a marshy coastal margin into a clearly defined edge. The resultant “coastline” proved less resilient, less able to absorb the blows of human initiative and natural variation than the soggy fractal of water and earth it replaced.Today, as sea levels rise and superstorms batter coasts with increasing ferocity, Between Land and Sea calls on the environmentally-minded to make a space in their notions of progress for impermanence and uncertainty in the natural world.
- GenresHistory
295 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 13, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 26, 2015
How have the people (native and European) of Narragansett Bay interact with and understood the estuary that has sustained them? The author (Pastore) argues for a more dynamic relationship between the people and the sea as he maps out this now classic approach to environmental history: exploring how people shaped the land and the land shaped the people (x). The biggest critique may be claimed by his subtitle: this is a story about the Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island rather than "the Atlantic Coast" as implied.
As early as 1643, Roger Williams—Rhode Island’s first ethnographer—observed how the littoral zone or the “nexus of land and sea and the confluence of sweet water and seawater, [had] a host of political, legal, and cultural ambiguities [that] were shaped by the tension between a desire to 'improve' the land and a belief that the ocean was eternal” (5). Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay was mined for its clams and shell beads; the former were eaten and the latter were cut, polished, drilled, and used for to make belts and facilitate trade between Europeans and natives. Beacons (lighthouses) were constructed for safe navigation of the harbor. Thus Pastore builds up a narrative of how the Bay served as a facilitator of commerce, culture, war, and nature (7). He also contends that the term “progress” needs to be reexamined in order to better account for instability and uncertainty— which is why this is an environmental history (10).
The following contains an aggregation of some of the more interesting observations Pastore makes in the body of his work:
Beavers as the “ecological keystone” to maintaining a balanced environment. killing the beavers lowered the water table, changed the floral and faunal composition of the surrounding forest, and altered the course of water and the speed at which it moved. NE thus became drier, harder, and thus less settled by humans on the coastal shores (47). Faster flows meant “higher rates of deposition of nitrogen, phosphorus, and a cocktail of organic compounds that spurred the growth of chlorophyll-producing algae.” Consumed oxygen and choked Bay creatures—this likely increased fish productivity. Humans made things better for themselves before they made things worse (48). Furthermore, he demonstrates how littoral space was not quite land and not quite sea—it was the tenuous space between. Difficult to map, difficult to navigate, difficult to define, it became a disputed space in which many buccaneers could hide out and live unmolested for much of the time. There was an ambiguity of ownership and blurred lines of jurisdiction in the Bay, which made it a sanctuary for smugglers, pirates, African slaves, Native Americans, and even secretive hermits at various times (128). Wars also transformed the coast as European-Americans built forts and coastal beacons (lighthouses) and trees (orchards) were razed during the American War for Independence; thus, a deeply human “second nature” was constructed on the Bay’s littoral zone (173). The Blackstone Canal extended 45 miles from Providence/NB to the town of Worcester, MA. Canals built for commerce 1796-1825. “But when the corporation and the system it had created failed, the canals and rivers became sewers for human and industrial waste, which, flowing downstream, subsequently posed the single most important environmental challenge for Bay waters” (199). Cotton mills were favored by the law and became “not only the engines of economic progress, but also the arbiters of environmental control” (210). Blind faith in an inexact science (variability of rainfall, which damaged the canal or made it impassable) led to the demise of the Canal Company (224).
He makes this rather lofty claim to extend his local/regional history to a national importance: “A space that had once denied human progress, that had stemmed the tides of history, was breached by the storms of technological improvement that at century’s end gripped Narragansett Bay’s northern reaches and transformed the rest of America in the process” (195). While the historian/philosopher Strabo said that humans are amphibious (tied to the sea) or at least intertidal, Pastore substantiates this old adage by telling us that in 2014, “54% of Americans now live within 50 miles of the ocean” (228, 237).This is a rather compelling narrative of the transformation from margin to edge. Even though man has made the coastal zones less permeable and therefore less resistant to environmental variations--storms, etc.-- nature ensures that the coast is capable of continual renewal (238).
As early as 1643, Roger Williams—Rhode Island’s first ethnographer—observed how the littoral zone or the “nexus of land and sea and the confluence of sweet water and seawater, [had] a host of political, legal, and cultural ambiguities [that] were shaped by the tension between a desire to 'improve' the land and a belief that the ocean was eternal” (5). Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay was mined for its clams and shell beads; the former were eaten and the latter were cut, polished, drilled, and used for to make belts and facilitate trade between Europeans and natives. Beacons (lighthouses) were constructed for safe navigation of the harbor. Thus Pastore builds up a narrative of how the Bay served as a facilitator of commerce, culture, war, and nature (7). He also contends that the term “progress” needs to be reexamined in order to better account for instability and uncertainty— which is why this is an environmental history (10).
The following contains an aggregation of some of the more interesting observations Pastore makes in the body of his work:
Beavers as the “ecological keystone” to maintaining a balanced environment. killing the beavers lowered the water table, changed the floral and faunal composition of the surrounding forest, and altered the course of water and the speed at which it moved. NE thus became drier, harder, and thus less settled by humans on the coastal shores (47). Faster flows meant “higher rates of deposition of nitrogen, phosphorus, and a cocktail of organic compounds that spurred the growth of chlorophyll-producing algae.” Consumed oxygen and choked Bay creatures—this likely increased fish productivity. Humans made things better for themselves before they made things worse (48). Furthermore, he demonstrates how littoral space was not quite land and not quite sea—it was the tenuous space between. Difficult to map, difficult to navigate, difficult to define, it became a disputed space in which many buccaneers could hide out and live unmolested for much of the time. There was an ambiguity of ownership and blurred lines of jurisdiction in the Bay, which made it a sanctuary for smugglers, pirates, African slaves, Native Americans, and even secretive hermits at various times (128). Wars also transformed the coast as European-Americans built forts and coastal beacons (lighthouses) and trees (orchards) were razed during the American War for Independence; thus, a deeply human “second nature” was constructed on the Bay’s littoral zone (173). The Blackstone Canal extended 45 miles from Providence/NB to the town of Worcester, MA. Canals built for commerce 1796-1825. “But when the corporation and the system it had created failed, the canals and rivers became sewers for human and industrial waste, which, flowing downstream, subsequently posed the single most important environmental challenge for Bay waters” (199). Cotton mills were favored by the law and became “not only the engines of economic progress, but also the arbiters of environmental control” (210). Blind faith in an inexact science (variability of rainfall, which damaged the canal or made it impassable) led to the demise of the Canal Company (224).
He makes this rather lofty claim to extend his local/regional history to a national importance: “A space that had once denied human progress, that had stemmed the tides of history, was breached by the storms of technological improvement that at century’s end gripped Narragansett Bay’s northern reaches and transformed the rest of America in the process” (195). While the historian/philosopher Strabo said that humans are amphibious (tied to the sea) or at least intertidal, Pastore substantiates this old adage by telling us that in 2014, “54% of Americans now live within 50 miles of the ocean” (228, 237).This is a rather compelling narrative of the transformation from margin to edge. Even though man has made the coastal zones less permeable and therefore less resistant to environmental variations--storms, etc.-- nature ensures that the coast is capable of continual renewal (238).
January 8, 2017
The author, Christopher Pastore, describes himself as an environmental historian. He book is a review of the Narragansett Bay and the impact of settlement between the period of 1636 to 1849 - the first European settlers to the dissolution of the Black Stone Canal Corporation.
The prose are plodding, and it is necessary to skim sections, but it places the events during this time relative to its impact on the environment. The trade in beaver skins with the Dutch impacted the ponds, and the ability of the shore to hold the water running from the estuaries. The beavers were all but decimated in a relatively short 20 year period. The shoreline was known for its salt marshes, and hidden coves.
The devastation of Newport during the Revolutionary war knocked Newport from a place of leadership to an after thought. Commerce moved to Providence. The plans to link Providence to Worcester devastated the environment in the Black Stone river valley, and led to terrible pollution in the upper bay.
The cartographers developed their sophistication in charting waters. When they 'sounded' the depths and drew the bottom of Narragansett Bay, this provided the English with control of the harbor. The locals still had the ability to hid in the swamps, and salt marshes lining the harbor, but England controlled the harbor around Newport.
A common theme is the "hardening" of the water's edge of the Bay. The removal of the buffer zone makes the shoreline more vulnerable to natural disasters. Roads, parking lots, boulders protecting the Cliff Walk are all attempts to harness the sea and the littoral space between land and ocean. This ultimately goes against nature.
Underlying this narrative is a fascinating history of Rhode Island, and Narragansett Bay. Since I now live in Newport, this was a very interesting read.
The prose are plodding, and it is necessary to skim sections, but it places the events during this time relative to its impact on the environment. The trade in beaver skins with the Dutch impacted the ponds, and the ability of the shore to hold the water running from the estuaries. The beavers were all but decimated in a relatively short 20 year period. The shoreline was known for its salt marshes, and hidden coves.
The devastation of Newport during the Revolutionary war knocked Newport from a place of leadership to an after thought. Commerce moved to Providence. The plans to link Providence to Worcester devastated the environment in the Black Stone river valley, and led to terrible pollution in the upper bay.
The cartographers developed their sophistication in charting waters. When they 'sounded' the depths and drew the bottom of Narragansett Bay, this provided the English with control of the harbor. The locals still had the ability to hid in the swamps, and salt marshes lining the harbor, but England controlled the harbor around Newport.
A common theme is the "hardening" of the water's edge of the Bay. The removal of the buffer zone makes the shoreline more vulnerable to natural disasters. Roads, parking lots, boulders protecting the Cliff Walk are all attempts to harness the sea and the littoral space between land and ocean. This ultimately goes against nature.
Underlying this narrative is a fascinating history of Rhode Island, and Narragansett Bay. Since I now live in Newport, this was a very interesting read.
June 24, 2024
This monograph is a little narrower than the title suggests as what one mostly has here is an environmental history of Narragansett Bay from Pre-Columbian times to the collapse of the Blackstone Canal Company of Rhode Island in the 1840s, giving one an account of the transition from a vast, graduated zone of wetlands which blurred the boundary between land and sea and the hard shoreline that exists now in the environs of Providence. Pastore ends his book musing on how rising sea levels and the hard lesson of Hurricane Sandy are forcing authorities and populations to appreciate the need for extensive buffer zones for the preservation of settled society and general environmental health.
Originally written: May 6, 2019.
P.S. Actual review: 3.5.
Originally written: May 6, 2019.
P.S. Actual review: 3.5.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews