Centered in what is now the boot heel region of Missouri, the New Madrid earthquakes were felt as far away as Canada, New York, New Orleans, Washington DC, and the western part of the Missouri River. A million and a half square miles were affected as the earth's surface remained in a state of constant motion for nearly four months. Towns were destroyed, an eighteen-mile-long by five-mile-wide lake was created, and even the Mississippi River temporarily ran backwards. The quakes uncovered Jefferson's nephews' cruelty and changed the course of the War of 1812 as well as the future of the new republic.
In When the Mississippi Ran Backwards, Jay Feldman expertly weaves together the story of the slave murder, the steamboat, Tecumseh, and the war, and brings a forgotten period back to vivid life. Tecumseh's widely believed prophecy, seemingly fulfilled, hastened an unprecedented alliance among southern and northern tribes, who joined the British in a disastrous fight against the U.S. government. By the end of the war, the continental United States was secure against Britain, France, and Spain; the Indians had lost many lives and much land; and Jefferson's nephews were exposed as murderers. The steamboat, which survived the earthquake, was sunk.When the Mississippi Ran Backwards sheds light on this now-obscure yet pivotal period between the Revolutionary and Civil wars, uncovering the era's dramatic geophysical, political, and military upheavals.
Feldman paints a vivid picture of how these powerful earthquakes made an impact on every aspect of frontier life -- and why similar catastrophic quakes are guaranteed to recur. When the Mississippi Ran Backwards is popular history at its best.
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Background Information
Tecumeh, along with his brother The Prophet, fought to protect the Shawnees against encroaching whites until his death in the War of 1812. Along with the Missouri, the Mississippi forms the longest river system in the world and ultimately drains almost all of the central United States. New Orleans, near the mouth of the Mississippi, was the principal city in French America and became the capital of the state of Louisiana. Beginning in the very early nineteenth century, steamboats enabled transportation upriver, revolutionizing the nature of river commerce. Missouri, acquired from France through the Louisiana Purchase, was a border state that remained in the Union during the Civil War. The Missouri River is the longest tributary of the Mississippi, flowing from Montana eastward to join the Mississippi at St Louis MO.