"Discovering New Worlds in the 16th Century" - Alan Gallay
Alan Gallay holds the Lyndon B. Johnson Chair in United States History at Texas Christian University. In 2002, Yale University Press published Gallay's "The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the American South, 1670-1717." Based upon a dozen years of writing and research in archives in France, England, Scotland and various repositories in the United States, the book shows how the trade in Indian slaves tied the South together as a region and laid the basis for the growth of African slavery. The book received the Bancroft Prize from Columbia University, the Washington State Book Award, and selection as an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice Magazine. Library Journal identified the book as one of the eleven most important books on Native Americans published in the previous thirty years. Gallay's most recent books include an edited collection of essays, "Indian Slavery in Colonial America," and "Colonial and Revolutionary America." His most recent book, to be published in November by Basic Books, is “Walter Ralegh: Architect of Empire,” a study of the simultaneous attempt to build an English empire in North America, South America, and Ireland.