Price: Free
As we have long been taught: “In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue…” and ‘discovered’ America. But, turning the traditional narrative on its head, Caroline Dodds Pennock looks at the thousands of Aztecs, Maya, Tononacs, Inuit and more who ‘discovered’ Europe in the years that followed. From enslaved people and servants to explorers, traders and diplomats, these Indigenous Americans crossed the Atlantic to find lands both exotic and baffling. For them, Europe was a ‘savage shore’ – a land of riches and marvels, yet perplexing for its brutal disparities of wealth and quality of life, and its baffling beliefs. In this fascinating talk, Caroline will discuss the extraordinary tales of some of the earliest Indigenous travellers – from the Brazilian king who met Henry VIII to the Aztecs who mocked up human sacrifice at the court of Charles V; from the Inuk baby who was put on show in a London pub to the mestizo children of Spaniards who returned ‘home’ with their fathers; from the Inuit who harpooned ducks on the Avon River to the many servants employed by Europeans of every rank: here are people who were rendered exotic, demeaned, and marginalized, but whose worldviews and cultures had a profound impact on European civilization.
Professor Caroline Dodds Pennock is Professor in International History at the University of Sheffield and also works as a popular history writer, consultant, and ‘talking head’ expert for TV and radio, having appeared on programmes for broadcasters including the BBC, Channel 4, Sky and Netflix. Her first trade book, On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe was Radio 4 Book of the Week in January 2023 and has been warmly received, being selected as one of the best history books of the year by Smithsonian Magazine, The Economist, BBC History Magazine and others. Caroline is probably best known as the only British Aztec historian, and her first book, Bonds of Blood: Gender, Lifecycle and Sacrifice in Aztec Culture won the Royal Historical Society’s Gladstone Prize for 2008.
