Seven Beaver Skins: A Story of the Dutch in New Amsterdam by Erick Berry is one of the books in the Land of the Free series, published in the 1940’s and 50’s for older children and what we would call young adults now. All of the stories feature young protagonists of varying ethnicities, mostly immigrants, who find a place in the New World. I have read three others of the books in this series: Chariot in the Sky by Anna Bontemps, Door to the North by Elizabeth Coatsworth, and Sing in the Dark by Maude Morgan Thomas.

These books ought to fit right into the emphasis on diversity that is currently the rage, but they were written in a time when the some attitudes and characterizations that are now shunned were perfectly acceptable. For instance, Seven Beaver Skins has a very minor character named Andries, a black enslaved servant, who is, shall we say, creative at getting out of work. The author says in the introduction that Andries was a real person, and that he was “at least as lazy as here depicted.” No doubt there were many enslaved people who were indeed lazy, if they were allowed to be, but it’s a trope that wouldn’t be appropriate in any book published nowadays. The book Chariot in the Sky uses the word “Negro” to designate the race of its main characters, because that was the accepted and respectful term in the 1951 when the book was published. The Native Americans, Maquas and Mahicans, in Seven Beaver Skins are portrayed as intelligent and as good traders and hunters, but also violent and savage to one another and sometimes to the Dutch settlers. This portrayal, too, although quite possibly accurate, would probably be disallowed in today’s super-sensitive environment.

Nevertheless, to anyone interested in the diverse and multi-ethnic story of the building of the United States of America into a country of immigrants from all over the world, the Land of the Free books are well-written, well-researched, and full of insight as well as factual information. I learned more about patroons and the beaver trade and the economics of the West India Company and its colonization of New Amsterdam from reading this story of a boy named Kaspar de Selle and his adventures in “the Manhatens” than I ever did by reading a textbook. Not to mention I was amused by the crossover learning about falconry and its terms and methods, since I read Helen MacDonald’s H Is for Hawk earlier this year. (Kaspar brings a peregrine falcon to the Manhatens when he comes as a colonist to the patroonship of Renselaerswyck in New Amsterdam.)

If you’re interested in falconry or Dutch colonization or the history of New York or in just a good adventure story, Seven Beaver Skins is the book for a rainy day’s read. If you enjoy this book, you might want to check out some of the others in the series, if you can find copies. Some of them are quite rare and hard to find. I’ll be reading Colt of Destiny next because I have a copy in my library. If you find any of the books in the series, I would suggest you snap them up.

The full list of the Land of the Free series:

• The Beckoning Hills, A Story of the Italians in Calfornia by Joseph H. Gage
• The Blowing Wand, A Story of Bohemian Glassmaking in Ohio by Elsie Reif Ziegler
• Chariot in the Sky, A Story of the Jubilee Singers by Arna Wendell Bontemps
• Climb a Lofty Ladder, A Story of Swedish Settlement in Minnesota by Walter and Marion Havighurst
• Colt of Destiny, A Story of the California Missions by Alida Malkus
• Deep Treasure, A Story of the Greek Sponge Fishers of Florida by Charles Minor Blackford
• Desert Harvest, A Story of the Japanese in California by Vanya Oakes
• Door to the North, A Saga of Fourteenth Century America by Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth
• Footprints of the Dragon, A Story of the Chinese and the Pacific Railways by Vanya Oakes
• I Heard of a River, A Story of the Germans in Pennsylvania by Elsie Singmaster
• The Last Fort, A Story of the French Voyageurs by Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth
• The Oak’s Long Shadow, A Story of the Basque Sheepherders in Ohio by Olive Burt
• Runner in the Sun, A Story of Indian Maize by D’Arcy McNickle
• Seek the Dark Gold, A Story of the Scots Fur Traders by Jo Evalin Lundy
• Seven Beaver Skins, A Story of the Dutch in New Amsterdam by Erick Berry
• The Sign of the Golden Fish, A Story of the Cornish Fishermen in Maine by Gertrude Robinson
• The Silver Fleece, A Story of the Spanish in New Mexico by Florence Crannell Means and Carl Means
• Sing in the Dark, A Story of the Welsh in Pennsylvania by Maude Morgan Thomas
• Song of the Pines, A Story of Norwegian Lumbering in Wisconsin by Walter and Marion Havighurst
• They Planted Far Fields, A Story of the Representative Government in Virginia by Dorothea Stillman
• Tidewater Valley, A Story of the Swiss in Oregon by Jo Evalin Lundy
• Watergate, A Story of the Irish on the Erie Canal by Herbert Best