The Extraordinary Journey of David Ingram: An Elizabethan Sailor in Native North America
By Dean Snow, PhD ’66 (anthropology)
May 17, 2023
In 1582, the allure of the New World of North America was palpable for Queen Elizabeth I and her court. The Queen’s spymaster, Francis Walsingham, needed information about the unfamiliar continent—and his only source was Black sailor David Ingram, one of the few living Englishman to have traveled substantially in North America. The 1589 publication of Ingram’s testimony depicted him as an egregious travel liar, but revisiting the primary source documentation reveals Ingram told the truth about his experiences in America. What happens when two historical accounts contradict each other?