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Analysis of Benjamin Franklin's remarks concerning the savages of North America
How does the society shape the behavior of an individual
Society affect morality
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Work
The term, work can have several meanings and interpretations. Some people view work as a necessity and a social norm, others might view it with a negative perspective, giving how people are so dependent on it. Benjamin Franklin, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman all have a similar interpretation of work. Your encounters with society affects your actions, yielding a specific outcome. They all acted accordingly to what they observed around them, and the actions hey took was to yield a result of change.
In Benjamin Franklin’s Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America, he writes about how the Native Americans were being called savages because their culture and traditions were different. The work that took place here, was him taking a stand and writing these remarks to bring awareness to others on how everyone is different in some way. Franklin explains, “ But they are still ignorant. You know our Practice. If a white Man in travelling thro’ our Country, enters one of our Cabins, we all treat him as I treat you; we dry him if he is wet, we warm him if he is cold, we give...
Cherokee tribes led the way in adopting American traditions and ideals. They created their own schools and drafted a constitution. Some Cherokee people became farmers and slave owners. When they felt they were wronged or being taken advantage of, they filed court cases and sought justice as an American would. Surely all of these things speak to the fact that being a Native American Indian does not automatically make someone a “savage.” Classifying the Natives and savage made it easier for Jackson to justify their expulsion. If he had recognized them as equal citizens he could not have forced them from their
In the beginning of this speech, he talks about how the “fight” between the Indians and whites was unfair because of the weapons the whites possessed. Despite this, the Indians still believed they had a chance to defend themselves, unfortunately they were no match for the guns. What initiated this fight was the land, belonging to the Indians, that was taken with no regards to the inhabitants. He wanted to explain that Indians were of no harm to the “white society” and wanted to carry on with their own way of life. He feared that Indians will lose their culture and will become similar to whites in a negative sense. Some similarities he lists include lying and hypocrisy, adulterers, lazy, all talk, and
Not many Englishmen defended the foreign peoples’ way of life, which led to accounts which were generally defamatory, and in some cases provided justification to violence against them. Upon arrival to Virginia explorers such as John Smith had already created preconceived notions of the Native Americans. They romanticized Native Americans claiming them to be an insatiable, wanton people who practically threw themselves upon the newcomers. Englishmen would often sexualize Native American women, and as Townsend writes, “The colonizer of the imagination were men – men imbued with almost mystical powers. The foreign women and the foreign lands wanted, even needed, these men, for such men were more than desirable.” The Englishmen were eager to believe this, and writers such as Peter Martyr and Richard Hakluyt only further inspired such fantasies of colonization. Even Smith himself produced half-truths about his capture and experiences among the Powhatan people in order to be perceived as the hero. There was clear prejudice for the Native Americans in the European countries, and reports only affirmed the English of their disdain for these strange people. The first step the English took in destroying Native American culture was discrediting them as mere savages who were too uncivilized to properly make use of their land or develop innovations on the scale that they themselves
In this letter Banneker expresses to Jefferson that blacks as well as other racial groups are also human and points out the struggle that Blacks have faced throughout history like being unequally treated and being used for slavery. On the other hand Jefferson supported and defended the Native Americans when the white settlers wanted to take over their lands. Later when Jefferson became president, he doubled the size of the land when he decided to purchase the Louisiana territory from the French. In Chapter 7 titled “As long as Grass Grows or Water Runs” Howard Zinn emphasizes the poor treatment that presidents Madison and Jackson were giving to the Native Americans. Madison and Jackson main objective was to remove as many Native Americans from the lands. That way leading to having more power and more territory. After Jackson and Madison presidency terms were over The Indian Removal act was approved by the congress as part of the Jackson
The first point of conflicting ideas of freedom was the Native tribes remaining slightly nomadic when hunting. This conflict was highlighted in the selection “On taking the new road” by Carl Sweeny on page 127. In the selection, Carl speaks of how his tribe’s traditions changed when forced to hunt within the reservation and also maintained lifestyles different to those of whites. The Whites often used these differences to reinforce the idea that the Native Americans were inferior. Carl mentions in the selection that Whites disapproved of the Natives withdrawing their students from school during the winter. It would have been common for the Whites to attribute this to the natives being “lazy” (Sweeny, p.127), instead of recognizing it as a cultural difference. White Americans did not want to accept that the Nativ...
American Indians shaped their critique of modern America through their exposure to and experience with “civilized,” non-Indian American people. Because these Euro-Americans considered traditional Indian lifestyle savage, they sought to assimilate the Indians into their civilized culture. With the increase in industrialization, transportation systems, and the desire for valuable resources (such as coal, gold, etc.) on Indian-occupied land, modern Americans had an excuse for “the advancement of the human race” (9). Euro-Americans moved Indians onto reservations, controlled their education and practice of religion, depleted their land, and erased many of their freedoms. The national result of this “conquest of Indian communities” was a steady decrease of Indian populations and drastic increase in non-Indian populations during the nineteenth century (9). It is natural that many American Indians felt fearful that their culture and people were slowly vanishing. Modern America to American Indians meant the destruction of their cultural pride and demise of their way of life.
It is safe to say that work comes in many different forms. Whether it be a fast food or a corporate, the people that surround an individual make a great impact on the way he or she may work. Singapore, by Mary Oliver, is about a young woman working as a custodian in an airport who although works alone, enjoys her work and the people she meets. Dorianne Laux’s What I Wouldn’t Do, introduces another young woman reviewing the jobs she has had throughout time and reflects on those that she liked and disliked. Hard Work, by Stephen Dunn, exemplifies a young boy working in a soda factory during his summer break. Searching for happiness in life and work is just what these individuals are doing.
Franklin’s accomplishments arose from the influence of family, friends, education, and personal experience with being African American. He had a difficult task as an historian as he was writing about the neglected history of his minority group while being an advocate for the rights of this group. This could be perceived as a conflict of interest, but he thought of it as being beneficial. His method of writing was not to promote African Americans, but to interpret their involvement in the framework of American history. This was not something that had been done extensively and thoroughly before. Franklin set the stage and helped to create a widely accepted field of history.
Currently, human beings are thinking more on the line of they need work in order to make a living. For that reason, work has become meaningless, disagreeable, and unnatural. Many view work as a way to obtain money and not a meaningful human activity that one does for themselves. The author states that there are two reactions of the alienated and profoundly unsatisfactory character of the modern industrial work. One being the ideal of complete laziness and the other, hostility towards work. Fromm believes the reason why people have animosity regarding work is due to their unconscious mind. Subconsciously, a person has “a deep-seated, hostility towards work and all that is connected to it” says Fromm. I believe what Fromm is saying to be true, after all I witness it everyday. Millions of people each day goes to a work which they are dissatisfied with and that can negatively impact their attitude
Still, the Germans are neglected and the Irish exploited, language barrier continued to cause strife and distrust. However, when English news was subsequently translated into German, sentiments of exploitation and desertion became a backdrop and they started seeing other in a new way. Democracy was birthed as more power was shared among ethnicities in the “back country”. The increased intensity of the Indian savagery opened the eyes to the whites and they sought to put their previous irreconcilable differences in the shade. To a degree, they consciously realized that they have a common enemy and they could wield their communities to attack the “red race”. There was a significant shift in their belief, the creator created differently so that they could live distinctly. Familiarity does not necessarily arise from living in close proximity with each other, and Silver constantly argued this throughout his book. The idea of White’s middle ground never came into existence at this point in history in Pennsylvania, as racial consciousness emerged and developed. The Irish, Germans and other Europeans saw themselves whites and the Indians as red, they built inter-white middle ground here, not Indian-white. They did not actually forget or bury their differences and ignore its existence, but they, to a certain extent found tolerance and little “accommodation” between their other white
Benjamin Franklin wrote “In Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America”, because he made observations and describes it in this essay the difference between the society of White English America and Native Americans. Furthermore, he needed people to understand that those supposed savages are different from us and that is acceptable. In every culture, whether White English America, or Native Americans, we all have some practices of disrespect and courtesy. Not all cultures are the same, as well as everyone’s life is different. Benjamin explains the differences between our society and their nation; moreover, he explains that their manners differ from ours as well.
Watson, T. (2008) The Meaning of Work. The Sociology of Work and Industry. London: Routledge.
A workaholic is a person who is crippled and addicted to control and power in a compulsive drive to gain approval and success. They become dependent on their work to define who they are. This essay will discuss two myths surrounding workaholism and two ways one may be able to overcome it.
The poem, “What Work Is” by Philip Levine is an intricate and thought-provoking selection. Levine uses a slightly confusing method of describing what work actually is. He gives the idea that work is very tedious, however necessary. It is miserable, however, it is a sacrifice that is essentially made by many, if not all able-bodied members of society. Many have to sacrifice going to a concert or a movie, but instead works jobs with hardly a manageable salary. This poem seems to have a focus on members of the lower-class or middle-class who live paycheck to paycheck and are unable to put money away for a future for their children or for a vacation and how difficult life can be made to be while living under this type of circumstance. Levine
The Native Americans or American Indians, once occupied all of the entire region of the United States. They were composed of many different groups, who speaked hundreds of languages and dialects. The Indians from the Southwest used to live in large built terraced communities and their way of sustain was from the agriculture where they planted squash, pumpkins, beans and corn crops. Trades between neighboring tribes were common, this brought in additional goods and also some raw materials such as gems, cooper. seashells and soapstone.To this day, movies and television continue the stereotype of Indians wearing feathered headdresses killing innocent white settlers. As they encountered the Europeans, automatically their material world was changed. The American Indians were amazed by the physical looks of the white settlers, their way of dressing and also by their language. The first Indian-White encounter was very peaceful and trade was their principal interaction. Tension and disputes were sometimes resolved by force but more often by negotiation or treaties. On the other hand, the Natives were described as strong and very innocent creatures awaiting for the first opportunity to be christianized. The Indians were called the “Noble Savages” by the settlers because they were cooperative people but sometimes, after having a few conflicts with them, they seem to behaved like animals. We should apprehend that the encounter with the settlers really amazed the natives, they were only used to interact with people from their own race and surroundings and all of this was like a new discovery for them as well as for the white immigrants. The relations between the English and the Virginian Indians was somewhat strong in a few ways. They were having marriages among them. For example, when Pocahontas married John Rolfe, many said it has a political implication to unite more settlers with the Indians to have a better relation between both groups. As for the Indians, their attitude was always friendly and full of curiosity when they saw the strange and light-skinned creatures from beyond the ocean. The colonists only survived with the help of the Indians when they first settler in Jamestown and Plymouth. In this areas, the Indians showed the colonists how to cultivate crops and gather seafood.The Indians changed their attitude from welcome to hostility when the strangers increased and encroached more and more on hunting and planting in the Natives’ grounds.