Unlike the pilgrims looking for freedom to worship the way they wished, or others looking to convert savage Indians to Christianity, some made the journey to America for profit. John Lawson was one of them. Almost on a whim, headed to South Carolina because an associate told him it was great country. After 200 years of voyages to America, much of the land was still unknown. Lawson worked to change that. Upon his arrival, he joined an expedition that travelled by canoe and by foot. He travelled with Indians and scouted locations for settlements, and gathered information on plants and animals, land, and Indians. Lawson was successful in the Carolinas. On a return trip to Europe, he published a book that promoted colonization. Eventually, he established a colony of his own, in North Carolina, populated with a few hundred Swiss and Germans. Just like previous settlers, he unknowingly transported deadly pathogens to the New World. Unfortunately for Lawson, he experienced firsthand what the …show more content…
Indians did to prisoners when they executed. He had splinters stuck into his skin, then lit on fire. The Tuscarora War opened more land in the Carolinas for colonization. In A New Voyage to Carolina, Lawson wrote that colonists could live together but chapter four provided numerous reasons why the European settlers and the Indians were never going to be able to live together peacefully with mutual accommodation and assimilation.
The two groups were just too different. The Indians didn't build permanent structures, so they were seen as uncivilized. The English and Indians had very different ideas about land ownership. In Massachusetts Bay, a century earlier, John Winthrop and the pilgrims didn't consider the land owned by the Indians because they didn't make improvements. The English considered it a sign of civility to domesticate animals, while the Indians were nomads who considered animals communal property until they were killed in a hunt. Europeans saw nature as a commodity, the Indians did not. Europeans considered a land sale to be a permanent exchange of property, the Indians considered that same land still open for use by
all. Probably the most divisive issue of all was religion. Many colonists considered it part of their mission to convert Indians to Christianity, but they went about it with varying levels of intensity and commitment. Protestant colonists were seeking more closed religious communities. Seventeenth century protestant ministers who journeyed to America focused on other Christian colonists. On the other hand, Catholics tried to convert as many as possible. Spanish missions in Florida had great success for a time, almost 20,000 Indians were included in the missions spread over Florida. They had less success in the southwest. In 1680, after dress codes, labor demands, and removal of idols, the Pueblos revolted against the Spanish, who abandoned the territory. Unlike the Spanish who used brute force to make converts, the French lived and worked among the Indians. Gifts, including rosary beads and images of saints used the Indians tradition of gift giving to spread their message. The Jesuits converted sixteen thousand in only forty years. The numbers of converted are overinflated, because infants and those who were dying were one third of the converts. Once converted, Indians were expected to separate themselves from their culture. Unfortunately for the Indians, in addition to spreading the word of God, they also spread smallpox. The priest’s ability to care for those who were sick without getting sick themselves was seen as spiritual power. Like the Europeans, the Indians wanted to make converts of their new neighbors. The Indians had more success than the English. Their method of making converts was capture. After capture, prisoners were taken away to their new homes. After some public humiliation, conversion began. Women and children were often adopted into the tribe. Their new families washed, clothed, and renamed them. Men were often tortured and killed. Colonists saw the torture of prisoners as proof of their savagery. Unlike Indian converts who would always remain second class citizens to the Europeans, Europeans who were taken captive became part of the Indian community.
There was no definite property line in the early New England colony, causing animals roaming freely to become an issue between the two societies. The Indians were ultimately unprepared for the European’s livestock to wonder into their property without any boundaries. The animals would not only walk into their land but eat their resources and grass along the way. Destruction that the livestock caused to the Native American’s land led to a distinct boundary line between them and the Europeans, creating further tension rather than assimilation. Cattle were trapped into Indian hunting traps, causing both a problem to the Indians hunting rituals as well as the Europeans livestock supply. These issues among land division ultimately led to the acceleration of land expansion by the colonists during the 1660’s and early 1670’s. Before King Phillip’s War, Plymouth officials approached the Indians at least twenty-three times to purchase land. The author argues that previous mutual consideration for both the society’s needs was diminished at this point and the selling of the land would eliminate the Indian’s independence. Whenever livestock was involved, the colonists ignored Indian’s property rights
To many of the English colonists, any land that was granted to them in a charter by the English Crown was theirs’, with no consideration for the natives that had already owned the land. This belittlement of Indians caused great problems for the English later on, for the natives did not care about what the Crown granted the colonists for it was not theirs’ to grant in the first place. The theory of European superiority over the Native Americans caused for any differences in the way the cultures interacted, as well as amazing social unrest between the two cultures.
The land of the Native Indians had been encroached upon by American settlers. By the
Not only did the Indians and Europeans use the land differently but also defined ownership of the land differently. The Indian woman defined and claimed the land as theirs by the crops planted and the rest of the land could be free for improvement. The Europeans viewed that, ‘“To define property is thus to represent boundaries between people; equally, it is to articulate at least one set of conscious boundaries between ...
The Europeans invaded America with every intention of occupying the land, the bountiful natural resources as well as the complete domination of the native people. The Europeans desire for the land created an explosive situation for the native peoples as they witnessed their land and right to freedom being stripped from them. They often found themselves having to choose sides of which to pledge their allegiance to. The Europeans depended upon Indian allies to secure the land and their dominance as well as trade relations with the Indians. The Indians were in competition with one another for European trade causing conflict among the different tribes altering the relationships where friends became enemies and vice versa (Calloway, 2012, p. 163). These relationships often became embittered and broke into bloody brawls where it involved, "Indian warriors fighting on both sides, alongside the European forces as well as against European forces invad...
The Native Americans were the earliest and only settlers in the North American continents for more than thousands of years. Like their European counterparts, the English colonists justified the taking of their territories was because the natives were not entitled to the land because they lacked a work ethic in which shows that the colonists did not understand the Native Americans system of work and ownership of property. They believed the “Indians seemed to lack everything the English identified as civilized” (Takaki, Pg. 33). Because the settlers were living far away from civilizations, to ensure that they were civilized people, the settlers had negative images of the Native Americans so that they would not be influenced and live like the how the natives do, ensuring that these groups are savages who are uncivilized. Many began to believe this was God’s plans for them to civilize the country in which many would push westward and drive the Indians out to promote civilization and progress. While the United States was still in its early stages of development,
The Indians thought of land very differently to the white man. The land was sacred, there was no ownership, and it was created by the great spirit. They could not sell their land to others, whereas the white people could fence off the land which belonged to them, and sell it freely to whoever they wanted. The Europeans didn't think that the Indians were using the land properly, so in their eyes, they were doing a good favour to the earth. To the Indians, the land was more valuable than the money that the white man had brought with him, even though it didn't belong to them.
Christopher Columbus is a mythical hero or in other words, not a true hero. The story of Christopher Columbus is part of the many myths of Western civilization. Also the story of Christopher Columbus represents the power of those that are privileged and in most cases white European men that have written this mythical history. Zinn (2009 exposes the truth about Columbus through eyes of the people who were there when he had arrived which were the Native Indians (p.481). Columbus had kept a personal journal for his voyage to describe the people and the journey. What was evident throughout his journal was the Native Americans were very nice, gentle and kind hearted people (Zinn, 2009, 481). As Zinn suggests Columbus spoke of the Native Americans as” they are the best people in the world and
The colonists immigrated to the New World in search of religious freedom. Their entire early experience was a constant struggle for survival. To the colonists the New World was their way out of poverty and into the
The Native Americans were still seen as a less civilized race, but those against the Act believed that the Indians could become civilized without any guidance. Not to mention that the land given to the natives would more often than not be selected for them, many of the land that was allotted was poor land that made farming next to impossible. The best land would go to the more civilized of the two races or the one with the most wealth. Despite the Indians receiving poor land, there were many occasions where Indians were tricked out of their land allotment before the government would release their title to them. Any land that was gifted to the Natives was either stolen from them or poor quality, the Dawes Act seemed to be more in the White settlers’ interest than the intended party.
As America moved westward the Indians had finally run out of places to live. The Indians were moved to reservations, and the parents were convinced that their kids could develop better lives by abiding and living as a white American in the east. After they reached the east they were looked upon as savages, uncivilized and dirty. As they walked through a town they were looked upon as being the conquered and mocked. Children at the sight of them had much fear. People did not understand the culture of the Indians.
Many tribes had reigning governments and tribal counsels as a way of life. With westward expansion brought changes. Many Americans were killing their livestock, the food they ate, and Americans were settling more and more on the Indian lands. In time, Indians began to fight back and take what had been theirs. Once this happened, the Americans decided to make the Indians like Americans, so we took their land and tried to make them Americans.
King Charles gave 8 noblemen a large tract of land that they name the Carolinas named after the person who gave them this land. In order to keep their land going they tried to get settlers to settle there but that did not work out so well. In August 1669, 3 ships left with the first settlers. Each paid 500 pounds for their settlement. That’s when they had founded Charlestown, and within 2 years there were 271 men and 69 women. The proprietors of the settlement set up a government called the Fundamental Constitution of the Carolinas. One of the authors of the Constitution was John Locke. The growth of the Carolinas was very slow mostly because the area was swampy and many people came down with malaria. The proprietors of the colony wanted to offer a large part of the land to a small
The day our ship pulled into the(Present Day) North Carolina shore for a break, we didn't know this was our final stop. We learned when our navigator Simon Fernandez wouldn’t let us ( Whites Men) re-board the ship. Our plan was set, where we slept, where we kept all our food, and if we leave or are forced we carve drawings into the tree. Day by day, night by night even more creepier things are happening.
With the conclusion of the Revolutionary War and many of the states now united under one government it was time to expand toward the west. By this time, in the late 1700’s, the majority of the Indian population had been cleared out and their lands were now occupied by white towns and cities on the east coast of America. This move toward the west was for many different reasons such as land and a search for gold. Through the early years of this expansion the United States political leaders had certain expectation on how the natives were going to be treated this time around. Despite their good intentions in the beginning the leaders went from the idea of fair treatment to trickery and force as the years progressed.