Colonial Era In Colonial America

Colonial America: 181 Years of Adventure
The Colonial Period, beginning in the early 1600 's with the founding and settling of Jamestown, signaled a new era in the New World. The Spanish had already conquered and colonized a great deal of Central America, and the French had established a strong fur trade and relatively good relations with the Native American 's of North America. Native American 's were succumbing to diseases in alarming numbers, and growing more wary of the arrival of even more Europeans. It is true that during the 1600 's to almost the end the Revolutionary War in 1781 was a time of “many mixtures of powers, conflict, and rivaling interests,” but the “dominant narrative” of that time varies from culture to culture and generation

The most hotly debated of which has been the population of the Native American 's from the time of Columbus through the Revolutionary War. According to our readings of Alfred Crosby 's paper on the “Virgin Soil Epidemics as a Factor in the Aboriginal Depopulation in America”, he offers the following reasoning behind the debate. “Unfortunately, the documentation of these epidemics, as of the many others of the period, is slight, usually hearsay, sometimes dated years after the events described, and often colored by emotion. Later in his paper, Crosby details how the Native American 's continued to suffer from diseases during the same time that the new settlement of Plymouth was struggling to survive and well into the 19th century. While the exact population of the Native American 's will never be known or completely agreed upon, the common message from all parties is that as more and more Europeans arrived, the Natives suffered and their population decreased. Neal Salisbury, Professor of History at Smith College, agrees with Crosby and our dominant view concerning the impact of diseases afflicting the Native Americans during the Colonial period. He also argues that the “Puritan Colonists were also aware of how the diseases were affecting the tribal populations (Salisbury pg.

Many American 's were not innocent of causing conflict as their rivaling interests lie in separating from England and becoming an independent nation. One such activist for independence was Paul Revere. An editorial article by Varsity Tutors quotes that “Revere 's historic engraving is long on political propaganda and short on accuracy or aesthetics.” This quote is a summation of Paul Revere 's engraving detailing the facts of the Boston Massacre, or how he wished to portray it. Brinkley shares similar sentiments in his book as he shares case after case, including this one, where forward thinking Americans bent the truth in order to cause more division between the Colonies and the