Takaki Slavery In America Analysis

The reading this week dealt with minorities in America and America’s contradictory nature. It began stories of various Indian tribes who lost their land to the English settlers. The Choctaw and Cherokee Indians who were forced away from their homes towards barren stony mountains. Then Takaki switched his focal point to slavery and its significance within America’s past. Then, the sixth chapter ends with Irish emigration.

Choctaw and Cherokee Indians were the original inhabitants of America. They cared for the land and ensured that they only took what may be replenished. English settlers were rather different; instead, they farmed on a single plot continuously and killed everything in sight for a profit. These two cultures clashed resulting

in the dominant English military power to takeover. Takaki mentions that President Andrew Jackson also tried defending America by stating, “he wanted to be ‘just’ and humane,’ Jackson claimed his goal was to protect the Indians from the ‘mercenary influence of white men’” (Takaki 71).
Within the section on slavery, Takaki presents views from different perspectives on slavery.

One view was that of the “Sambo.” Takaki defines this by stating, “[t]o many white southerners, slaves were childlike, irresponsible, lazy, affectionate, and happy” (Takaki 76). Though these personality characteristics may not have been innate traits, they did serve as a possible mask with which the slaves may shield themselves from their abusive slave handlers.

The Iris like that of the Indians, were forced to leave their homeland. In America, the Irish found difficult, almost suicidal work just as the Chinese and Indian workers primarily building the transcontinental railroad. The Irish were compared with the African American population as a, “race of savages” (Takaki 100), with the same intelligence level as blacks.

The section of this reading that stuck out to me were the passages regarding Cherokee and Choctaw’s past. One of America’s earliest acts of blatant racism, Indians were forced out of their homes against their wishes. I mentioned in my discussion post a petition that Indians had signed in an attempt to stay in their land. 15,665 of the 17,000 Indian population signed the “Treat oy New Echota” yet it was rejected. I was awestruck that not only 92% of the population in that state came together to agree upon a single document, but also that congress still rejected it. I read up on this a bit more afterward through other primary sources that stated newspapers, senators, and representatives of the state continued to submit petitions demanding that America take

action.
Another point I wanted to draw on was the assimilation of Indians. Perhaps the cheapest option for America, the easiest way to acquire Indian land was to welcome them into their society while claiming land behind their backs. This was more than successful in favor of Americans as not only did many Indians decide to cave-in and take plots of land from the Americans, but moreover the Indians could not pay their debt and the land was ceased. Considering that English agriculture was significantly different than Indian’s, this was likely at no surprise to the English.
The last point I found interesting was the role of pseudoscience in early America. Within the chapter on slavery, Dr. Samuel Morton is mentioned. He is the scientist who measured the cranial capacities of white and black people to determine who was more intelligent. This was interesting to me since I began thinking of other examples with which pseudoscience enforced negative stereotypes. I discovered a term called, “Scientific racism,” a science specifically intended to justify racism. I found these three chapters interesting and I’m excited to participate in the discussion leadership today.