HISTÒRIA I CULTURA DELS ESTATS UNITS

UNIT 2: NATIVE AMERICANS 1

 Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne and Dina Gilio-Whitaker. 'All the Real Indians Died
Off' and 20 Myths About Native Americans. 2015.
 Zinn, Howard: “Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress” (online in
Moodle)
 GALLOWAY, Colin G. First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American
Indian History. Boston: Bedford, 2008.
The Master Narrative

 U.S. history told as a single story, a narrative of nation building built on the
notion of progress.
 A single U.S. experience (cfr. The Melting Pot)
 Dismissal of facts, peoples, that did not conform to this narrative
Stereotyped Representation

The savage Indian The Noble Savage

“If you begin to look at American history from a Native American point of view, lots of things look different. The whole ‘noble’ history of American
expansion – which I remember in high school making me proud, as I looked on the map that the teacher put up there showing how we grew --
‘grew’ as if it were a biological thing, just ‘natural’ in our genes to grow – from this straggling bunch of colonies along the Atlantic across to the
Pacific.

In 1863, the very time that the Emancipation Proclamation had just been issued, an Army out in Utah was massacring a Shoshone tribe of
peaceful Indians to get that territory. In 1864, another massacre [took place] at Sand Creek, Colorado. Now, in how many historical accounts of the
Civil War do we learn about that?[ ….] If we don’t want … to repeat those horrors, then it seems to me that it’s absolutely necessary … to get away
from that nationalistic narrow white male elite point of view which is given to us in our history books.” (Howard Zinn, "A People's...")

Traditional Accounts

 Presentation of Native Americans through white eyes:

 Omission, invisibility

Stereotyped representation

o Homogeneous group

o Savage

o Inarticulate: Westerns

DISTORTION

 Presented as resisting the march of civilization

 Hostility to Euro-American settlers
 Savage warriors attacking hardy pioneers
Cultural Appropriation

A process that takes place when people from outside a particular culture take elements of another culture in a way that is objectionable to that
group.

A broad range of behaviors that mimic Indian cultures

deeply held stereotypes

 “Playing Indian”

(Sociologist James O. Young qtd. in Dunbar-Ortiz and Gilio-Whitaker, ‘All the Real Indians Died Off’…)

 Tomahawk Chop (Kansas City Chiefs)

 Demands that Indian mascots be dropped from schools and sports teams.

2015: California 1st state to ban “Redskins” as a mascot name in public schools

Urban Outfitters: Navajo lawsuit for using the word “Navajo” for underwear and flasks

NATIVE AMERICANS 2

“The discovery of America [was one of] the two greatest and most important events recorded in the history of mankind”

Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776

)
NAME CONTROVERSY
 “Indian”. CC, “los indios”
 Native American (1960s)
 American Indian
“A note on terminology: I use “Indigenous,” “Indian,” and “Native” interchangeably in
the text. Indigenous individuals and peoples in North America on the whole do not
consider “Indian” a slur. Of course, all citizens of Native nations much prefer that
their nations’ names in their own language be used, such as Diné (Navajo),
Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), Tsalagi (Cherokee), and Anishinaabe (Ojibway,
Chippewa). I have used some of the correct names combined with more familiar
usages, such as “Sioux” and “Navajo.” Except in material that is quoted, I don’t use
the term “tribe.” “Community,” “people,” and “nation” are used instead and
interchangeably. I also refrain from using “America” and “American” when referring
only to the United States and its citizens. Those blatantly imperialistic terms annoy
people in the rest of the Western Hemisphere, who are, after all, also Americans. I
use “United States” as a noun and “US” as an adjective to refer to the country and
“US Americans” for its citizens”
Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne. An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States.
FIRST INHABITANTS

European / White Native Traditions

 Bible (creation) / evolution debate Rejection of scientific explanations

 Estimates about human settlement of the Americas IROQUOIS: ancestor fell from the sky
(70,000 b.p. – 12,000 b.p.)*

Entered America via the Bering Strait (origin: Eastern

 PUEBLO, NAVAJO: emerged from under the earth
Siberia)

ALGONQUIAN: were transformed from ash trees into people

EVIDENCES
-Geology

-Vegetation

-Animal and Human remains

-Written records

-Pictographs
-Calendars on buffalo robes

-Oral traditions

Ice Age
20,000 years ago: Fisrt human crossings

 Spreading of different groups.

o Development of sophisticated civilizations.They adjusted to ecological conditions.
 Groups of people not consciously migrating.
DEVELOPMENT
 Built irrigation systems -> Cultivated new crops
 Built communities based on corn, beans -> Established trade networks ->
Created rich cultural forms
About 4 to 6 million people
 More than 60 language families

 Polytheistic religions

 Different social, political structures (some of them, highly sophisticated)

 Cities, roads, irrigation systems, extensive trade networks

An Ecological Sense

Adaptation to immediate surroundings

Culture Areas

CORN

 A sacred gift from their gods

 No evidence of corn cultivation prior to post-Columbus dispersal

o Unique development in America

o Needs attentive care, cannot grow wild

 A summer crop. NO more than 20-30 days without water – complex irrigation systems

 Colonialist Europeans: impressed by reach and capacity of Indigenous grain production

 Corn + beans + squash = complete protein

o Americas= densely populated

 Population densities (pre-colonial)

o Sustained by a relatively disease-free environment

o Diseases, health problems

 Herbal medicine

 Hygienic and ritual bathing vs. European populations

 Mostly vegetarian diets (corn) and supplemented with fish/other animals

“The most striking feature of Native American society at the time the Europeans arrived was its sheer diversity. Each group had its own political
system and set of religious beliefs, and North America was home to literally hundreds of mutually unintelligible languages. Indians had no
sense of ‘America’ as a continent or hemisphere. They did not think of themselves as a single unified people, an idea invented by Europeans
and only many years later adopted by Indians themselves. Indian identity centered on the immediate social group-a tribe, village, chiefdom, or
confederacy. When Europeans first arrived, many Indians saw them as simply one group among many. Their first thought was how to use the
newcomers to enhance their standing in relation to other native peoples, rather than to unite against them. The sharp dichotomy between
Indians and ‘white’ persons did not emerge until later in the colonial era” (Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty. 8)

NATIVE AMERICANS 3
NATIVE AMERICAN ORAL TRADITIONS
ORAL LITERATURE

 ORAL LIT.: PREDATES THE ARRIVAL OF EUROPEANS IN THE

AMERICAS.

 ROCK CARVINGS + PETROGLYPHS:

o FIRST EXAMPLES OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE
BELIEFS
 WORDS ARE MAY HAVE AN IMPACT ON THE PHYSICAL WORLD; BRING
ABOUT PHYSICAL CHANGE (MAGICAL)

 SACRED NATURE OF LANGUAGE

DIFFERENT FORMS

 SPELLS, PRAYERS AND SONGS

o SPELL: A SET OF DIRECTIONS

o PRAYER: A REQUEST

o SONG: A DESCRIPTION
STORIES
 PASSED DOWN FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION
o CULTURAL BACKGROUND OF COMMUNITIES
o NO NOTION OF AUTHORSHIP
o NATURAL PHENOMENON
o THE ORIGIN OF HUMANS
o THE CUSTOMS & RELIGIOUS RIGHTS OF A PEOPLE
o EVENTS BEYOND PEOPLE’S CONTROL
FUNCTION

 TEACH THE VALUES AND IDEALS OF A CULTURE

o WHAT THAT CULTURE HOLDS AS IMPORTANT
 TO CREATE COHERENCE IN A TRIBE’S LIFE, VALUES, AND SYMBOLS.

CREATION STORIES/EMERGENCE STORIES

 MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF HUMAN CREATION

 EXPLAIN ORIGINS OF THE WORLD; OF THE TRIBE
 STORIES ARE DYNAMIC
 ELEMENTS CHANGE FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION
 LATE XIX C.: TRANSCRIPTION OF STORIES
“THE WOMAN WHO FELL FROM THE SKY”

 IROQUOIS (MOHAWK) TRADITIONAL

 EXAMPLE OF EMERGENCE STORY
o ORIGINS OF THE WORLD
 A PRIMAL ANCESTOR (A.K.A. “SKY WOMAN”)
  DIFFFERENT ENDINGS
o FALLS ON A TURTLE/DUCKS

o GIVES BIRTH TO 2 SONS (GOOD/EVIL)

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
 WHAT SUPERNATURAL OR MAGICAL ELEMENTS ARE CONTAINED IN
THE MYTH?

 WHAT ARE THE SYMBOLS OF FERTILITY USED IN THE STORY?

 HOW IS THE PRE-FALL WORLD DESCRIBED?

 WHAT ARE THE SIMILARITIES/DIFFERENCES WITH THE BIBLE?

NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURES

 LAUTER, PAUL, EDITOR. THE HEATH ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE. HEATH AND COMPANY, 1994. VOL. 1 & 2.
 PIONEERING IN INCLUDING “NATIVE AMERICAN ORAL LITERATURES”
o HEATH ANTHOLOGY
LOUISE ERDRICH
LOVE MEDICINE (1984), THE BEET QUEEN (1986), TRACKS (1988), THE BINGO
PALACE (1994), AND TALES OF BURNING LOVE(1997), THE LAST REPORT ON
THE MIRACLES AT LITTLE NO HORSE (2001), FOUR SOULS (2004)
"THE RED CONVERTIBLE" (SHORT STORY)

 ON SHERMAN ALEXIE (HEATH ANTHOLOGY)

 THE ABSOLUTE TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES

LAND
“INDIANS SAW LAND, THE BASIS OF ECONOMIC LIFE FOR BOTH HUNTING
AND FARMING SOCIETIES, AS A COMMON RESOURCE, NOT AN ECONOMIC
COMMODITY…FEW IF ANY INDIAN SOCIETIES WERE FAMILIAR WITH THE
IDEA OF A FENCED-OFF PIECE OF LAND BELONGING FOREVER TO A SINGLE
INDIVIDUAL OR FAMILY. THERE WAS NO MARKET IN REAL STATE BEFORE
THE COMING OF EUROPEANS. NOR WERE INDIANS DEVOTED TO THE
ACCUMULATION OF WEALTH AND MATERIAL GOODS” (FONER 10).
 EARLY VOICES:

o BY WHAT RIGHT CAN EUROPEANS CLAIM OWNERSHIP OF A

LAND THAT WAS NOT THEIRS?
  SPANISH: RIGHT OF CONQUEST AND PAPAL AUTHORITY

 ENGLISH, FRENCH, DUTCH: ELABORATION OF

SOPHISTICATED LEGAL GROUNDS: “VACANT LAND”


THE INDIANS HAD NOT ACTUALLY ”USED” THE
LAND; THEY COULD NOT CLAIM IT
 MYTH 16 INDIAN CASINOS
 MYTH 18: ALCOHOLISM

UNIT 3: COLONIZATION
Colonization, Otherness, Construction of Narratives

The Landing of Columbus: Construction of a Narrative (Master Narrative)

 Religious element

 Material interest

 Establishment of clear-cut boundaries (colonizers-’them’)

 Wilderness: trying to make sense

Impact on Europe (Loewen)

 Disruption of European religious uniformity

o How are they to be explained?

o Path for reformation

 Encounter with different social organizations:

o Thomas More Utopia 1516. (account of an Incan empire in Peru)- there exists alternative organizations.

o Good society? Hierarchy vs. social (no monarchs,..)

 Rousseau, Montaigne, Montesquieu,…

 Rise of European Self-consciousness

 “Europe” (“America” as an opposite)

 “White”

End 16th c

 Race for colonization

o 1588 Defeat of Spanish Armada

 o Collapse of Spanish economy

France
 More respectful attitude:
Learning the language of the natives
Did not seek extermination or displacement of tribes
Established alliances with native tribes against the English
 Cartier (1530s)
o Eastern Canada
 Verrazano (c.1524)
o North Carolina, reached New York (cfr. Verrazano Bridge btw Staten
Island and Brooklyn)
DUTCH
 Henry Hudson (Dutch East India Company)

o 1609 NYC: Hudson river

o 1624 island bought to the Manhattoes --- New Amsterdam

o Wall Street (Northern limit of New Amsterdam)

o “
Broadway ( brot weg) a hunting way

The literature of the Americas

 How to describe the unfamiliar in familiar terms?

 Comparison/contrast with European references
 Founding texts in Spanish, French
Aim: Description, record in order to prove that there was a potential finantial return on investments.

 The American Dream of success: material and spiritual domination

“From the earliest narratives, dreams of overwhelming whole races and conquering cities of stupendous wealth commingle with dreams of saving
souls from eternal perdition. Such aspirations reflect what can be called a multinational competition for dominance and possession, not only of
particular isolated spaces but of entire peoples and ways of life” (Carla Mulford, “Cultures in Contact: Voices from the Imperial Frontier,” Heath
Anthology, 110-115, Vol.1.)

 Stories of strange environments

 +
 Potential benefits of immediate exploitation and incorporation of natives into
the belief systems of travellers
 Inability/Difficulty to decipher this strange new world
 how to accomodate oneself to this new environement
Álvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca (FLORIDA & SW)

 Spanish explorer of the Southwest

 For 8 years: lived with different tribes after surviving a Spanish expedition of “La Florida”
  First-hand observer (cfr. De las Casas)

Relation of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (1542)

“Captivity Narrative”
 Construction of the other

 Proto-anthropologist

 Compassion and respect/liminal experience

 Customs and ways of natives

Mary Rowlandson

“The Narrative of the Captivity and the Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson" (1682)

o Captured for 11 weeks (King Philip’s War)

o Severe conditions of captivity

o Ransomed: public subscriptions

o One of the first bestsellers

sense of fear and revulsion of the wilderness and her Indian captors

"miraculous" escape from her captivity

gratitude to God for saving her

ENGLISH COLONIZATON + JAMESTOWN

The Chesapeake Bay
English Colonization
Latecomers to the colonial enterprise

1607 vs. 1492

Attempts:

1497 John Cabot (Newfoundland)

1585 Roanoke (Virginia)
Protestant Reformation
Elizabeth I
Anglicanism
Spanish Armada (1588)
Glory, patriotism
Reasons
 National glory + profit + religious mission:

o New World should be liberated from the Pope

o De las Casas: widely circulated
o Spain was murderous and tyrannical
o Divine mission: to rescue the New World from the influence of
Catholicism
o Building the nation: possibility to rival the wealth and power of
other nations
Distinctive English Pattern
-A trading company (noblemen + merchants)
-A royal Charter with a geographical area of operations
-Monopoly for such a company
Reasons for migration
 Surplus population in Europe (America becomes a refuge)
 Primogeniture laws in Europe
 Searching for freedom (worship)
The dream
 Gold, minerals, citrus fruits, olive oil

 Forest products – naval use

 Aztec, Inca empire

Thomas More Utopia (1516)
o Imaginary island in the Western Hemisphere
o America as the place where settlers can escape from the
economic inequalities of europe

”The main lure for emigrants from England to the New World was not so much riches
in gold and silver as the promise of Independence that followed from owning land.
Economic freedom and the possibility of passing it on to one’s children attracted the
largest number of English colonists” (Foner, Give Me Liberty! An American History,
59)
FROM THE START: SELF-GOVERNMENT
•Progressive transformation into ROYAL COLONIES (by mid 18thc)
•–Direct rule by the Monarchy
–Governors appointed by the crown
SPONSORS
•Crown: hard-pressed for funds
•The Virginia Co.
–A private business
–Shareholders (merchants, aristocrats, members of Parliament)
•Settlers: men
–Whats does this reveal about the interest of the Company?
•Not an interest in establishing a functional society (Zinn, Foner)
•Early history of the settlement:
•
–Not promising
–Changing leadership
–High death rate
–Expected riches like those found by Spain, did not materialize
PROBLEMS
•Mosquitoes: swamp with malaria-carrying mosquitoes
•Winter: diseases, running short of provisions
•By the end 1607: half the initial population
JOHN SMITH
–Soldier, leadership (freed himself from captivity while fighting in Turkey)
–Strict discipline, “iron rule”
–Powhatans: Corn and Tobacco
SURVIVAL OF COLONY
•Promotion of migration
–50 acres of land awarded to any colonist who paid for his own or another’s passage
(Foner 59)
TOBACCO
•1616: JOHN ROLFE + PLANTERS learn how to raise tobacco
•Popular for smoking in England and Europe.
•Long cultivated in the West Indies
•Initially:
•King James I denounced smoking as “a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the
nose, harmful to the brain, [and] dangerous to the lungs” (Qtd. In Taylor, 134)
•Eventually:
–Accepts. The crown derives large gains from taxing tobacco imports
•Addictive: consumers would pay high prices to satisfy their craving.
•Long, hot, humid growing season.
–Crop thrives in Virginia, not in England.
•By 1638: Virginia is the main supplier of tobacco to Europe.
EFFECTS
•LAND
–Wars with native americans
•LABOR
–Indentured servants
•Surrender their freedom (5-/ years)
•In Exchange for passage + freedom dues (land, clothes)
–Slaves (1619)
See Foner pp.60-61
•Colonists force a treaty on Native Americans
–Subordination to the colony
–Required to move westwards
–Not allowed to enter areas of European settlement
–Progressive expansion of of European settlers
PLYMOUTH and MASSACHUSETTS, NEW ENGLAND (CLASS 17/11/2020)

 Plymouth 1620 (absorbed into Massachusetts 1691)

 Massachusetts 1630

Tribal Territories (c 1600)

MIGRATION 1620
 1620: The Mayflower. “The Pilgrim Fathers”
o Plymouth
o Historical controversy over destination (Permission from London Co. To settle in
Virginia)
 [See Loewen: Chapter 3 “The Truth About the First Thanksgiving”]
  Background:
o Colonizers: they could pay their own way across the Atlantic. The
“middling sorts”.
 Small property holders: farmers, shopkeepers, skilled artisans

 LOEWEN: 37/102 passengers were puritans (controversy over figures)

Cesapeake New England
Slavery Family labor
Fertile, water. Plantations. Cold, not abundant environment. Dense
forests, stony soils. Short growing
season = hard labor.
Humid, mosquitoes Healthier

PLYMOUTH COLONY
 James I: persecution of radical Puritans + threat of poverty in England

 Group leaves for the Netherlands:

o Welcomes skilled immigrants
o Freedom of worship
o “Dutchification”, low-paid jobs.
o The Mayflower (1620): “Pilgrim Fathers”
o Plagues
 Smallpox has decimated the population of native americans
THANKSGIVING

 Last Thursday in November

 Establ. 1863 A. Lincoln (cohesive)

1621

 After first harvest in the New World

 A celebration to give thanks to God
 Controversy over dates and celebration
Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630s)
 1630s. New migrations.

o Massachusetts Bay Colony

o John Winthrop “To create a city upon a hill” (Sermon "A Model of
Christian Charity“, on board the Arbella)
o American dream
 1630-31: Hungry winter
 Afterwards:
o colonists raise enough food to sustain themselves and new emigrants.
. Expansion into the interior
"When the Pilgrims came to New England, they too were coming not to vacant land but to territory inhabited by tribes of Indians. The governor of
the Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop, created the excuse to take Indian land by declaring the area legally a 'vacuum.' The Indians, he
said, had not 'subdued' the land, and therefore had only a 'natural' right to it, but not a 'civil right.' A 'natural right' did not have legal standing" (Zinn
13).

"The Puritans also appealed to the Bible… 'Ask of me, and I shall give thee, the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth
for thy possession.' And to justify their use of force to take the land, they cited Romans 13:2: 'Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth
the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." (Zinn 14)

Composition of population
 Unusually homogeneous colonial population and culture: free, white, and transplanted English

o Absence of large-scale slavery (domestic slavery)

PURITANISM 2

Narratives

"When the Pilgrims came to New England, they too were coming not to vacant land but to territory inhabited by tribes of Indians. The governor of
the Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop, created the excuse to take Indian land by declaring the area legally a 'vacuum.' The Indians, he
said, had not 'subdued' the land, and therefore had only a 'natural' right to it, but not a 'civil right.' A 'natural right' did not have legal standing" (Zinn
13).

"The Puritans also appealed to the Bible… 'Ask of me, and I shall give thee, the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth
for thy possession.' And to justify their use of force to take the land, they cited Romans 13:2: 'Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth
the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." (Zinn 14)

PURITANISM

Puritans:

o Critical of lax standards:

widespread drunkenness, public behavior, drunks, idlers, prostitutes, thieves,…

o Belief that the Protestant Reformation remains incomplete in England.

 Common Belief:

o Complete reformation carried out in the American colonies

 Build a MODEL of Christian society based on the word of God

o Inspiration for England

DOCTRINE CALVINISM
Human beings: innately sinful/depraved

-SALVATION

-ETERNAL HELLFIRE

How is one to know?

 Who chooses?

 How is Election to be known?

 Signs of election – Conversion

  Conversion narratives --- demonstrated, provide evidence

 The elect are the only church members

 ’
God s hand present everywhere (cfr. J. Winthrop’s “Journal”)

o Wandering beggars, increased crime, famine = DIVINE PUNISHMENTS

 Puritan WORK ETHIC:

o A way to honor God

o Election reflected in good behavior

 vices prohibited

o Drunkeness, gambling, ostentation in clothes, swearing,…

 Personal experience of the Bible

o education. Harvard college 1636.

 Strict code of personal discipline and morality

 Encourages: effort, persistence, study, and purpose.

Development

 Arrival of new colonists


o The Gret Migration (1640s-50s)
o
 Colonists are surviving
 Varied backgrounds. Merchants, artisans,…
Increase in population

 Natural Increase in the colonies


o HIgh birth rate
o Early marriage
o Large families: several mothers
 10 pregnancies
o Family stability
 Dispersion of population
o Emergence of SELF-DOUBT, FEAR

o SECULARIZATION

Signs from God

 Wars with Native Americans


 160s Salem witches

o Witch trials
o http://salemwitchtrials.org/home.html

 Belief that Satan was present

 Family feuds
  Witches: poor/black
o Hanging
 Mass hysteria
o False accusations
 McCarthy 1950s (2nd Red Scare 1950-56)
 Arthur Miller The Crucible (1950)
 Reasons:
o Religious society ---- secular
o Misogyny

Consolidation of Privilege in the American Colonies Slavery

 1619: Arrival of first group of Africans in Virginia

 Late 17th: Consolidation of the system
 1776, 4th July: “The Declaration of Independence”
 1803: International Slave Trade Outlawed
 1865: Slavery in the United States abolished
 RACISM:
o PRIVILEGE
o The American Dream
o Constructing the MASTER NARRATIVE
o Constructing the NATION
 Slavery: Timeline

 Slavery supported by laws, courts, racism, education system, religion

“The United States government’s support of slavery was based on an overpowering practicality. In 1790, a thousand tons of cotton were being
produced every year in the South. By 1860, it was a million. A system harried by slave rebellions and conspiracies (…Nat Turner, 1831) developed
a network of controls in the southern states, backed by the laws, courts, armed forces, and race prejudice of the nation’s political leaders.” (Zinn
167)

 Progressive notions of racial difference

o Civilization/Christianity vs. Barbarism/heathens

o Human beings can be properly classified acc. to skin color (later development)

Laws on Slavery, Virginia 1669

[… be it enacted and declared by this Grand Assembly if any slave resist his master (or other but his master’s order correcting him) and by the
extremity of the correction should chance to die, that his death shall not be accounted a felony, but the master (or that other person appointed by
the master to punish him) be acquitted from molestation, since it cannot be presumed that premeditated malice (which alone makes murder a
felony) should induce any man to destroy his own estate.

STOP AND THINK

WHY DID AFRICAN SLAVERY DEVELOP IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES?

Native Americans as slaves

 Initially Virginians (=Europeans) used both N A + European immigrants (poor)

 Problematic enslavement of natives:

o Highly susceptible to diseases

o Natives outnumbered the colonists

o Well acquainted with the territory

Why African Slavery?

 Large number of African slaves.

 They can physically stand hard working conditions in hot climate.
 resistant to European diseases: Malaria, Yellow Fever.
  Color: “high visibility"

 Slavery: for life + slaves can replace themselves. Child born in slavery belongs to master.

WHAT DO YOU KNOW?

How Were Slaves Taken to the American Colonies?

WHY?
 RAIDING THE INTERIOR
 TRADE
Why is this fact relevant?

Africans participated in this trade

Who?

people already vulnerable

captured in war

guilty of some crime

kidnapped (pressure for procuring slaves increases)

Time

 Initial capture ----- to -----barracoon: possibly up to 4 months while waiting for a slaver (ship that carries slaves)

 Ships: from barracoon to barracoon until full cargo

 Middle passage itself: 2 months

TRANSPORTATION

"As the slaves come down from the inland country, they are put into booth or prison [barracoons] ...near the beach, and when the Europeans are
to receive them, they are brought out onto a large plain, where the ship's surgeons examine every part of everyone of them, to the smallest
member, men and women being stark naked... Such as are allowed good and sound are set on one side...marked on the breast with a red-hot
iron, imprinting the mark of the French, English, or Dutch companies...The branded slaves after this are returned to their former booths where they
await shipment, sometimes 10-15 days...” (Benjamin Quarles, The Negro in the Making of America)

WHY NAKED?

 Proliferation of disease

 No weaponry on board

 Psychological impact: stripping slaves from their dignity

Ships overcrowded.
Space

"On the ships the space allowed a slave was confined to the amount of deck in which he could lie down, and the decks were so narrow as to
permit just enough height for the slave to crawl out to the upper deck at feeding time” (Quarles).

Epidemic diseases, hunger strikes, suicides

Slaves forced to eat and move.

"The hazards of nature were not as vexing as the behavior of the slaves. Some committed suicide by managing to jump through the netting that
had been rigged around the ship to prevent that very step. Others seemed to have lost the will to live. To guard against such suicidal melancholy,
a ceremony known as 'dancing the slaves' was practiced: they were forced to jump up and down to the tune of the fiddle, harp, or bagpipes. A
slave who tried to go on a hunger strike was forcibly fed, by means of a 'mouth-opener' containing live coals” (Quarles).
Spoon-fashion

Vulnerability of Women

 Sexual violence

o Rape of slave African women (the crew, the captain)

o Slavery as a gendered experience

 Harriet Ann Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861, published under Linda Brent)

Mutinies?

 Some

 The “Amistad” (1808 Transatlantic slave trade banned in Britain and the U.S.)

 Most: were lost at sea, did not know how to redirect the vessel.

 Cfr. Herman Melville “Benito Cereno”, Capt Amasa Delano (unreliable narrator)

IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES

 How is privilege to kept? Power Dynamics

o Those in power (white, male planters and rulers) find ways to protect their interests

 Mechanisms of control, restriction

 RACE: a construction of difference that separates whites from the rest

SLAVERY

American colonies

o Racial hatred

o Policing of the system

o Lifelong

o Morally devastating

o Plantation-based: one single owner

o Sharp distinction freedom/non-freedom

Africa

o Serfs (cfr. lower classes in a Feudal System)

o Absence of racial component

SLAVERY IN THE SOUTHERN COLONIES

 large planters
 numerous lesser planters
 Tenant Farmers
 convicts, indentured servants
 slaves
SLAVERY IN THE NORTH
  Slaves:

o a small percentage of these colonies' population

o Worked in farms, in artisan shops, loading and unloading ships, personal servants

 Slavery was NOT completely marginal

Life in the plantations

 Progressive increase in numbers 1619-1865

 Progressive consolidation of a discourse about racial difference and discrimination.

 Physically demanding

 Intricate system of control as more and more slaves populate the colonies

 Psychological and physical system. Constant reminder of their inferiority.

 The “mentality of the slave”/ Otherness

o make him/her feel they are a possession without rights.

o Degrading: lazy, stupid.

 Devastating effects on communal life, ritual,…

 Vigilance of a supervisor. Process of about 3 years in which a slave was trained.

 Disunity:

o Groups of slaves from different areas, diff. languages.

 Hierarchy:

o diff status: field slaves + privileged slaves.

 Sexual abuse

 Break up of families

 Acts of resistance: killing of masters

18th- 19th Centuries

 Growing Abolitionist movements

 The Underground Railroad

o Network of people; help and shelter to runaway slaves from the South

o Fugitive Slave Acts

o Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass

Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass,

Renderings

 Toni Morrison, Beloved (1987). Based on the story of Margaret Garner.

 Colson WHITEHEAD. The Underground Railroad. (2017)

The Enlightenment and The Great Awakening

The Enlightenment in the U.S.A.

 Early 18th c --- American Revolution
o 1775 War breaks out
o January 1776, “Common Sense”
o July 4th, 1776 “Declaration of Indepedence”
o 1783 End of conflict
 Major influence on:
 o "Common Sense"

o “
the Declaration of Independence
”
o the process towards independence

 Time to define America

o Who are we?

 Major figures: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson

Features
 Revolution in thought:
 REASON at the center of the universe.
 Human beings can control their destiny
 GOD is replaced by reason as the source of explanation
 Preceded by Scientific and Philosophical revolution – establish roots
o Newton (1643-1727)
 Gravitation
 Universe moves according to natural laws
 Philosophical
o Descartes (1596-1650)
 Rationalism, “cogito ergo sum”
Political Thought
 John Locke (1632-1704)
o Theory of Natural Rights: Life, Liberty, Property
o
 Responsibility of the State: to protect them
 Rousseau (1712-1778)
o “The Social Contract” (1762)
 A contract
 Individual free to cancel this contract
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

 Autobiography” written in several parts (1771-1788)

“

 Narrative of self-help, individual progress

 Self-made man, a success story

o Class and rank can be transcended
 Multifaceted character: politician, ambassador, inventor, scientist.
 Extremely popular (intl. fame)
 Born in Boston 1706. Largely self-educated. “From-rags-to-riches “ story
 Came to master several foreign languages
 Opened print shop in Philadelphia; edits diff. newspapers
o Poor Richard’s Almanac
 “Lost time is never found again”
 “A good example is the best sermon”

 to bed and early to rise

 “makes
Early
 “Time is a herb that cures all diseases”
Well done is twice done”

wealthy,a man
and healthy,
wise
Founded a fire
club, a hospital,co.,” a debating
a libray,..
Outstanding scientist
oLightning rod
 oThe franklin stove
A cast-iron heating stove
shaped like a fireplace but employing metal baffles to increase its heating
efficiency; used to warm, farmhouses and homes for more than 250 years
 American ambassador to France (secured military aid from France during Am.
Rev.)
 Negotiated final treaty
Characteristics
 Service to God ---- service to Society
o Practical aspect
 Improvement through reason.
Articulates American ideals (+Emerson):
power of the individual
The American Dream: rise to prominence from obscurity

 Depravity vs. improvement through education

 Practical matters (money)

 Puritan features:

o Edifying, effective, utilitarian self-examination

o

o Moral perfection + tale of social achievement

“The Self-Made Man”
Bobbie Carlyle (1987)
Term coined in 1832
Business
Public Sphere
Improvement of Society
Ideal manhood
Wealth
Self-control

The Backlash: the First Great Awakening

 Revival of Protestant faith (1730s-40s).
o Need to “awaken” again
o New consciousness of sin.
  1820s-30s (2nd Reform Movs) / 1880s-1900s (3rd)

 Reaction against Enlightenment principles

 Religious revival (Massachusetts)
o Need to bring people back to God’s path
o George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards
 Return to Calvinist principles
 Fear of God
 Strict rules
 Revolution in preaching style: Whitefield. Voice and acting. Father of
Evangelical movement.

 Emotional appeal (even Franklin carried away by style)

 Edwards (1703-58)
o Against vices, “social evils”, making money
o Emotional appeal + fear
1741 “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (Sermon)
o Horrors of hell
o All kinds of details
o God is fearsome, ferocious, delights in suffering
 “There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God…His arbitrary Will, restrained
by no obligations, hindered by no manner of difficulty
”
 “... ‘There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God,’ By the mere pleasure of
God, I mean His sovereign pleasure, His arbitrary will, restrained by no obligations, hindered by no manner of difficulty...
”
“Yea, God is a deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth: yea, doubtless, with many that are now in this
congregation, who it may be are at ease, than He is with many of those who are now in the flames of hell.”

“The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the
bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one
moment from being made drunk with your blood.”

“The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is
dreadfully provoked: His wrath towards you burns like fire; He looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire”

“And though He will know that you cannot bear the weight of omnipotence treading upon you, yet He will not regard that, but He will crush you
under His feet without mercy; He will crush out your blood, and make it fly and it shall be sprinkled on His garments, so as to stain all His raiment.
He will not only hate you, but He will have you in the utmost contempt: no place shall be thought fit for you, but under His feet to be trodden down
as the mire of the streets”

Effects
Key role in the revolutionary process: Colonies’ first Mass Movement (sense of unity)
“The Declaration of Independence” 4th July 1776 (CLASS 11/01/2021)
•Thomas Jefferson + a committee of 5
•Emblem of freedom
•Rights and potential of the individual
•Universal impact; inspiration for later revolutions
•ASSERTION of the right of revolution
•18th c interests for the individual
•Cfr. Puritans/belief in a new country

“All Men Are Created Equal”

•Early 18th c --- American Revolution
•1775 War breaks out
•January 1776, “Common Sense”
•July 4th, 1776 “Declaration of Indepedence”
•1783 End of conflict
 POLITICAL CONTEXT

TAXATION

Boston Tea Party, Dec 16th, 1773