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The effects of the european on native americans
Important impacts on native americans by europeans
Important impacts on native americans by europeans
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Throughout most of the Cherokee peoples’ history, the practice and acceptance of a form of institutional slavery has often been ignored by historians. Worse still, the few discourses that have tried to extrapolate upon this issue have had to contend with the prevailing notion that it only existed primarily as a byproduct of European colonialism. Surprisingly, historians who have taken up the cause have confronted an incredible array of roadblocks and dead ends. None predicted that something as volatile and far reaching as slavery within the various Cherokee ethnic groups would be so difficult to search for. What little that has been gathered is inexplicably tied to sources of which have racial and prejudicial biases. Despite this, historians …show more content…
and the Cherokee Nation. Yet, barebones it is as very few historians of the era did not place much stock in recollecting the history of African chattel within the indigenous peoples of America. However, from what was archived primarily came from those of merchant or missionary backgrounds whom came into direct contact with the slaves through either the trading of slaves or missionary work. Unfortunately, these early contacts typically were of no importance to them and often the recordings presented itself with an extreme form of cultural and racial biases. They more than likely thought that any type of interaction with an African slave, even within a “civilized tribe”, did not warrant much for archival sake. Yet, it is these kinds of small interactions with the African slaves of Cherokee masters that must be expand upon if we are to grasp what it meant to be an African slave in Cherokee …show more content…
These children, the offspring of Caucasian males and Cherokee females, would come to dominate the political, social, and economic sectors of the Cherokee Nation. They would become the biggest factor in the push for and defense of slavery within the Cherokee Nation as they no longer saw use of the older more traditional values. Values such as matriarchy, the role of women with regards to slavery, and land ownership. Though beliefs of benevolent masters persist to this day, there is little in the way of evidence to support it. Our understanding of this massive desire to delegitimize ancestral heritage is crucial as it helped move away the oversimplified European explanation. We were now accepting of a much more nuanced idea of cultural dissemination and
When reading about the institution of slavery in the United States, it is easy to focus on life for the slaves on the plantations—the places where the millions of people purchased to serve as slaves in the United States lived, made families, and eventually died. Most of the information we seek is about what daily life was like for these people, and what went “wrong” in our country’s collective psyche that allowed us to normalize the practice of keeping human beings as property, no more or less valuable than the machines in the factories which bolstered industrialized economies at the time. Many of us want to find information that assuages our own personal feelings of discomfort or even guilt over the practice which kept Southern life moving
“Tracing a single Native American family from the 1780’s through the 1920’s posed a number of challenges,” for Claudio Saunt, author of Black, White, and Indian: Race and the Unmaking of an American Family. (pg. 217) A family tree is comprised of genealogical data that has many branches that take form by twisting, turning, and attempting to accurately represent descendants from the oldest to the youngest. “The Grayson family of the Creek Nation traces its origins to the late 1700’s, when Robert Grierson, a Scotsman, and Sinnugee, a Creek woman, settled down together in what is now north-central Alabama. Today, their descendants number in the thousands and have scores of surnames.” (pg. 3)
Owen, Narcissa, and Karen L. Kilcup. A Cherokee woman's America memoirs of Narcissa Owen, 1831-1907. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005.
There are many contradictions pertaining to slavery, which lasted for approximately 245 years. In Woody Holton’s “Black Americans in the Revolutionary Era”, Holton points out the multiple instances where one would find discrepancies that lie in the interests of slaveowners, noble figures, and slaves that lived throughout the United States. Holton exemplifies this hostility in forms of documents that further specify and support his claim.
Black lives in America have been devalued from the moment the first shipment of black slaves arrived in Jamestown in 1619. They were seen as nothing more than an lucrative animal to help aid in the production of various crops, such as tobacco, rice, and cotton. The Europeans were careful in the breaking of the black slaves, as they did not want a repeat of the Native American enslavement. European settlers found it difficult to enslave natives as they had a better understanding of the land and would often escape from the plantation. The African slaves however were stripped of everything they had ever known and were hauled to a new distant world.
The first arrivals of Africans in America were treated similarly to the indentured servants in Europe. Black servants were treated differently from the white servants and by 1740 the slavery system in colonial America was fully developed.
Slave’s masters consistently tried to erase African culture from their slave’s memories. They insisted that slavery had rescued blacks form the barbarians from Africa and introduced them to the “superior” white civilization. Some slaves came to believe this propaganda, but the continued influence of African culture in the slave community added slave resistance to the modification of African culture. Some slaves, for example, answered to English name in the fields but use African names in their quarters. The slave’s lives were filled with surviving traits of African culture, and their artwork, music, and other differences reflected this influence.
Looking back at the history of the United States, there are many instances and issues concerning race and ethnicity that shape the social classes that make up the United States today. There are many stories concerning the American Indian that are filled with betrayal, but there is probably none more cruel and shameful as the removal of the Cherokee Indians in 1838. Blood thirsty for money and property, the white settlers would soon use dirty methods to drive the Cherokee out of their home- lands. The United States government played a critical role in the removal of the Cherokee. “Soon the state governments insisted on the removal of the native peoples, who were already out numbered by the white settlers and considered to be uncivilized “heathens,” not worthy of the land they held” (Sherman 126). This was the attitude of the white settlers. Because of the color of their skin, they spoke a different language, and they were not accustomed to the white mans’ way of life, the Cherokee people suffered many great afflictions even unto death.
Native American’s place in United States history is not as simple as the story of innocent peace loving people forced off their lands by racist white Americans in a never-ending quest to quench their thirst for more land. Accordingly, attempts to simplify the indigenous experience to nothing more than victims of white aggression during the colonial period, and beyond, does an injustice to Native American history. As a result, historians hoping to shed light on the true history of native people during this period have brought new perceptive to the role Indians played in their own history. Consequently, the theme of power and whom controlled it over the course of Native American/European contact is being presented in new ways. Examining the evolving
In “Tecumseh and the Quest for Indian Leadership”, Tecumseh and the many Indian tribes in west America spent years fighting for their land and trying to keep their culture alive. The story illustrates cultural aspects of the period through elucidating the important figure The Shawnees were a patrilineal tribe meaning they are traced through the males of the family. Although men were a main part of the culture, each village had an informal group of women who governed certain tribal rituals and set dates for many activities. Women were also allowed to save captives and prisoners.
Northup, Solomon, Sue L. Eakin, and Joseph Logsdon. Twelve years a slave. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1968. Print.
Unconcerned about the legitimacy of their actions, European colonisers took lands unjustifiably from indigenous people and put original inhabitants who had lived on the land for centuries in misery. The United States also shared similarities in dealing with native people like its distant friends in Europe. Besides the cession of vast lands, the federal government of the United States showed no pity, nor repentance for the poor Cherokee people. Theda Perdue, the author of “Cherokee Women and Trail of Tears,” unfolds the scroll of history of Cherokee nation’s resistance against the United States by analyzing the character of women in the society, criticizes that American government traumatized Cherokee nation and devastated the social order of
People of African descent often are excluded from the glory of history books, and recognition to contributing modern society. I am persuaded that a focus on agency rather than victimization, not only gives people of african descendants credit but also challenges the idea that oppressors were the ones that free those who were oppressed. In addition to a new perspective on slavery that is not often taught. Understanding people of African descent historically is understanding the basis of modernity. A wise African Diaspora II professor once stated, “history did not just happen to Black people, Black people made history.”
Jackson wrote, “By opening the whole territory between Tennessee on the north and Louisiana on the south to the settlement of the whites it will incalculably strengthen the southwestern frontier and render the adjacent States strong enough to repel future invasions without remote aid. It will relieve the whole State of Mississippi and the western part of Alabama of Indian occupancy, and enable those States to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power” (Jackson) and continued on to say, “It will place a dense and civilized population in large tracts of country now occupied by a few savage hunters” (Jackson). However, the Cherokee weren’t savages. They were different from the white man, but many Cherokee had converted to Christianity. A soldier wrote this about the chief’s wife, “Among this number was the beautiful Christian wife of Chief John Ross. This noble hearted woman died a martyr to childhood, giving her only blanket for the protection of a sick child” (Burnett). That statement alone shows the Cherokee did not deserve the treatment they
Slavery has been a part of human practices for centuries and dates back to the world’s ancient civilizations. In order for us to recognize modern day slavery we must take a look and understand slavery in the American south before the 1860’s, also known as antebellum slavery. Bouvier’s Law Dictionary defines a slave as, “a man who is by law deprived of his liberty for life, and becomes the property of another” (B.J.R, pg. 479). In the period of antebellum slavery, African Americans were enslaved on small farms, large plantations, in cities and towns, homes, out on fields, industries and transportation. By law, slaves were the perso...