Sovereignty In Colonial America

Sovereignty is a term that is very broad and it causes to have a variation of definitions. According to the authors, sovereignty means having complete power over all of those under its regime. The state is a concept that is frequently correlated to sovereignty as it is given the ability to exercise complete authority over its people and the territory it’s under, after the Treaty of Westphalia was signed in 1648. Colonialism is another concept that has sovereignty, as it was present in many countries and has extracted the sovereignty belonging to indigenous people that focused on the community and the preservation of the land. Sovereignty is also responsible for giving power to white settlers to create both informal institutions (such as social

Audra Simpson contemplates on the issues regarding colonialism since the settlers infringed their sovereignty over indigenous sovereignty. “It [sovereignty] resides in the consciousness of Indigenous peoples, in the treaties and agreements they entered into between themselves and others and is tied to practices that do not solely mean making baskets as your ancestors did a hundred years ago, or hunting with the precise instruments your great grandfather did 150 years ago, in the exact spot he did as well, when witnessed and textualized by a white person.” Once colonialism hit indigenous people in the current US, they were forced to give up their sovereignty and conform to settler’s beliefs but still managed to keep sovereign erotic as their healing and empowerment. In sum, the settlers’ idea of the overthrow of indigenous cultures focuses solely on their defeat and their survival of using practices done from previous generations rather their powerful endurance over their form of sovereignty that emphases on their political and social

Sherene Razack emphasizes race and gender issues in law what limit the freedom of minorities, thus making her speak on the incident of Pamela George. “While Pamela George remained stuck in the racial space of prostitution where violence is innate, the men were considered far removed from the spaces of violence. She was of the space where murder happens; they were not.” The prison system and process has formed a scheme of oppression for many non-white males and it tries to get these minorities to be confined. In sum, minorities in the US are seen as violent when accused of a crime while white people are given excuses for their crimes, and the sovereignty that has created the prison system makes this prejudice