Zinn the author of this story is trying to ask a question. He wants to know after all the skepticism that has been going on for hundreds of years between the different races, mainly whites and blacks; will there ever be a means of peace in America “the land of the free”?
Throughout this chapter Zinn shows how and where the racism began and how it has continued and progress over the years. The racism started because the Englishmen could not take the Indians as slaves because they Indians were on their home land and took extreme measures to escape all means of slavery by the white man. The Indians also outnumbered the whites and while whites had the superior fire power killing the Indians would only put them in a worse position because of how valuable the Indians knowledge was on the land and maintaining a stable way of life. On the other hand, African Americans that were brought over did not out number the whites and also were not on homeland, so therefore they did not have the strength and numbers to fight back against the whites. Slavery had already been accepted as a normal practice by the Europeans in the early 1600’s, so continuing to use African Americans as slaves in America was only tradition. One way to look at things is that some poor African Americans that were lower on the economy scale were already being used as slaves by their own people. Although, African Americans were already being used and captured as slaves they still didn’t give up hope the ran away and took other measures to avoid the tortures of being a slave.
The question I would raise would be did this image of slavery forever set the way we judge and look at people, especially different races. The answer that some people would have would be yes there is no change and there is never going to be. But, other Americans fought for the change of this historical vision. That is why we had a revolutionary war between the north and the south. All because of slavery and how the African Americans were being treated with inequality. In the world we live in today no one person could get away with having African Americans as slave labor. The world is changing ever so slowly and it’s moving in a better direction.
This reading was nothing new to me. I knew all about the slave trade and slave labor that went on in the early American History. We’ve heard numerous stories and were given multiple examples on the daily routines that went on the 1600s and so on. I believe that it should have been different with more equality but I already got my wish when the Civil War happened and the abolishment of slaves began.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Monday, August 27, 2007
Chapter 2- The “TEMPEST” in the Wilderness
In the second chapter of Ronald Takaki’s A Different Mirror he contrasts and compares Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest” with the real life of the American Indian as the Englishmen continue to raid and dominate these body flaunting, lazy, sinful, devil driven Caliban. He shows how Indians were stained forever in history’s text as godless, lost, inhuman, savages!
In Shakespear’s play “Tempest” he refers to the Indian race as Caliban, just cannibal switched around, and he casts them as a similar race to the Irish. The impression that Englishmen had on Irishmen were all negative and civil less. Another main comparison the Irish and the Indians had was that they were described as lacking “the knowledge of God or good manners” because they were both said to be driven by the devil and could not control their actions. All of this ridiculous behavior as described by the Englishmen forced them to conquer a majority of Indians and train the Indian infants to be civilized actual human beings. They went about this manner by destroying and killing all Indians in their path and as they did so the captured and tried to teach the children of the “great American way”. They learned from all the Indians who to rotate and manage crops. After they acquired this information there was no need for the “savages” so they slaughtered all in the way. The English were on a path to make this new world an industrialized and marketing continent. But in this vision they also brought plagues. They didn’t have to kill all the Indians because the diseases and sicknesses that they carried and were mainly immune to spread over the unprotected Indian population, therefore, wiping out over half of them. Most would think this was a major tragedy but not the Englishmen they thought this was an act of god himself. They believed that the Indians suffered and died off because they were demonized savages and that it pleased god to see them perish.
All the Indians did was try to make peace with the world and all the creatures that god put on it along with doing what it takes to survive in nature. The Englishmen that swept America took their land, crops, homes, and dignity couldn’t even justify these people as human. After thinking about that who do you think is the backward race?
After reading this chapter I believe that the Indians even though they were a little inhumane in their actions and the way the dress but all in all they still had the right motive to accept all as equal and treat everyone with the same respect. All in all this became the American tradition but the way we go about life is about the complete opposite as the Indians. The Indians didn’t want to expand and build new things they only want to create what would be necessary for them to survive.
In Shakespear’s play “Tempest” he refers to the Indian race as Caliban, just cannibal switched around, and he casts them as a similar race to the Irish. The impression that Englishmen had on Irishmen were all negative and civil less. Another main comparison the Irish and the Indians had was that they were described as lacking “the knowledge of God or good manners” because they were both said to be driven by the devil and could not control their actions. All of this ridiculous behavior as described by the Englishmen forced them to conquer a majority of Indians and train the Indian infants to be civilized actual human beings. They went about this manner by destroying and killing all Indians in their path and as they did so the captured and tried to teach the children of the “great American way”. They learned from all the Indians who to rotate and manage crops. After they acquired this information there was no need for the “savages” so they slaughtered all in the way. The English were on a path to make this new world an industrialized and marketing continent. But in this vision they also brought plagues. They didn’t have to kill all the Indians because the diseases and sicknesses that they carried and were mainly immune to spread over the unprotected Indian population, therefore, wiping out over half of them. Most would think this was a major tragedy but not the Englishmen they thought this was an act of god himself. They believed that the Indians suffered and died off because they were demonized savages and that it pleased god to see them perish.
All the Indians did was try to make peace with the world and all the creatures that god put on it along with doing what it takes to survive in nature. The Englishmen that swept America took their land, crops, homes, and dignity couldn’t even justify these people as human. After thinking about that who do you think is the backward race?
After reading this chapter I believe that the Indians even though they were a little inhumane in their actions and the way the dress but all in all they still had the right motive to accept all as equal and treat everyone with the same respect. All in all this became the American tradition but the way we go about life is about the complete opposite as the Indians. The Indians didn’t want to expand and build new things they only want to create what would be necessary for them to survive.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
about me
My name is Andrew Mueller. I am a sophomore. I am majoring in Health Care Administration. I'm from Centerville, OH. I have two brothers, Eric and Zach. I also have two sisters, Taylor and Danielle. I am the oldest of all my siblings. I love to stay active and play sports: baseball, soccer, football, tennis, golf, I'm actually on a frisbee team here and probably will be doing alot more intermural sports.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Chapter 1 "Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress"
Andrew Mueller
Melissa Altman
Ethn 101 4:30-5:45
August 22, 2007
Chapter 1- Indians and Human Progress
The author’s main point in this chapter about the Indian and Human progress express’s the insecurity that Columbus had for the Indians and their graceful race once he found the gold.
The Indians treated him with extreme generosity and swamped him with many a gifts, but as soon as Columbus found that the Indians had many sources of items of gold he began to act irrationally and inhumanly. He took many prisoners, made many slave, and killed many Indians in the search for a small amount of gold for his king, queen, and self. Even Columbus’s own countrymen were against his practices. In the story A People’s History of the United States a man reported that “naked as the day they were born they were no more embarrassment than animals”. As a come back to his statement Columbus said, “Let us in the name of the holy trinity go on sending all slaves that can be sold”. By this statement we can recognize that despite what is fellow men thought he continued on his mad rampage for gold.
Is one man’s greed worth a whole nation of peace and humanity? The answer to everyone except that man who thought this himself would be no. Hundreds of thousands of Indian began mass suicides of themselves and their families so they would not be captured and sold as slaves. This horrible thought would convince me that maybe above all my greed for gold is it really worth it to kill and sell hundreds of people that were so peaceful and kind when I met them? Could there be another way that I could go about this situation without the mass selling and suicide of harmless caring people? Maybe a trade of some sort could be compromised or a buying of information where to find the gold myself. All these alternate solutions probably never even ran through Christopher Columbus’s mind but how much different would the world be now if they would have.
This was an intense reading from the perspective of the conquering Columbus and his crew. The on slaughter that went on on his behalf of finding gold is one of the most shocking and terrifying stories that America can share about its past. I personally cannot believe some of the things that were done. Sure they may seem like a good idea at the time, but the aftermath of the situation was one that could not be redone.
Melissa Altman
Ethn 101 4:30-5:45
August 22, 2007
Chapter 1- Indians and Human Progress
The author’s main point in this chapter about the Indian and Human progress express’s the insecurity that Columbus had for the Indians and their graceful race once he found the gold.
The Indians treated him with extreme generosity and swamped him with many a gifts, but as soon as Columbus found that the Indians had many sources of items of gold he began to act irrationally and inhumanly. He took many prisoners, made many slave, and killed many Indians in the search for a small amount of gold for his king, queen, and self. Even Columbus’s own countrymen were against his practices. In the story A People’s History of the United States a man reported that “naked as the day they were born they were no more embarrassment than animals”. As a come back to his statement Columbus said, “Let us in the name of the holy trinity go on sending all slaves that can be sold”. By this statement we can recognize that despite what is fellow men thought he continued on his mad rampage for gold.
Is one man’s greed worth a whole nation of peace and humanity? The answer to everyone except that man who thought this himself would be no. Hundreds of thousands of Indian began mass suicides of themselves and their families so they would not be captured and sold as slaves. This horrible thought would convince me that maybe above all my greed for gold is it really worth it to kill and sell hundreds of people that were so peaceful and kind when I met them? Could there be another way that I could go about this situation without the mass selling and suicide of harmless caring people? Maybe a trade of some sort could be compromised or a buying of information where to find the gold myself. All these alternate solutions probably never even ran through Christopher Columbus’s mind but how much different would the world be now if they would have.
This was an intense reading from the perspective of the conquering Columbus and his crew. The on slaughter that went on on his behalf of finding gold is one of the most shocking and terrifying stories that America can share about its past. I personally cannot believe some of the things that were done. Sure they may seem like a good idea at the time, but the aftermath of the situation was one that could not be redone.
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