Anemone's Notes on Chapter 4

The Growth of the English Ideology about Human Differences in America

Earliest Contacts.

The history of English exploration and colonization of the New World in the 16^th century: conflicts with the Spanish, and interactions with Natives.  Lost Colony of Roanoke (1587) and the first permanent colony at Jamestown (1607). What were their first impressions of the locals, and how did they interact with them?  Smedley describes two contradictory views of the Natives that were held by the English…can you describe them?  And when were the English inclined to view Indians in one or the other manner, according to the historian Gary Nash?  Explain Kuperman’s notion about an “English theory of human nature’ and how this influenced the manner in which the colonists interacted with the natives.

The Ensuing Conflicts.

Who were the first English colonists…what kind of people were they, and how were they unprepared to live in the New World?  Describe some of the “inevitable results” of the “extreme English contempt for the native population”.  What ideas did the colonists use to justify their barbaric, and at times genocidal, interactions with Native Americans in this period?  Any similarities with the English experience with the Irish?

The Backing of God and Other Justification for Conquest.

This section describes the theology and worldview of the Puritans and suggests that they played an important role in the brutality and discrimination with which the colonists treated the Indians.  Do you agree that religious justification for mistreatment of people is something that is still with us in the modern world?  Explain.  Historians (like Nash, Canny and Jordan) struggle to understand the seeming paradox that…“Christian values regarding human behavior…had little impact on the minds, morals, and consciences of the settlers”. The English wanted Indian land…how did they use the concepts of natural rights and civil rights to justify their taking of Indian lands?  Again, any similarities or connections to the English experience in Ireland?

The New Savages.

From the English perspective, Native Americans were New Savages, in comparison to the Old Savages with whom they had hundreds of years of experience and conflict, the Irish.  Many of the early explorers and colonizers of the new World had experiences or interests in Ireland (e.g., Raleigh, Cabot, Drake, Gilbert, Grenville et al.).  Describe the ways in which Native Americans were seen as similar to Irish?  How do you think we can explain the phenomenon of “civilized” English “going native”, both in Ireland and in the New World?  Feel free to speculate on this question.