A People's History

However, opposing historians address this fact through varying degrees of approval. In A Patriot's History of the United States, Schweikart and Allen do not mention any of Columbus’ faults, and refer to the massacre of Aztecs by Cortés and his men as a “stunning victory” (Schweikart ) in order to preserve their goal in retelling history from a patriotic standpoint. Because Schweikart and Allen choose to ignore the undeniable brutalities and damage inflicted on native people and societies, they fail to recognize the importance of addressing these issues as a root of racial intolerance. On the other hand, Zinn’s documentation provides a far more in-depth description of the injustices faced by the native and states, “Even allowing for the imperfection of myths, it is enough to make us question, for that time and ours, the excuse of progress in the annihilation of races, and the telling of history from the standpoint of the conquerors and leaders of Western civilization” (Zinn). As a social activist, Zinn’s primary focus is calling out flawed systems and actions within history, but by doing so, he disregards the positive outcomes of European exploration. Conversely, Mintz points out numerous advantages from exploration, pointing out that “Columbus's voyage of discovery… contributed to the development of the modern concept of progress”

Drawing the Color Line by Howard Zinn the second chapter from A People’s history of the United States. The authors writes this chapter to explain racism and how it started, “a continent were we can trace the coming of the first whites and the first blacks-might supply at least a few clues” he wants to use history to try to explain why it started. In this chapter Howard Zinn gives us an insight on Slavery and racism in the early 17th century of America. This chapter does not only tell us why slavery accrued but how it happened. The author Howard Zinn tells us how the Americans were simple prone to having slaves because of the circumstances they faced in the early 17th century. It was a period of starvation Howard

“These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments within that lay slumbering, and called into existence an entirely new train of thought. It was a new and special revelation, explaining dark mysterious things, with which my youthful understanding had struggled, but struggled in vain. I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty – to wit, the white man’s power to enslave black men. It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom” (20).

Public consensus, similar to politics, varies greatly when it comes to American history, especially as it pertains to the classroom. Views about the content and historical interpretation included in history texts have reached a heightened polarization in recent years. This can be seen in the vast differences between the diatribes of Howard Zinn’s, A People’s History of the United States, and Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen’s, A Patriot’s History of the United States. While both books, prescribed by this introductory course into American History, cover many of the same topics, they clearly paint different pictures. I feel that any text seeking to represent a responsible survey of a

      In the first few chapters, Kolchin introduces the different types of slavery that occured in America. He explains how the economy of America did not originally depend on the enslavement of Africans. The initial demand for slavery was not based on color. Many of the Native Americans were actually made slaves by early English colonists. However, the Native Americans proved to be ineffectual, and large numbers of indentured servants began immigrating from Europe. Africans were not introduced to America until 1619 and they were not under high demand until the late seventeenth century. From this point, the author discusses the growth and development of slavery.

2. Zinn's thesis for pages 1 to 11 is to tell the arrival of Columbus as it really happened from the point of view of the Indians. He doesn't try to hide the things that Columbus and other Europeans did to the Indians and talks about how the Indians were not inferior as the Europeans had thought they were.

One of the most interesting arguments that modern apologists makes for the practice of race-based slavery in the Americas is the fact that slavery existed in Africa during that time period and that Africans were complicit in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. What is fascinating about Olaudah Equiano's discussion of the Middle Passage is that, as a man who had been enslaved in Africa prior to being shipped as a slave to the Americas, he was in a unique position to describe slavery in Africa with his introduction to European-influenced slavery in North America. His perception was that the immense brutality of the Middle Passage foreshadowed the dehumanization of slaves in the Americas, which was more inhumane than the treatment he had received as a slave while in Africa. Furthermore, he did not suggest that this brutality was linked to the race of the traders, though that seemed to have been his initial impression, but to the nature of the Trans-Atlantic trade. Therefore, Equiano's writings suggest that shipping Africans across the ocean for slavery was part of the dehumanizing process that helped fuel the practice of slavery in America.

One of the biggest things people look for in a story is an emotional connection that will draw them in and can make them feel as though they are seeing things in a whole new light. Howard Zinn undoubtedly attempts to force an emotional connection to his reader in the first chapter of his 1980 textbook “A People’s History of the United States”. In this chapter, Zinn tells his reader about how Europe was unremittingly asperous toward the rest of the world, particularly in the Americas in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. While trying to make his point, though, Zinn uses a gratuitous amount of emotion in his work and very little fact and logic. Zinn’s work also features a large amount of bias to further his argument by severely manipulating his evidence and completely

All eight summaries discuss how Europeans were indentured servants and Africans were slaves. The argument that Europeans were indentured servants and Africans were slaves based on the availability and price of the laborers is irrelevant because we see a straight divide between the two laborers. That division is race. If race was not the deciding factor for the laborers and price was, then there would be more Africans as indentured servants and Europeans as

Zinn’s writing of racism during slavery showed the truth about the malevolent side of America. Zinn agreed with Schweikart that slavery started due to starvation of the settlers, and the need for workers to grow cash crops for profit. He also had similar views that African slaves were easier to control than white servants and Indians as well. The description of the sufferings of the slaves brought to America in 1619 was more severe and accurate than what Schweikart had described, evident from personal accounts and experiences of hardships. For example, a document described that the slaves received mistreatment even before arriving in America because many would die from suffocation inside the crowded ship. In Zinn’s writing, the theme of Peopling

A Peoples History of the United States was written by Howard Zinn. Zinn’s main purpose for writing this book was to give a precise and detailed exposition of American History from the victim’s point of view. “I prefer to try to tell the story of the discovery of America from the viewpoint of the Arawaks, of the Constitution from the standpoint of the slaves…” He wants to uncover hidden episodes of the past, be skeptical about the government and even talk about the cruelties the victims put on each other because of their oppressors. He wants to understand why the oppressors killed the victims and how these victims felt and what actions they took. Zinn wants to tell history’s greatest achievement from the point of view of the people who get slaughtered, robbed, taunted and anything else that happened to the victims while

During the duration of the Middle Passage, there was an abundance of hardships that had an effect on altering the many different experiences encountered by blacks. Some of these experiences included being shackled, labeled as merchandise, disease, and being crammed. Throughout this passage you will agree with the statement based upon the evidence provided from primary and secondary sources.

This book has proven to be an enlightening read. It both teaches and inspires. Howard Zinn has offered us a perspective of the real story of American history heretofore unavailable to us – history from the perspective of real people – immigrant laborers, American women, the working poor, factory workers, African and Native Americans.

Through out the entire time period of slavery, religion remained a high priority and a way in which to label different social groups. The lack or complete non-existence of religion among Africans led to them being viewed as somewhat inferior. Later in the second chapter Jordan talks about how during the slave era religion distinguished whites from blacks. Also how classification changed once Africans began to enter the Christian church. He himself viewed this type of labeling somewhat ridiculous, in that many of the Africans were baptized before the came to the New World. Thus they in many circles would be identified as Christians. This important information helps show the reader how the justifications for slavery evolved. Jordan captures the utter and blatant hypocrisy that the colonies exuded with regards to the slave situation. Jordan also sees religious injustice within the treatment of Indians and Africans. The English made attempts to convert the Indians and had little desire or intention to do the same for Africans. This again shows to what lengths early Americans went in creating a subculture for the purpose of slavery.

One important thing that I learned and found interesting out of chapter is the origins of African slavery and the expansion internationally during the time of American colonization. I have read and learned this first time about origins of the trade, even though it has played such a huge part in American history. I was shocked that Africans also had slavery, but it was different. Slavery was not permanent or a hereditary condition, and slaves were even absorbed into the societies that held them. I thought it was interesting slavery was when practice even before European involvement between different African societies. The Europeans would work their slaves to death and once captured and in slavery. The slave had no hope of ever escaping. It was