Historical Narrative By John Smith: The Generall History Of Virginia

The subject of slavery in the early 1700s had the potential to elicit an array of opinions depending upon the race, gender, and political role of the individual in question. Like the majority of white land-holding men who owned slaves, William Byrd viewed the treatment of Africans as that consistent with livestock: slaves were to do the work they were assigned and give in to every whim of their masters for fear of being severely punished. Olaudah Equiano provides a contrast in opinion to this widely accepted viewpoint. By humanizing Africans and detailing the intimate emotions experienced by them, Equiano implicitly argues against the attitudes of typical slave owners.

The most iconic and era defining figure during the colonial time period was John Smith because he helped Jamestown flourish and he made the opposing cultures of the old and new worlds collide. The colonial era was directly tied to John Smith because thy both had to do contact and colonization. Smith was one of the founders of Jamestown, the first colony to survive. Smith had sent a letter to Queen Anne, the queen of England at the time, describing his first encounters with the new world. This letter was important because it was one the ways that the old world got to hear about what the new world was like and what it had to offer. In Smith’s writing The General History of Virginia he describes the first settlement before the first supply ships came. He talks of savages roaming

Additionally, he adds that their land is bountiful alluding his readers that it's vital for them take over their land because they will have greater use for it. He goes on to say, 'Six or seven hundred have been the most that have been seen together when they gathered themselves to have surprised Captain Smyth at Pamaunke, having but 15 to withstand the worst of their fury.' By mentioning this, Smith is assuring his readers that they are much stronger than the Native Americans, as it only took 15 settlers to fight off the upward hundreds of them. He tries to make it clear that these people are inferior as well as incapable of the same standards of civilization as white men. Smith adds more to his claim when describes them as, 'inconstant in everything, but what fear constraints them to keep. Crafty, timorous, quick of apprehension and very ingenious. Some are of disposition fearful, some bold, most cautious, all savage.' He goes on to talk, in great depth, about their apparel and how the 'better sort' cover themselves in animal skin, while the rest of the majority cover themselves with grass and leaves. Most of them would additionally adorn themselves with other things, such as beads, copper, feathers, rat tails, snakes, paintings, etc. To the Indians, these were among things that they coveted. But to Smith, he just saw them as trash. Used to the way the colonists dressed, Smith thought the Indians looked barbaric in comparison.

In every culture, there are the strong and there are the weak, the oppressor and the oppressed. Sometimes they are of the same race and sometimes not, but they all rely on a difference in power. Socrates, Frederick Douglass, and WEB Du Bois each experience this power differential through the course of their lives. Socrates experiences this through his experience with the jury of Athens and his trial; Douglass through his life as a slave and his eventual escape. Du Bois experiences it through being a black man in the time of Reconstruction and being well of in comparison to other African-Americans at the time. Each man’s unique perspective on equality can illuminate why authority is so instrumental in the development of equality.

The colony of Virginia was founded by a stock company: the Virginia Company. To attract people Virginia made a wonderful charter. Emigrants who paid their own way to Virginia got fifty acres of land. There would not be mere tenants. Civil authority would control the military. A council of burgesses, representatives chosen by the inhabitants of the colony for their government, would be convened as the House of Burgesses. The governor could veto their actions and the company still had overall control of the venture, but the settlers would have a say in their own government, including the right of the House of Burgesses to introduce money bills. The King’s court appointed a royal governor, someone who had never set foot on the land of

In the United States, there has been many cases of Racial injustice. From the beginning of the start of the United States of America it was the injustice to the Native Americans being captured and used for slave labor while their bison be slaughtered for sportsmanship. But this paper is on the specific race of the African Americans. There are many races that have been racially profiled and ostracized by the English people. But the treatment that African Americans have endured even till this day is disheartening. African Americans have gone through enslavement during the early 1600’s to the mid 1800’s. Then the African Americans were obstructed by the Jim Crow laws creating the ‘Separate but Equal” propaganda during the late 1800’s into the 1960’s. After the abolishment of the Jim Crow Laws, people were considered equal until the recent actions of many police officers using deadly force on African American youths in the early 2000’s.

Africans were always seen as slaves rather than free people. It came to a point were generation from generation, people with African ancestry were legally enslaved for life. European colonists’ even committed to legalizing enslavement of hundreds and thousands of people, but it led to Africans being slaves based on race. Slavery was a big part in Virginia and South Carolina. The history of slavery in Virginia first appeared in 1619 where the Africans were indentured servants. As for South Carolina, majority of their population were African Americans. 65% of their population of about 18,000 people were African American slaves. Upon the social, economic and political development of slavery in Virginia and South Carolina, it impacted their race, class and gender.

With the colonization of the New World came financial, religious, and strategic opportunities. England answered this call in various ways as British colonies began with certain interests in mind. Massachusetts and Virginia, besides being started with royal charters, were planted in separate locations, with unique resources, and by Englishmen with entirely different intentions.

Throughout American history, minority groups were victims of American governmental policies, and these policies made them vulnerable to barbaric and inhumane treatment at the hands of white Americans. American slavery is a telling example of a government sanctioned institution that victimized and oppressed a race of people by indoctrinating and encouraging enslavement, racism and abuse. This institution is injurious to slaves and slave holders alike because American society, especially in the south, underwent a dehumanization process in order to implement the harsh and inhumane doctrine. In the episodic autobiography Narrative of the

When Virginia Company brought and settled the English men into Virginia colony, it took more than a decade for it to reach to the conclusion that the colony is now ready for self-supporting. By stablishing the House of Burgesses and General Assembly of the Virginia Colony, colonists literally organized a legislative body in the colony which enabled them to choose their own leaders, adopt laws and setup regulations based on their needs. It was July 30, 1619 when the twenty two burgesses, Governor Yeardley and the Council gathered at Jamestown Church to setup rules, adopt laws and govern the colony themselves. The result of this meeting was the significant birth of the first government in the history of America which not only protected the Virginia

In this document, John Smith describes the abandonment of their colony in Virginia during a long period of not having food. Smith took his men and sailed back to England, where he described, in third person, what is was like before they left. “The day before Captain Smith returned for England with the ships, Captain Davis arrived in a small Pinace with some sixteene proper men more” (Smith, 27). Captain Smith had previously thought that they would rely on the Patawomeke tribe to trade with them so they wouldn’t have to plant any food, however, Smith was wrong and found out the hard way that the Patawomeke would just ignore them instead. Smith’s men would suffer during the Winter months, and go on to say, “we had nothing but mortall wounds,

Slavery is a contradictory subject in American history because “one hears…of the staid and gentle patriarchy, the wide and sleepy plantations with lord and retainers, ease and happiness; [while] on the other hand on hears of barbarous cruelty and unbridles power and wide oppression of men” (Dubois 2). Dubois’s The Negro in the United States is an autoethnographic text which is a representation “that the so-defined others

When we assess the evils of slavery, we typically think of the North American slaves plight. We think of the beatings, murders, hangings and mistreatment of the Southern slave. But what about the slaves of Latin America? Who hears their cries of woe because of their evil slave masters? Is their treatment the same of their brethren under slave rule in North America? In order to answer these questions, it is necessary to look into the lives of both North and Latin American slaves. For our purposes, we will utilize two slave narratives. One account will come from the North American slave, Frederick Douglass, and his

Early American Literature reflects many conflicting differences in the presentation of slavery during that time period. Through the two chosen texts, the reader is presented with two different perspectives of slavery; Frederick Douglass’s narrative provides a look at a slave’s life through the eyes if a slave while Benito Cereno showcases the tale of a slave uprising from the viewpoint of the slave owner.. Benito Cereno’s work shows the stereotypical attitude towards African-American slaves and the immorality of that outlook according to Douglass’s narrative. Cereno portrays the typical white slave owner of his time, while Douglass’ narrative shows the thoughts of the slaves. The two stories together show that white Americans are oblivious to the ramifications and overall effects of slavery. These texts assist a moralistic purpose in trying to open up America’s eyes to the true nature of slavery by revealing it’s inhumanity and depicting the cruelty that was allowed.

John Smith was a terrible person compared to de las Casas and proves so in his work showing off his poor characteristics and personalities. For example, when John Smith first encounters the native indians he ends up using one as a human shield when being attacked by other indians. This act of degradation against the natives is absolutely barbaric as the indian still breathes for his own life. This man was forcibly manipulated to receive fatal blows from his own kind from a man who is willing to waste lives in safety for his own. In addition, when Smith recalls the events that had taken place with the natives he talks of the “Six or seven weeks those barbarians kept him prisoner” (105). This event of name calling found throughout his work is