Oppression and Class warfare Exposed in Dr. Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States

Between 1492-1776, although many people moved to the “New World”, North America lost population due to the amount of Indians dying from war and diseases and the inability of colonists to replace them. John Murrin states, “losers far outnumbered winners” in “ a tragedy of such huge proportions that no one’s imagination can easily encompass it all.” This thought of a decreasing population broadens one’s perspective of history from that of an excluded American tale full of positivity to that of a more unbiased, all-encompassing analysis. The Indians and slaves have recently been noted as a more crucial part of history than previously accredited with.

When it comes to the topic of the American Revolution most have been educated about the significant battles of the war, and the overall outcome. However, submerged beneath the details of war are the individual stories of those living in the colonies. In Rae Raphael’s book, A People’s History of the American Revolution, the personal stories and experiences of the “common folk” are brought back to the surface for the first time. Recounting these personal stories utilizing primary literature provides a necessary accuracy in portraying this time period. The experiences of farmers, laborers, women, Native Americans, and slaves, among others are used to highlight the effects of the revolution caused by the historically overlooked people inhabiting the colonies.

No two accounts of any event are ever exactly the same, as different people have unique experiences that impact their views. Historical accounts and history books are the same way, as an examination of A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn, and Give Me Liberty, by Eric Foner demonstrates. Both accounts of early American history cover the important colonies, such as Jamestown and the influential Puritans and the immigration of different peoples to America. They differ however, not only on the depth they choose to go into these events, but also on interactions between the natives and the colonists. A People’s History, by Howard Zinn, tells history in a biased way that excludes information that Eric Foner, of Give Me Liberty, does not. Zinn’s bias is in favor of the Indians, while Foner lacks a bias, telling history from all views. This difference can be noted in the telling of the Pueblo

Since the very first contact, the Native Americans have been treated as subordinates, being mistreated, shamed, embarrassed, and oppressed by white settlers. After the Revolutionary War in the late 1700’s, matters only got worse for the Native Americans. Population was skyrocketing due to a great deal of immigration of white settlers in the early to mid 1800’s, and there wasn’t enough space for everyone. With this came expansion, and to reach the goals they had set out for it, the Native Americans had to go. A prime example of this is shown in Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States,” where in chapter seven he talks about the forced removal of Native Americans from their lands, carelessness and failure by the American government to protect, and multiple slaughters carried out by the American military on the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, Choctaw, Sac and Fox, and the Seminole tribes. Closely related is “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee,” written by Dee Brown, his writings from chapter thirteen focus on the Nez Perces tribe that resided in Oregon, and their attempt at a journey in Canada, and other western Indian tribes’ affairs. To go along with Zinn and Brown, is Alan Brinkley’s “American History,” which posed an unbiased view of what modern day textbooks are informing students across the nation about what happened to the Native Americans. An article titled “The North American Indian Holocaust,” written by

In 1630, the Pilgrims settled in what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts. Their first few months consisted of deplorable weather conditions, infertile soil, and fights with Native Americans. However future colonies learned from their mistakes. By 1700, England had moved on to settling more of the “New World”. The other two colonies would make many improvements to try to make their colony the most appealing, some even sent out brochures to promote themselves and get more colonists. Government, religion, and economy were all very important to the colonists and made or break a colony's future.

Chapter one of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States discusses the differences between the culture and attitudes of the Europeans and the Native Americans. It further describes how the Europeans came to the New World and committed genocide against the Native Americans in order to get land and gold from them, which displayed the cruelty and greed of the European explorers coming to the Americas. However, many historians consider these actions by the European Conquistadors to be necessary in order for human progress to occur, but Zinn argues whether human progress needed all of these barbaric actions. He

In this chapter Howard Zinn explores the reasons why and how the Native populations in existence in America, during this time, were pushed onto reservations located on lands undesirable to white settlers. In the beginning Zinn reveals most Natives fought alongside the British in the Revolutionary War, which gives reason for the two groups to harbor harsh feelings towards each other. However, he then goes on to present the overall message of the George Washington administration, which was to leave the Natives alone as they were entitled to their lands. Yet, this idea was obviously shattered as soon as the country wanted to further advance its territory and its bank accounts, according the Zinn. In fact, the lands were being used up by so many white settlers the Natives, specifically the Creeks, had to continually move to give the plantations room to settle. As a result, this constant manipulation and movement caused uproar within the Native communities and inspired revolutions and revolts, such as the rebellion organized by Tecumseh. Eventually, as the US government was able to defend itself and recruit other Native peoples, it was able to defeat and usurp essentially all of the uprisings, especially under Andrew Jackson’s command. In fact, after Jackson’s reelection, his anti-Indian raids and wars increased in frequency and ruthlessness. Eventually, in December of 1838, almost all of the Natives, specifically the Cherokee Nation of Indians, had been forced out of the

Thus, slavery began in the new land. The once Europeans wanted these slaves to be different from them so there was some sort of distinction, so they captured Indians, and brought in captured Africans to get the job done. Indians became difficult to in-slave and some did not agree with the decision so Africans became the figure for slavery. During the first years and colonies in America, there was not many captive slaves, and those who were slaves worked with servants sharing the duties. Many slaves would also have the option for freedom at their master’s discretion, which would usually be after several years working for them.

In the first five chapters of Howard Zinn’s book A People’s History of the United States, Zinn provides an overview of American History by providing examples and detailed accounts of Columbus’s arrival, the experience of the Native Americans after European arrival, slavery, the writing of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and the invisibility of women through early American history. In writing this book, Zinn’s purpose was to write more than another history book, just listing events and giving the traditional point of view, but to provide a balanced viewpoint. Zinn believes that, “The treatment of heroes (Columbus) and their victims (the Arawaks)-the quiet acceptance of conquest and murder in the name of progress…[is an

Even though they couldn’t make the Indians work for them because they outnumbered the settlers they still took their land Zinn states “The Pequot tribe lived in the southern Connecticut and Rhode Island. The colonists wanted this land, so the war with the Pequots began. Massacres took place on both sides...After the Europeans began taking the land, the number of indians was reduced until, in time, fewer than a million remained” (17, Zinn). The colonists went to war with the Indians because they wanted their land. The colonists would massacre the tries and The indians would do the same but as Europeans began taking more and more land the population of Indians diminished. This quote portrays that colonists took the Indians land and gained power along with it. More land meant more power because they needed space to grow crops and then sell them and enslaving the Africans was a more profitable and ever-renewable source of labor.When they got there they settled in the Indians land and they tried to massacre them to take their land. Zinn writes “So you killed the Indians, tortured them, burned their villages, burned their cornfields” (25, Zinn) Another reading states “they set fire to wigwams,and as the indians ran out to escape the flames, the English cut them to bits with their swords” (20, Zinn) The English would

Malcolm X once said “We (African-Americans) didn't land on Plymouth Rock, the rock was landed on us.”1 While not comparing it as such, nor discounting in any way the tremendous suffering and struggle for equality African-Americans have endured, this work presents a very strong argument that the native peoples of North America, have suffered as much or arguably more so. Indeed several bands had already been obliterated by disease and war with the White invaders from the sea before most of the English colonies were even well established, a pattern which would only continue to get worse. For the Indians living in what is now the eastern United States in the 1770's, the revolution was merely the continuation of a generational war they had been steadily losing for over a century already. Native peoples all across the vast hinterlands had coped with the destruction of their lives and livelihoods as they always had, by adapting and evolving as their situations changed which continued through the revolutionary and beyond.

Native Americans are the first inhabitants of North America by centuries; however, many believe that American history started when Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 and discovered a new world . Although the English, French, and Spanish arrived around the same time, they all interacted with the Natives in different ways to achieve what they were seeking, such as land, riches, etc. However, once the European pursuit of riches and land became brutal and malicious, the Natives attempted several revolts, such as the Pueblo Revolt or King Phillip’s War, that unfortunately, has some dire consequences, such as death and slavery.

The war to free all Americans was not truly what it was meant to be. The Revolution did not free everyone from bondage, it just changed some people’s lives. After the war, many citizens of the lower classes were treated the same as before. “A Pennsylvania official said: ‘We cannot help observing how similar this Conduct is to that of the British Officers during our Subjection to Great Britain’” (Zinn 79). Even after the Revolution, the treatment of many Americans felt the same for a long time. As if the war had not changed anything about the lives of the poorer Americans. Although the war left many “poor white working people and tenant farmers in very much their old situation” (Zinn 86), the minorities, such as slaves and Indians, were also ignored. “Four groups, Beard noted, were not represented in the Constitutional Convention: slaves, indentured servants, women, men without property. And so the Constitution did not reflect the interests of those groups” (Zinn 91). The war did not save the underprivileged from inequality, it left

Early American history began in the collision of European, West African, and Native American peoples in North America. Europeans "discovered" America by accident, then created empires out of the conquest of indigenous peoples and the enslavement of Africans and women. Many Englishmen who wished to come to Virginia, and later other colonies, could not afford the cost of their passage to America. They often became indentured servants, signing a contract to work from 3 to 7 years for those who had paid their passage to the colonies (Stuckey and Salvucci 2000). Yet conquest and enslavement were accompanied by centuries of cultural interaction and that was disaster for Africans and Native Americans and triumph for Europeans, to be sure, but interaction that transformed all three peoples in the process.

In the early morning of October 12, 1492, Columbus and his crew came upon an unknown and uncharted island. Approaching land, Columbus was met by the Arawak Indians, which were hospitable and generous people that offered anything they owned. However, Columbus was quick to notice that the Arawaks had no weapons and wore tiny gold ornaments in their ears. This observation was to set off one of the biggest and horrific genocides in history. In “Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress” of A People’s History Of The United States, Howard Zinn emphasizes this and the way America was taken over by the Europeans. After reading Zinn’s chapter it would be hard to dismiss the truth behind these atrocities committed in the name of progress. It is easy