We all tend to have a certain way of doing things that when it comes to everyone else, we start to believe it’s a divergent way of doing things. In other words it’s an act of ethnocentrism. A perfect and extreme example of ethnocentrism would be Hitler and the Nazis against the Jews. Hitler believed that the Jews were subordinate to his ethnicity and his believes so they didn’t deserve to live. This connects with Bradford and Smith’s in the way of first impression. They both saw the native americans in an unfriendly way and very different from them due to their choice of style and that’s exactly where ethnocentrism plays a role. Bradford and Smith had their own opinions on the native americans once they touched land and saw them. In the chronicle by William Bradford, “Plymouth Plantation,” he explains his point of view on the native americans once they reached land. On page 106, at the top it states, “It is recorded in Scripture as a mercy to the Apostle and his shipwrecked company, that the barbarians showed them no small kindness in …show more content…
It was more of an “intriguing” way. On page 98 first paragraph it states, “Smith little dreaming of that accident, being got to the marshes at the river’s head twenty miles in the desert, had his two men [Robinson and Emry] slain (as is supposed) sleeping by the canoe, while himself by fowling sought them victual, who finding he was beset with 200 savages, two of them he slew, still defending himself with the aid of the savage his guide, whom he bound to his arms with his garters and used him as a buckler, yet he was shot in his thigh a little, and had many arrows that stuck in his clothes but no great hurt, till at least they took him prisoner.” In other words, he was attacked by 200 native americans and was able to kill two of them but eventually was wounded and captured. On the way to the native’s camp he feared each hour that he’d get
In the stories “The general history of Virginia” by John Smith and “Plymouth Plantation” by William Bradford, there are many similarities and differences between these two.
In the beginning Bradford referred to the Native Americans as savages but later on people chosen by God. In the text it states “ five or six persons with a dog coming towards them , who were savages “ (Bradford 9). Bradford is saying that the Native Americans are unruly , unkept non-human beings. He doesn’t really see them as humans or up to his standards of living. In the text it states “ was a special instrument sent from God” (Bradford 18). Later on in the text you can see that Bradford has change his mind and now sees them as special people. Bradford now sees the Native Americans as people being sent from God to help them on their journey. In
The stories called “The General History of Virginia” and “Of Plymouth Plantation” are both similar and dissimilar stories. These stories were journals of two different people going through the process of building their own town. Even though these stories are very much different from each other, they both talk about the same thing. They both want to build a town where the number of population is very high. Although “Of Plymouth Plantation” is a story where religion is something they do, something they have faith on, it helps them. It helps them in a way because they are starving and have no food nor water. But, having faith is what helps them go through the struggle of starvation. In the other story “The General History of Virginia” they are
England colonized the Americas much later than Spain and France. After three failed expeditions between 1578 and 1587 by Raleigh, John Smith finally established Jamestown as the first New World settlement in 1607. Jamestown itself almost failed, but with the help of natives, tobacco farming, and the arrival of African servants, it flourished. Puritans arrived on the Mayflower in 1620, and founded Plymouth. The Massachusetts Bay Colony formed in 1630, drawing many thousands of immigrants. Plymouth and the Bay Colony would ultimately merge into the Province of Massachusetts Bay in 1691. Roger Williams started the Rhode Island Colony in 1635. After killing or pacifying most area Native Americans in the Pequot and King Philip's Wars culminating
In William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation, Bradford describes the relations between the natives and the English as more civil. One advantage may have been that some of the Natives knew how to speak some English, so there was less of a communication barrier between them. When the two groups interacted, there were immediately rules set in place such as “1. That neither he nor any of his, should injure or do hurt to any of their people…6. That when their men came to them, they should leave bows and arrows behind them” (Bradford 123). Bradford continues to mention that these rules were followed for twenty-four years. He portrays the
According to Bible Scripture, Native Americans welcomed people to the shores. Pilgrims arrived in the MayFlower in 1620. Native Americans had different beliefs than the Europeans did. Indian tribes lacked unity expectation of the five Nation Iroquois. Most of the european nations at the time were often rivals with one another. European settlers drove the Indians from their lands as they moved westward. Bible Scripture saying “What began peacefully ended in aggression and conflict.” This quote would be explaining how the Europeans think Columbus founded America but realized Indians actually did.
Europeans tore through America in the 1700s and destroyed the lives of Native Americans, and yet their culture remained principled with a high level of respect and honor. This is shown in a meeting that was held by the six nations of the Iroquois, where Chief Red Jacket gave a speech on the Native Americans view on missionary stations that the Europeans wanted to set up. Red Jacket explained their past with the first settlers, “We gave them corn and meat; they gave us poison in return” (1). These first Europeans set the tone for how these new colonist treated the natives. They took what they wanted and left a trail of death and destruction in their path. However, the natives acted in return with upstanding respect and treated these missionaries
When the English settlers began their colonization of America, they were unsure on how to approach the indigenous people. They were not prepared for a war initially, nor did they have all of the supplies required to survive. In chapter one of, Lethal Encounters Englishmen and Indians in Colonial Virginia, Albert Cave describes Sir Walter Raleigh’s decisions about the Roanoke colonial and Indian policies. Raleigh instructed the settlers to treat the Natives with ‘kindness and generosity’ (Cave, Lethal Encounters Englishmen and Indians in Colonial Virginia, pg 11). The English settlers recognized the
When the first European colonists arrived in 1620 on land in the New World, a disaster was forming. Arriving in what is known today as Massachusetts on The Mayflower, the settlers didn’t have enough experience surviving cold, harsh winters causing almost half of the settlers to die that had arrived on The Mayflower. This had changed in 1621 with the help of the Native people. The American Indians had started teaching the English people how to do many things including harvesting and growing crops. This help from the Native’s had led to the first Thanksgiving between the two groups. These two societies, however, didn’t remain friends. The English settlers had kicked off the American Indians of their own land and tried to make them convert to Christianity. The English settlers had also brought diseases from Europe causing many Indians to get very sick and even some die.
Throughout William Bradford’s “Of Plymouth Plantation”, his attachment to his religion was very strong and very verbally shown throughout his work. Bradford was between the age of twelve and thirteen when he had first heard his first sermon by a minister named Richard Clyfton and he later joined with Clyfton in the year 1606. Bradford begins with “…some godly and zealous preachers, and God’s blessings on their labors…” God is already being praised in the first few sentences of this work to bless the labor of their works and throughout the land. The goal of this paper is to bring into light three different sections throughout the work, where Bradford uses his religion to prove a point and to show how his religious faith is freely expressed by leaving England.
Every colonist that came to America had their own perceptions of its inhabitants. The majority of these people believed the Native Americans were savages because their culture differed from the colonists. To the colonists, everything needed to be proper. The way they dressed, whether or not they went to church, or how they raised their children needed to be up to code. If not, their fellow colonists looked differently at them. The natives were entirely different. Their goal was simply to survive, and they were conducting survival the best way they knew how to. The differences between the two cultures led to many severe problems. Mary Rowlandson and Benjamin Franklin had two entirely different views of the Native Americans, based upon their encounters with them.
William Bradford’s writing Of Plymouth Plantation Is a written record of the journey from his old home in Europe to the settlement in the new world. The separatist traveled from England to Amsterdam and finally to the new world and later the life of the colony. Reading Of Plymouth Plantation presents us with an understanding of the basis of American culture and history. His writings are used to help us understand the reasons for the settlement of America as well as the hard ships the pilgrims had to face in order to escape the religious prosecution. His Writing also acts as an example to follow for several of our present day religions such as the many Mormons moving too their main church in Ohio. Mormons like the pilgrims move in search of religious freedom and to escape prosecution in a place with people who share similar beliefs with them. This Work also
Personal connections that are or are not developed with the Indians is a topic that both Morton and Bradford discuss. The Pilgrims’ initial encounter with the Indians is tense and there is an air of skepticism about what type of people they are, good or bad. Since they need to live together in a peaceful way, the Pilgrims create a treaty between themselves and the Indians so that there would be no misunderstanding about the expectations and trust each group needs to have with one another (Bradford 88). Morton views this in a different way; instead of believing that this is a mutual agreement between both communities, he feels that the treaty is forcing the Indians to act the way the Pilgrims want them to act (104). There is room for
The Europeans quickly agreed on a very simple (and self serving) set of assumptions about the native peoples they encountered in the New World: there were "good Indians" and "bad Indians." The good were simple, free, and innocent; the bad were degraded, brutal, and untrustworthy. All individuals, all tribes, at all times could be understoodand all were inferior in the light of Western, Christian civilization. Children are harmed when they are bombarded with stereotypical images because they internatlize these negative perceptions and will hold the images throughout their lives. When a child sees or meets a Native American, their first impressions are the ones they were shown from the books and pictures they saw.
Between 1790 and 1920 it was a tough time for the Indians. During that period Native Americans were forced to convert to the European-American Culture. Their whole life changed, the way of living, religion, and especially their children’s future. It was wrong of Americans to convert natives into a different society that they saw fit and not letting them express their own culture and treating them as an unworthy society.