Rel321 Asu

The native populations suffered incredibly by the Europeans colonization, because of the purposeful mistreatment they put on them. For instance, a Spanish reporter for the government, wrote to his king in 1516 about the behavior his expedition put on the natives. He stated how the native populations had to ender limbs being cut off, and being eaten alive by dogs (Document 1). This is purposeful mistreatment because hearing the natives cry in agony, and watch in terror as their friends and family die in front of them, was not necessary. This could have been easily avoided if the Spanish weren’t so brutal. Secondly, Father Bartolomé de Las Casas, who was an energetic activist who aimed to protect the natives by writing a book in 1542. His book said that the native populations were kidnapped, abused and later killed. If the Spanish did not kill them directly, the natives would end up killing themselves because the brutal treatment was not worth living (Document 8). The consequences of this include a native population decrease, and suicidal tendencies on the natives. This

During pre-Revolutionary America there were efforts made to attain not only political liberty but also religious freedom. The booming dissenting churches in Virginia had presented several pleas against religious discrimination to the Virginia House of Burgesses in the 1750s and 1706s. Some of Virginia’s statesmen and politicians included James Madison and Thomas

In Chapter 2, “Religion Matters”, Prothero briefly discusses how religion has impacted America even if it seems subsided, and why we tend to neglect it. When it comes to some of the major events of American history, Prothero argues that “none of the classic events in American history…can be understood without some knowledge of the religious motivations” of its major players. (Prothero) Perhaps part of the reason we generally ignore this statement is because of confusion and controversies it presents in government rulings and school teachings.

1 Thomas Jefferson. "An Act for Establishing Religious Freedom," 16 January 1786. Records of the General

Jefferson was so passionate towards his beliefs on religion, pushing him to later drafting A Bill for Religious Freedom, where he aspired to strip the state of all remains of a traditional church. As claimed by Daniel L. Dreisbach, “James Madison grandly proclaimed that the bill’s passage extinguished for ever the ambitious hope of making laws for the human mind” (Dreisbach 172). This viewpoint was very radical for Jefferson’s time, since it was largely the norm that religion and law be joined together.

When the Europeans arrived in the Americas they were looking for riches, spices, and new trade routes to India. When they found this new world and the Native Americans that lived there, they deliberately mistreated them. Looked at as obstructions, the Natives were driven from their land and homes and pushed west. Europeans that encountered the Native Americans had different ideas about them depending on their political and religious beliefs but none were positive. Those ideas ranged from pity for them as non-Christians to be converted (Doc. A2) and treated as children to a lower status of human to be taken advantage of for profits. The Natives were forced to mine precious metals, and farm sugar cane and tobacco. They were not viewed or treated as equal persons. They were considered part of the wild land to be conquered, enslaved, killed, and beaten into cooperation.

After Europeans first encountered Native Americans they did not fully understand the religions and culture of the different tribes. The Europeans Viewed the Natives as a lesser people that needed to be forcefully assimilate to European standards.The Native Americans traditional religions were throw aside by the Europeans who valued Christianity. They were also viewed as an easy resource and were enslaved.

Jefferson first drafted a bill for establishing religious freedom in 1777. When it was enacted in 1786, it firmly established the separation of church and state and provided the basis for the First Amendment's clause on religion.

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison cowrote "The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom" in 1786 in an effort to end state funded religion. The struffle was fought by religious leaders who requested a state tax to fund their institutions. They feared that without a state tax moral fabric of society would disintegrate. This bill ended the feud between religion and state, and created the precedent for religious freedom in the United States. "Conventional wisdom teaches that secularization was an essential ingredient in the cultural background for liberal democracy. To have liberal pluralistic democracy, it is said, we in the West first had to break away from the religious worldviews that were characteristic of pre-modern feudalism, aristocracy, and monarchy" (Mcconnell, 2003, p.943).

According to Bartolome, in 1518, the Christians “penetrated into the country…assaulting so many lambs herded in their sheepfold” (Bartolome). He then proceeds to explain, in more detail, how the Christians attacked and abused the American Indians, such as by cutting people’s heads off and setting people on fire. Unfortunately, Europeans’ attitudes towards Native Americans only decreased over time as European immigrants took away their happiness and caused tyranny and

“They were traumatized with several diseases (like chickenpox and measles, which were brought, by the settlers)”(Document-Impact of colonization on Native Americans). The natives bodies had never met these diseases before so they couldn’t fight off the illness, just Smallpox alone killed 24 million natives(Impact of Colonization on Native Americans”-Document). The Europeans later enslaved the natives to work on the farms or just to be a servant. Harsh treatment also contributed to the death of many Native Americans. There were many missions that were set up that were trying to convert native Americans over to Catholicism, but when the natives kept practicing their own religion they would get punished such as being whipped and harshly treated(DN-Life in the colonies).

VA Statute of Religious Liberty- The Virginia Statute of Religious Liberty was written by Thomas Jefferson and called for the complete separation of church and state. This was passed by the Virginia General Assembly on January 16, 1786 and in it stated Jefferson’s views on how any individual should be free to worship without discrimination. Jefferson also believed that “Nature’s God” gave man freedom of thought and freedom to choose his religious beliefs. The Virginia Statute of Religious Liberty was a forerunner which led to the first amendment for religious

Thomas Jefferson fought for separation of church and state, in Virginia. Jefferson fought so strongly for this because under British anarchy, they were persecuted for their religion. This document brought conflict with Jefferson and the Anglican Church, as the Anglican Church believed that Church and State should be one. The idea of Freedom of Religion carries into our government. President’s can swear in with a Bible during oath, though the book may differ on religion. The separation between church and state was one of the most important policies in the United States Constitution and was inputted in the first amendment. In the 1st Aamendment it states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. The Virginia Statute For Religious Freedom has ensured Americans’ freedom to express whichever religion they choose, and it is a main part of why The United States of America is so

European settlers had the idea that by some divine right, all land was created for them and the control of the mother country. The land that that did not occupy would not prosper without their influence and would go back to the middle ages (Fanon 51). The burden of God's good work entailed white men to impose his European religion, medicines, and civilized practices onto natives that they believed to be evil because of the plague and disease they carried. The natives were called savages or other primitive nicknames because of their underdeveloped technology and weaponry compared to the settlers (Fanon 41). Settlers consider native's aggression as evil acts against god.

Religion has played a large role throughout History. Entire nations have been founded on the ideals of one religion or another, and many wars have been fought purely for religious reasons. In fact there are wars still going on that are almost completely religiously motivated. New Religions may form, old religions may die or change, but they will always be a part of our culture and society. Religion always seems to play a large role in the formation of societies and cultures, and the history of the United States is no different from that of the rest of the world. Religion played a major role in the formation of the United States of America. More specifically between 1607 when