LITR220 ESSAY One
Question 1
There were Spanish settlers who established their colonies in the west in particular in New Mexico. They conquered the natives by force and bloodshed and attempted to convert the native people. Therefore, in the Spanish colonies the tension was because of religion. The French people were not as forceful as compared to the Spanish. Thus, they did not force conversion as the Spanish, but they intermarried with the Native Americans and they established the fur-trade system. Conversely, the English perceived themselves as conquerors, and they plundered food from the natives resulting to tension with the local (Perkins 3).
These tensions emerged in the early American literary works covering the exploration and colonies issues. These works highlight that the tensions of the 17th century were because of the interaction between the Native Americans, the newcomers, and their religions as well as the attempts of the settlers to establish trade. The other tension, which arose in the 18th century, involved the issue of slavery. Spain, France, and England who were the chief movers of the tensions facilitated these conflicts. Conflicts and tensions arose because the cultures of the early settlers and the colonies were highly varied. The tensions also evolved because the earliest settlers contained a prominent realm mentality of superiority that made them feel that they were entitled to take any lands, which they needed as they wished. Conversely, the colonies did not comprehend the notion concerning land ownership; all they knew was that the mother earth belonged to their society and not individuals. Moreover, the early settlers and the colonies were highly varied concerning their religious distinctions. The settlers preached that they wished to see freedom of religion, but in reality all they wanted was all the natives to embrace the settlers religion as the ideal religion. They viewed the religion ways of the natives as lacking spirituality but heathen superstition.
There is an enormous amount of works written concerning America during the early epochs of settlement and exploration. These works exhibit that the first English to settle in the land was because of their mercantile rather than religious intentions. For instance, in their quest to promote settlement in the Jamestown, the Virginia Company was anticipating to provide goods, which would facilitate British trade and attract the English settlers in the region. The company had an unrealistic conception of the British (Perkins 13). However, the native Indians raiders attacked the colonizers and their mercantile reducing their trade, which resulted in the infrequent supply of ships in the region. Moreover, the company had counted on the Indians, in order to provide cheap labor to the Virginia Company, but the natives rebelled against enslavement and incentives that they were given to work as free people. The locals did not understand the European concept of property. This led to tension as the natives resented the settlers whose culture of fencing and cultivating their hunting grounds was invading to their lifestyle. The native Indians did not own land individually but as a community. Therefore, when the settlers started to fence and cultivate their lands, the natives retaliated with fire and blood. This led to the emergence of tensions with the settlers as the locals perceived them as intruders who were disrupting their peaceful lifestyle and existence.
John Smith was among the earliest settlers who gave an account of his American experiences. He is among the legends of American history that joined the initial waves of settlers. Smith describes the struggles in the Jamestown as comprising people whose minds were untoward to benefit either them or others (Perkins 17). Furthermore, the conflict in the Jamestown arose more from a class matter rather than a hidden agenda. Many soft people were given the responsibility of doing a job of industrious men, which was a difficult task to them. The men, who were sent to help, were lazy to extents that they would have preferred starving, rather than aid in constructing the town and provision of required supplies. This strategy was a wrong approach of constructing a successful colony for the crown. Moreover, housing was necessary to the settlers, as they required gathering food before the winter season arrived. Smith was not famous for having an elegant lifestyle because he was born a commoner. He also got on the offensive side fast with the other workers whose life was more genteel. He demanded that all people should be industrious workers if they desired to eat. The elite class of the Jamestown consisted most of the leaders of the colony who had come to disparage and connive against each other while the ailing and the starving were dying rapidly around them. Therefore, those who were striving for survival could hardly avert conflict with inhabitants who survived from daily only (Perkins 28).
The immortalized Plymouth colony was also facing enormous challenges. According to William Bradford, one of the colonists describes the situation as being hard and difficult beginnings where they encountered discontents and mumblings amongst the people. He elaborates how they survived in these hard times until Morton arrived in the colony. Morton was clearly a lord of misrule who caused many natives to fall because of his nefarious influence. He sustained a school of atheism, which resulted to the tensions to heighten. The tensions rose to such levels, which lead Morton to sell guns belonging to the natives after training them on how to utilize them. Bradford argues the greed for power and the luxuries, which resulted from power enhanced most of the confrontations in the colony. Through Bradford’s description of Morton, it is clear that peaceful intervention to the conflict was difficult resulting to the tensions in the area (Perkins 58).
Religious beliefs were also facilitators of the tension in the early periods. The Puritans who were perceived as an intolerant society because of their consensus on subjects of doctrine were in the center of the most religious confrontations. The religious tensions were significant in aiding in the creation of novel colonies and extended the presence of the Europeans in America. Most of the conflicts and tensions witnessed in America as explained by some of the early literary figures resulted to bloodshed and demise of many natives (Perkins 103).
Works Cited
Perkins. American Literature before the Civil War. Week 2: Exploration and the Colonies. Web. 12 Apr. 2013. <http://ebooks.apus.edu.ezproxy2.apus.edu/LITR220/Perkins_2011_week2.pdf>
Perkins. “John Smith”. American Literature before the Civil War. Week 2: Exploration and the Colonies. Web. 12 Apr. 2013. <http://ebooks.apus.edu.ezproxy2.apus.edu/LITR220/Perkins_2011_week2.pdf>
Perkins. “Mary Easty”. American Literature before the Civil War. Week 4: Puritanism, Indians, and Witchcraft. Web 12 Apr. 2013. <http://ebooks.apus.edu.ezproxy2.apus.edu/LITR220/Perkins_2011_week4.pdf>
Perkins. “Samuel Sewell”. American Literature before the Civil War. Week4: Puritanism, Indians, and Witchcraft..Web. 12 Apr. 2013
<http://ebooks.apus.edu.ezproxy2.apus.edu/LITR220/Perkins_2011_week4.pdf>
Perkins. “William Bradford”. American Literature before the Civil War. Week 3: Colonization /Puritanism. Web. 12 Apr. 2013. <http://ebooks.apus.edu.ezproxy1.apus.edu/LITR220/Perkins_2011_week3.pdf >
Perkins. American Literature before the Civil War.
