Questions in American History - Assignment Example

Response to Questions Native Americans did not have resistance to European diseases because resistance to disease on a population level is heavily based on previous exposure to disease. As children and adolescents and on into adulthood, we are exposed to a wide variety of pathogens, each of which incites a small immunological reaction, the results of which are stored in memory cells in the person’s immune system. Europeans coming west brought with them bacteria and viruses so common to their home countries that they might only bring on a cold or the flu, but in an immuno-naive population, these pathogens could cause widespread outbreak of disease. 2. I would respond to this quote with a quote from Howard Zinn in his book A People’s History of the United States where he describes the true impact of Columbus and the Spaniards on native Haitians. “In two years, through murder, mutilation, or suicide, half of the two hundred fifty thousand Indians on Haiti were dead.” Zinn goes on to explain, “a report of the year 1650 shows none of the original Arawaks or their descendants left on the island.” 3. One major difference in worldview between European and Native American cultures is the idea of property rights. Europe’s aristocracy thrived on land ownership, and in a culture where land meant power, ideas on dissolving property rights were scarce. The Native Americans, mostly, believed in living in harmony with the land. Humans were only part of the larger picture. So to destroy a forest to build a city isn’t just egocentric, its sacrilegious. When Europeans attempted to buy Native American lands in some instances, some Native Americans couldn’t understand the idea of owning the land. 4. While differences certainly existed in the slavery systems in Africa and the Americas, Americans being much crueler to our slaves and Africans viewing slaves more as indentured servants, I think the similarities are too outstanding to ignore. Slavery anywhere should be intolerable to humanity everywhere. I think Dr. Akurang-Parry summarized this sentiment best in his article Ending the Slave Blame: “The viewpoint that “Africans” enslaved “Africans” is obfuscating if not troubling. The deployment of “African” in African history tends to coalesce into obscurantist constructions of identities that allow scholars, for instance, to subtly call into question the humanity of “all” Africans. Whenever Asante rulers sold non-Asantes into slavery, they did not construct it in terms of Africans selling fellow Africans. They saw the victims for what they were, for instance, as Akuapems, without categorizing them as fellow Africans. Equally, when Christian Scandinavians and Russians sold war captives to the Islamic people of the Abbasid Empire, they didn’t think that they were placing fellow Europeans into slavery. This lazy categorizing homogenizes Africans and has become a part of the methodology of African history; not surprisingly, the Western media’s cottage industry on Africa has tapped into it to frame Africans in inchoate generalities allowing the media to describe local crisis in one African state as “African” problem.” (source: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=180999) 5. English people migrated to North America to escape religious persecution, for the possibility of achieving power or wealth in the new colonies, and to make money on early expeditions to North America. 6. England wanted to establish colonies in North America to expand its cultural influence, for the possibility of gold or natural resources, and to out muscle the French and Spanish who were colonizing the area at the time. 7. An indentured servant was a worker, typically a young person from Europe, who agreed to work a certain number of years for a master if that master would pay for their voyage to America. These workers were crucial to our developing economy, as low wage workers were scarce and slaves were expensive. 8. One similarity between all the colonies is that they all allowed slavery. One difference is that the northern colonies’ economy was based on industry and the southern colonies’ economy was based more on agriculture. 9. The Puritans left England to escape religious persecution from the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church because of their Calvinistic beliefs. They wanted America to be a “redeemer nation.” (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migration_to_New_England_(1620%E2%80%931640)) 10. Slavery did not expand in the northern colonies as it did in the southern colonies because of the economic base. The northern colonies were based more on industry, and required more skilled labor. The southern colonies were based on agriculture, which utilized the slave trade much more. 11. Americans would gain the emphasis on individual liberty the Bill of Rights affords thanks, in part, to the Salem Which Trials. Americans would also later gain laws protecting due process and innocence until guilt has been proven. 12. The gang system was where slave owners required slaves to work in large gangs all day until the owners told them to stop. This system was harsher on slaves because it required them to continuously work throughout the day. The task system was where slave owners assigned slaves to a task and when they finished that task or that set of tasks they could finish for the day. This system was more humane than the gang system, but was still promoting the enslavement of human beings. 13. The Great Awakening was the spread of a new preaching style through America before the Revolution. Preachers began to focus less on the logos of the theological argument and more on the pathos of a religious fervor. 14. The Great Awakening created some of the undertones that sparked the Revolutionary War and also led to the separation of church and state. The Great Awakening also caused conflict within the Protestant church and eventually caused many divides within the church. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Awakening) Another negative of the Great Awakening is the immense amount of guilt and shame churchgoers probably felt at the time. It is almost impossible not to feel scared and ashamed after reading Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. 15. The American Enlightenment is the American extension of the Age of Enlightenment. This was a time of new and exciting ideas, novel concepts on how people should govern themselves and what natural rights are given to every human. These concepts and ideas would go on to shape our country’s founding. 16. Question incomplete 17. America can trace her history of racism back to this land’s colonization by European settlers not because of an inherent evilness caused by the color of one’s skin, but because of the ideas driving colonialization and the culture that created. Europe’s race to conquer the world was in full stride when the first European settlers landed in the Caribbean, and European settlers were willing to throw any other culture out of their way in their quest for power, control, and resources. The driving idea behind colonialism is that you can own anything as long as you’re willing to fight for it. This rule applies to goods, land, and even people. When you are so convinced that your culture has been ordained by God that you feel you have to dominate all other cultures, atrocities like slavery and racism become tools to achieve control and power. Europe physically dominated Africa during colonialization, and European descendants continue to attempt to dominate Africans through racism. Read More