Conflicted People of Any Country - Annotated Bibliography Example

A Conflicted People Introduction Literature of any country mirrors its social, political, cultural and religious components and investigates into the process of nation-building. American literature has historically been multicultural. This pluralistic dimension may be attributed to the colonial times that witnessed European settlers building small colonies along the Atlantic coast. Known as the New World, the American land was first explored by the Spanish colonizers, later to be invaded by the British and the others. The immigrants fell out with the Native people over various social and ethnic issues that were fueled by territorial conflicts among the Native people of the Americas. The entire history of the American colonial period from the late 15th century to the mid-18th century was marked by conflicting worldviews between various immigrant races and the indigenous people of the New World. Sometimes the colonists who sailed all the way to the Americas from the eastern coasts of the Atlantic in search of wealth, political power and supremacy waged war just as much with the Native people as they did among themselves. The British colonists in particular were among the most scorned of all immigrants for their hardnosed imperialistic policies. This paper is going to discuss how these conflicts shaped the period American literature. Works of a few authors will be looked into as well. Backdrop and the Powhatan Conflict When the English settlers in the early 17th century established colonies around Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, a conflicting situation became imminent as the sources of living for the native Powhatan people inhabiting the Bay area had to be compromised to accommodate for the colonial interests. As the largest aboriginal race at that time, the Powhatan people relied primarily on marine resources and cultivation. But since the British settlers had their eyes on expanding the tobacco industries for their economic benefits, the Powhatan people struggled hard to retain their farming lands. Consequently, they launched assaults and killed over 300 colonists. The entire 17th century witnessed such attacks and counter-attacks the implications of which were far-fetched. On one hand, the English efforts to subjugate the Native people led other colonists to encroach the northern parts of the nation (Hornsby & Hermann, 2005, pp. 92-93, http://books.google.co.in/books?id=oMvXsDXvI_YC&pg=PP1&dq=British+Atlantic,+American+frontier:+spaces+of+power+in+early+modern+British+America#v=onepage&q=&f=false), thus opening the floodgate for remarkable literary manifestations that would be developing gradually in the following centuries. But more significantly, what the Powhatan conflict did in the annals of American colonial period was cramping the imperialist vision of inculcating civilization by means of conversion (Bloechl, 2008, p. 140, http://books.google.co.in/books?id=70VZCe_nKxYC&pg=PP1&dq=Native+American+song+at+the+frontiers+of+early+modern+music#v=onepage&q=&f=false). Period American Literature It is quite clear that the American literature that evolved later on was of a dynamic nature courtesy of a pluralistic dissemination of numerous social, political, economic and religious ideologies. The major offshoots of the literary products were aligned with a segregated backdrop. Authors hailing from minority communities emphasized on recording the experience of a winding journey enriched by intercultural interactions. This has always been the continuing trend in American literary accomplishments. Themes such as dissociation of identities and social displacement frequent the works of Canfield (Cuddy & Roche, 2003, p. 191, http://books.google.co.in/books?id=gZpP9cWRbN4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Evolution+and+eugenics+in+American+literature+and+culture,+1880-1940:+essays+on+ideological+conflict+and+complicity#v=onepage&q=&f=false). A Drop in the Bucket by Canfield portrays the generic sense of concern and disillusionment that set in among the New Englanders in the beginning of the twentieth century. The materials of this work can be found long back in the early 17th century when the colonist traders began searching for their prospective markets to promote staple productions. New England and the Chesapeake were singled out in the beginning. This was a major event in the colonial history of America because it influenced the economy of the nation to a considerable extent. But despite a seemingly infallible machinery deployed by the colonial regime to regulate the economy, conflicts between the colonial merchants and their English counterparts steadily mounted. As a result of this fight for economic control in Virginia and South Carolina, a major segment of the eastern coastline would later on be dominated by the local class (Hornsby & Hermann, 2005, p. 73, http://books.google.co.in/books?id=oMvXsDXvI_YC&pg=PP1&dq=British+Atlantic,+American+frontier:+spaces+of+power+in+early+modern+British+America#v=onepage&q=&f=false). Bayor (2003) argues that efforts to politically subvert the Chesapeake area fetched very little result in favor of the British settlers, for the natives had already been familiar with such measures. Now if we wonder how the American literature drew on from these long-standing conflicts, it is imperative to shift our focus from mere economic issues to acculturation of different social values and norms (p. 3, http://books.google.co.in/books?id=sInsPqpEgKgC&pg=PP1&dq=Race+and+ethnicity+in+America:+a+concise+history#v=onepage&q=&f=false). Influence of Cabeza de Vaca To find an answer to the aforementioned thesis, it is critical to examine one of the earlier works of American literature by Cabeza de Vaca. Vaca’s Relation depicts an authentic, first hand account of the common lives in the extremely turbulent and uncertain colonial times. This piece of literary work along with a few others such as A True Relation of Such Occurences and Accidents of Noate as Hath Hapned in Virginia Since the First Planting of that Collony by John Smith, Account of the Early Life . . . Written by Herself by Elizabeth Ashbridge, and To My Dear Children by Anne Bradstreet is underlined by an interesting pattern in relation to how American literature gradually departed from the English tradition and cemented a place of its own. Basic knowledge of history would attest to the fact that the European nations in the 16th and the 17th centuries did not have to undergo any kind of colonial oppression. But as for the Americans, their individual identities were put to test by the diversified ethnic layers and subcultures bobbed up from the clashes between the immigrants and the indigenous people. Many literary tools were simultaneously challenged and accepted in the frameworks of the English and the American literature. Quite typically, the English school was more akin to a brooding discourse whereas the emerging American literature sought to resolve the contentious issues by adopting a more implicit and outwardly stance. Elements such as racism, financial depravation, oppositions both from within the territories as well as from outside, and discrepancies in religious orientations highlight the literature of colonial America. The works of Vaca, for instance, elicit active responses from the readers because of the author’s imploring portrayal of various ethnic disputes and conflicts (Gunn, 1994, p. xxxv, http://books.google.co.in/books?id=OlphD37HAY4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Early+American+writing#v=onepage&q=&f=false). The blending of cultural hegemonies led to a conflicting scenario in that the natives often failed to differentiate between self-identity and collective identity of respective communities. So it is quite clear that literature born of such a mix had to be more inclined to ethnocentricity than to the language of money. Captain John Smith The British account of the colonial phases is held significant as far as the molding of period American literature is concerned. Captain John Smith’s account is of worth consideration in this regard. However, it might be noted that the eastern parts of the Mississippi had been plagued with ‘historical realities’ such as ‘Conquest, conflict, migration, and acculturation’ (Bayor, 2003, p. 3, http://books.google.co.in/books?id=sInsPqpEgKgC&pg=PP1&dq=Race+and+ethnicity+in+America:+a+concise+history#v=onepage&q=&f=false). The local inmates had overpowering dispositions to forming friendly ties with each other, so that outsiders can be warded off in case of external invasions. Now in the cultural-political context of the early colonialism in the Americas, it was almost predefined as to who should rule the territories and settle disputes. But as soon as the British government interfered into the internal matters of the New World, especially Virginia, clashes sparked off across different offshoots, most notably reflected in ethnic disparities. Jamestown in Virginia, which was under the military command of Captain John Smith, was set up in view of not just expanding the British colonies in the Americas, but also to convert the local people. Captain Smith faced a challenging task in handling the labors who often engaged in violent clashes among themselves. These labors belonged to the native classes that formed the chassis of the British dreams of reinstating Jamestown as a profitable colony. Under trying circumstances in the formative years in the beginning of the 17th century, both the colonists as well as the natives underwent enduring times as diseases and malnutrition struck the Virginia colony (Gems et al., 2008, p. 16, http://books.google.co.in/books?id=acsmf0Cq488C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Sports+in+American+History:+From+Colonization+to+Globalization#v=onepage&q=&f=false). This even fate of the rulers and the ruled had a connotation akin to poetic justice, which was later recollected by Captain Smith. Albeit the British account maintains a distance from the intensely subjective rendering of the days of struggle, it qualifies to be a genuine documentation of colonial conflicts. Conclusion Studying various sources of American literature in the nation’s colonial history, it won’t be unfair to claim that periodic literature was merely a phase which gradually subsided in the 20th and the 21st centuries. The authors of periodic documentations of hardships only captured what they saw in front of them. Frequent rise of conflicts and altercations melted away gradually as other settlers began exercising their moderate might over the native people. The initial flurry of clashes between the native tribes and the British settlers was remotely mentioned in the Spanish narratives. It goes to show that the colonial conflict was no longer as serious an issue by the time the 19th century dawned. Roosevelt’s declaration of welfare imbibed a sense of oneness and national integrity among the Americans in the 20th century. References Bayor, R. H. (2003). Race and ethnicity in America: a concise history. New York: Columbia University Press. Bloechl, O. A. (2008). Native American song at the frontiers of early modern music. New York: Cambridge University Press. Cuddy, L. A., & Roche, C. M. (2003). Evolution and eugenics in American literature and culture, 1880-1940: essays on ideological conflict and complicity. Cranbury, New Jersey: Bucknell University Press. Gems, G. R., Borish, L. J., & Pfister, G. (2008). Sports in American History: From Colonization to Globalization. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics. Gunn, G. B. (1994). Early American writing. Hudson Street, New York: Penguin Classics. Hornsby, S., & Hermann, M. (2005). British Atlantic, American frontier: spaces of power in early modern British America. Lebanon, NH: UPNE. Read More