Native American Contact and Conflict

Tiffany Garcia

English 48A

December 8, 2009

Native American Contact and Conflict Journal

"Native Americans seemed to regard their lighter-complexioned visitors as something of a marvel, not only for their dress, beards, and winged ships but even more for their technology-steel knives and swords, fire-belching arquebus [a firearm]…other items unusual to the way of life of Native Americans. "
-Angelfire.com

"significantly different value systems than those of the European colonists. The differences in culture between the Native Americans and Europeans, and the shifting alliances among different nations of each culture, led to great misunderstandings and long lasting cultural conflicts."
-Wikipedia

"Native Americans had no concept of "private property". Because of this many treaties were signed giving "white men" the right to take the land." -West Virginia Archives and History

Pontiac:
“‘How can you hope, encumbered as you are, to succeed in your design? Go down to the foot of the mountain, throw away your gun, your ammunition, your provisions, and your clothing; wash yourself in the stream…’” (Norton 439)
Summary: A native gave a speech, explaining their need to go back to their ways, the way they lived before they were influenced into the white men’s ways of living. Native Americans had forgotten their traditions and customs which benefits the white men. He sees the French as their friends though and mentions it in his speech.

Occom:
“Mr. Wheelock wanted to See me as Soon as possible. So I went up, thinking I Should be back again in a few Days; when I got up there, he received me With kindness and Compassion…” (Norton 442)
Summary: Occom, a Native American was educated by a Reverend E. Wheelock. He was In this short manuscript, Occom speaks about himself becoming a minister but doesn’t mention Wheelock’s treatment to his family. While Occom was raising funds for the Indian education school, Wheelock was to watch after Occom’s family but didn’t for when Occom came back he found them in great poverty.

Jefferson:
“the sincerity of a treaty should be distrusted, from which so distinguished a chief absented himself…” (Norton 444)
Summary: Logan, the Mingo chief, gave a speech to be read as he wasn’t present as the Natives lost the war in 1774. He had a representative to surrender for him. His speech speaks of his kindness to the white men and how they repay him by murdering his loved ones. He does not fear them or death. It was because of those who had murdered his family that he sought out revenge.


Jacket:
“‘Brother: The Great Spirit has made us all, but HE has made a great difference between his white and red children’” (Norton 446)
Summary: Red Jacket gave a speech as an answer to the Christians request for them to all convert to Christianity. He spoke of his and their respect for their religion but must decline as it is not theirs and gives his reasons why. They believe the Great Spirit wants them to keep their own customs. He however notes of the whites quarreling with other whites of religion so doesn’t know who speaks truthfully so cannot take everything accounted for, another reason to decline the offer.

Tecumseh:
“‘The white men despise and cheat the Indians; they abuse and insult them; they do not think the red men sufficiently good to live’” (Norton 448)
Summary: Tecumseh gives a speech to other Native tribes of the selfish, abusive, land-hungry white men. He speaks of their need to join together to fight them out once and for all. As they white men now seek to kill them if not the other way around.

Opinion:
All of these readings share “I helped the White men but now they are strong they turn on me” greedy for land and prosperity. Pontiac’s speech explains their need to go back to their own ways because he sees the white men turning on them when they are growing into the white culture. They will stop supplying them when they feel like it, when they want more land. Losing their culture they lose the way they could survive without guns and clothes. The moment the white men turn is the moment the Indians become easy targets to swipe out. Occom was brought taught the white ways and became a minister. When they could use him to earn donations they sent him but didn't look after his family as promised. It was no value to them to look after them so they didn't. Occom just ignores it, he is the oblivious Indian, having been brainwashed in their so called "education" they provided him. We don't know if they were just teaching him to become a minister or to learn the white men were great and to never go against them. Jefferson’s notes and his quote of Logan’s speech shows the injustice of the white men. The white men come to rob them and the Indians must pay them even though it was the Indians that showed them kindness and allowed them to be on their land. Jacket’s speech is my most favorite as he criticizes how the white men call their way “the right way” while they and other white men quarrel over it as there are differences. He and the other Indians accepts their religion as their way but not of the Natives way as if it was meant to be so the Great Spirit would have given it to them himself. He admits he and the other Natives can’t and won’t believe all they say as they have lied and poisoned them, giving them alcohol to act and do foolish things such as winning their land in Poker night when they were drunk. Tecumseh wants to get rid of the white men once and for all, to prevent them from doing more damage to their people and the land that they rightfully own. To do this he needs support from other tribes. I see his voice being pure hatred for the white men as they did make them strong but now wish to use that strength to kill them. It’s interesting how he uses the “Great Spirit” a lot in his speech a lot, “God.” I think these parts were added by the boy Osages as it was him who recorded this speech and might not be accurately Tecumseh who said this. It seems to be to Pilgrim like thing to say.

Beginning of the World

Tiffany Garcia
English 48A

Iroquois/Pima Journal
December 6, 2009

“Stories about the creation of the world tell people who they are by telling them where they come from” (Norton 17)
Having different cultures the Iroquois and the Pimas would have their own versions of how they were first created.

Iroquois
Online Quote:
Other water creatures brought earth from the bottom of the sea to place on the back of Great Turtle, forming the Earth we know today. Some Indians still refer to North America as “Turtle Island.”
–Library of Congress

Summary:
Iroquois Creation Story: A pregnant woman from the upper sky sinks down about to go into the great waters but a large turtle saves her and because he becomes land. The woman sits prepared to give birth to twins however one of the unborn infants is evil and becomes determined to leave his mother’s body from under her side arm. After the twins are born the mother dies. These twins live on creating thinks based on their personality. The good one created human life and other things to keep them alive whereas the bad one created things to jeopardize them. The bad one challenges the good one for control over the universe. They fight for two days until the good one won. The evil one would have control over humans after death.

Opinion:
It is completely natural to want to know how we humans came here. The woman just came out of the sky as the Iroquois cannot find an actual explanation for this beginning. Women are the only ones who can give birth so she has to be the first one here. There are good and bad things on this earth and someone good couldn’t have made human killers so there must be some evil creator. What better way to show his natural evil self than by acting stubborn and selfish and killing his mother most willingly. Good always wins in the end and so does the good twin, wouldn’t be right if it was the other way around, life would be worthless in the hands of evil. Evil is in control of the underworld, hell and so is the evil twin. They both win kingdoms to compromise their need of control.

Prima
Online Quote:
“people who favored stability, settlement, and peace and whose artistic traditions were long and rich. At the time that this story was collected, the Pima were particularly skilled in agriculture and in making sophisticated crafts.” -W.W. Norton

Summary:
The Pimas myth starts with Juhwertamahkai creating the earth then creates Nooee who is meant to help him create life on earth but leaves instead. Juhwertamahkai creates water, moon, stars and sun. He then creates human life four times but destroys the first three because they unsatisfied him with their canibolism, young gray selves, smoking. The fourth group however is as it is now. The sun and moon’s coyote child is named Toehahvs, and the Seeurhuh become brothers with Noee and Juhwertamahkai. Seeurhuh saw himself as the older brother and is accepted to be so Seeurhuh created a man. This man would marry and have many children. His wives would die leaving his soon to be wife to worry about it. Seeurhuh sees a flood coming and builds a vessel. The other three brothers do similar thing to survive and when they see each other they fight over who is the eldest again. This time Juhwertamahkai tries to destroy them as well Seerhuh protects us from happening. There are diseases left with us causing deaths.

Opinion:
This story explains the birth of nature more than of human birth. Of course there would be no life without nature. “Practice makes perfect” practice creating humans makes them close to perfection. Juhwertamahkai didn’t practice enough. When he has a chance to fix us he doesn’t because he sees his creatures are suitable enough but not Seerhuh wants perfection so protects his humans. Seerhuh makes his Pimas strong though their enemy spoke first. I’m assuming their enemy is Juhwertamahkai’s humans. This could explain the natural enemies between tribes in real life as well.

La Relacion -Cabeza de Vaca

Tiffany Garcia
English 48A
December 2, 2009
Cabeza de Vaca Journal

Book Quote:
"We had come from the sunrise, they from the sunset; we healed the sick, they killed the sound; we came naked and barefoot, they clothed, horsed, and lanced; we coveted nothing but gave whatever we were given, while they robbed whomever they found and bestowed nothing on anyone" (47).

Internet Quote:
"the subtle way the author appeals to the king (to whom the book is addressed) for mercy and for compassion for Native Americans has been regarded as skillful. Critics have also praised the story's pacing and its mood of tension and excitement. Themes of spiritual transformation in the Relación." –Enotes

Summary:
Cabeza de Vaca is writing to the Spanish Emperor, explaining the Indians ways of life; how they are human, even more so than they are. The tribes are great communities that look out for one another. They have some flaw like all do but not as outrageous as one would think. In this time the Emperor and other European countries most likely heard terrible things happening in America and saw it they godly doing to send men there to take over and change it. Cabeza de Vaca explains the truth as he witnesses it himself and sees it the Spaniards who wish to enslave these good people who are in need of Gods guidance.

Opinion:
I found this quote in the book very strong which made it stand out of the whole story for me. He is addressing the Emperor, telling him of the noble Indians who are to be enslaved if he doesn’t do something about Alcaraz and others like him. If the Emperor won’t see it is wrong to enslave these Indians, he will address it strongly that America isn’t theirs to claim. The Indians have not just lived in this land before the Spanish arrived but they were one with the land, they were part of the land. If showing how the Indians are more humane than the Spaniards doesn’t do anything then the Emperor will see the Indians are more durable. They will not be taken advantage of so don’t even try. They knew they didn’t have power over them; they were not as idiotic as they were lead out to be. I think this was a risky move for Casa de Vaca to make as the Emperor might of taken offense to this and would have sent an army to break the Indians strong will.

Letters of Columbus-Columbus

Tiffany Garcia
English 48A
December 1, 2009
Columbus Journal

Book Quote:

“filled with people innumerable, and of them all I have taken possession for their highnesses, by proclamation made and with the royal standard unfurled, and no opposition was offered to me” -Columbus

Online Quote:

“Columbus holds little respect for the Native Americans, based on his portrayal of them being timid and unduly impressed by the mere presence of mortal European men” –Association Content

Summary:

Columbus’ voyage to the “Indies” ends up landing in America. Columbus claims the land for his patroness’, the Spanish crown. When he claims it there is no dispute from the Indians. In his letter he explains his success in finding great things in America. However he doesn’t mention what his patroness’ funded him for finding the Indies with its spices, silk, and other great goods

that are known to be in Asia. He tries to satisfy the crown by mentioning the land that is now

theirs.

Opinion:

The Natives could have just accepted people more than the Europeans would, that would be crazy. The Natives didn’t come to Columbus and his men right away from experiences however they do open up to them and create truce, at least the Indians did. After the Natives had started to share claim to America, they were to be pushed out more and more from their ownership. They weren’t professional thieves, as they didn’t want to claim other land as the Europeans did, they wanted peace, which explain why when Columbus was there they didn't fight right away. We don’t know when the first Natives were able to speak with the Spaniards and others. Without communication and any documents from them, we don’t know if they just accepted what Columbus was doing or if they did try to reason with him. It seems violence wasn't their first idea the Europeans would have resulted to right away. They were also on their turf and weren’t about to flee their homeland, where they could practice their culture freely, Europe wouldn’t accept it. Besides they didn’t have a great ship to take them to another continent anyways. They seem to have hoped to make friendship to keep from wars as they also were already having a population decrease problem; resulting to war would possibly end their race. Do what you can to keep the peace. They did but would be stepped on as a result. Nice guys finish last; the Natives were to lose their land, as they didn’t fight hard to keep their land right from the start, sending a message for Europeans to come on in.

Of Plymouth Plantation - Bradford

Tiffany Garcia
English 48A
11/24/09
Bradford Journal

Book Quote:
“Morton, thinking himself lawless, and hearing what gain the French and fisherman made by trading of pieces, powder, and shot to the Indians, he as the head of this consortship, began the practice of the same in these parts; and first he taught them how to use them, to charge and discharge…” (127).

Online Quote:
"America was seen as a place where they could begin new lives in a colony centered on God and governed in an honorable manner. By creating their own laws as they felt were needed, they allowed themselves the freedoms they did not see in England."
-Associated Content

Summary:
Bradford’s Manuscript begins with notifying us they had another ship before the Mayflower, the Speedwell, however was not suitable enough for travel so ended up getting the Mayflower. They are on the ship, they are having seasickness, and only one unpleasant man dies from a disease and is thrown overboard. They arrive in Cape Cod instead of Virginia. They find Native food while looking for water. They settle in Plymouth, Massachusetts. They Natives stay away from them but watch the puritans. Winter comes as the Puritans run out of supplies and half the population dies from diseases. They do meat Squanto who is a Native but speaks English. He teaches them how to live there; he saves them from starvation. Years pass before more settlers come but have a different idea of life. They are not Puritans and are giving power to the Natives, guns. Morton, the leader of the group is later forced out. Besides having a different belief from the Puritans he was a threat to their safety by showing the Indians they could have more power than them, they could over-run the Puritans should they choose to.

Opinion:
Bradford never states he and the other puritans were trading giving guns to the Indians so I will assume not. Guns are more effective than bows and so they felt more protected in being the only one with guns. These are one of the major reasons why they wanted Morton out as he was giving the Natives guns. This made the puritans more in danger. They must have already seen they were not given the guns for any reason other to train them and for them to do the main fighting’s. If not to kill each other’s tribe than to kill the puritans who are already settled there. The Puritans were already in small numbers because of the cold winter that killed half of the population; they were in danger of being cleaned out entirely and it would have been the Native’s gun supplier’s fault, Morton.

Anne Bradstreet

Tiffany Garcia
English 48A
Bradstreet Journal

Book Quote:
“All things within this fading world hath end…Who with salt tears this last farewell did take”

Online Quote:
“Anne Bradstreet contrasts the transitory nature of earthly treasure with eternal treasures, and seems to see these trials as lessons from God” –Associated Content

Summary:
Anne Bradstreet was a woman Puritan who wrote personal poetry and were exposed in publication without her knowledge. Her work explain everyday life for Puritan women but also share her personal question whether there is a God and why doesn’t he come to her and others. But resolves it is God’s will.

Opinion:
As all things must end she must let go and accept it is the way it is meant to be, as being a puritan she must believe it so. In other poems of hers she mentions she will be rejoined with the ones she loves in heaven, an after-life. However in this one she ends a “last farewell” no comfort of seeing one another in heaven. I believe it isn’t there for a reason because in such a case of leaving her child and husband, she would try to comfort them as much as she could as a good woman puritan does. Because death from childbirth was so common, and she explains her belief of her possibly dying she writes this poem in hope of comforting those she cares for but doesn’t say she’ll see them in the after life and her personal history of her lack of belief in God comes in. She sees she will most likely die and leaves this poem as she will die and never see them again. But if there is a God let him watch them who she leaves.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God -Edwards

Tiffany Garcia
English 48A
Edwards Journal

Book Quote:
“Their case is past all hope…but here you are…in the house of God, and have an opportunity to obtain salvation”

Internet Quote:
“After filling their hearts with fear, he uses this image to show them that there is indeed a light at the end of the tunnel in the form of God's mercy and forgiveness. There is no doubt as to the effectiveness of his tactics in using imagery to penetrate into the hearts and minds of those who are present.” –Associated Content

Summary:
Jonathan Edwards sermon puts the fear of God into his listeners. Throughout the sermon he repeats they are meaningless to God he doesn’t need them, they need him to be saved, they are damned for Hell. Then a few paragraphs before the end he turns and tells them there is still hope for salvation if they are not great worshipers of God because it is God who keeps them from falling into the pit of hell’s fire.

Opinion:
This sermon starts and continues to send the message we are sinners and are damned, we are to soon to be dropped into the fires of hell, there is no way to prevent it even if you try so hard to sneak around it; however this all changes just a few paragraphs from the end. Just when the listeners give-up believed to be damned, they learn there is hope for salvation. The metaphors give the listeners help in imagining what they are seen to be, what they are damned to endure; they are nothing, wicked, a burden and can easily be rid of into the flames of hell. Edwards gives the listeners hope to change what they are destined for and will do whatever it takes. They were dedicated to their religion hoping that was the answer for guaranteeing salvation. Edwards completed his mission in this sermon, get them to be more dedicated to the church, believing to be saved by God and should worship him for doing so.

Common Sense -Thomas Paine

Tiffany Garcia

English 48A
11/10/09

Book Quote:

“if you have, and can still shake hands with the murderers, then are you unworthy the name of husband, father, friend, or lover, and whatever may be your rank or title in life, you have the heart of a coward, and the spirit of a sycophant.” –(Paine 635)

Online Quote:

“With these defining words, Thomas Paine strikes fear into those Americans who do not support the revolution. Paine resorts to name calling when he refers to the British as ‘murderers’ and all their supporters as ‘cowards’ and ‘sycophants.’ This attempt is logical in the sense that Paine asks his audience to step back and look at themselves. It is this self-reflecting approach that he uses in order to further capture his audience. –Socyberty

Summary:

Thomas Paine’s Common Sense was a pamphlet that was meant to uproar the people of the English colonies against Great Britain. Pain’s introduction addresses the abusiveness of power by the crown and its claim to have the right. He also mentions the author will not be revealed. The rest of what we see in Norton’s Anthology version, Paine argues the need and benefit of breaking connections from Great Britain. America’s living by trade will do better business throughout Europe if it has an open dock. Great Britain has not protected them from America’s enemies but from their own enemies, Great Britain’s. Though most of them have originated from England, England had originated from France so if they should be in control by their origin then England should be controlled by its origin France.

Opinion:

I find him to get aggressive with his readers in this part which is good to get their extreme attention. It is dangerous though because the reader could take it so insulting and ridiculous that they would have thrown the pamphlet out. However most of them didn’t because it was written at the right time when the colonies were already tired of Great Britain and wanted to be rid of them. They had already experienced a great amount of murders by the red coats. Their loved ones murderers would not have gone away to prison as they would if they were in English soil. But because these colonies were already seen as a threat in loss of power because of the great distance, the crown would need to keep them on their toes and would be taken advantage of them.

The interesting narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano

Online Quote:
“He was a victim and a witness of the hardships and chose to share his rough journey during those tragic moments in his life”

- Associated Content

Book Quote:
“While I was thus employed by my master, I was often a witness to cruelties of every kind, which were exercised on my unhappy fellow slaves” (Equiano 696).

Summary:
Born in Africa, he and his sister are kidnapped and re separated forever. He tossed to different masters then goes on a ship bound for Barbadoes. Throughout this story he describes the conditions of slaves that are suffering more than he; keeps thanking God for his blessing of a kinder master. He puts his trust in what God believes should happen to him. There were plenty of them that made offers to buy him but Mr. King, his master at the time, wouldn’t. His last master does treat him right and gives him a chance to earn his freedom by earning the money he paid to buy him. Gustavus earns the money in trade.

Opinion:
I am stuck with two opinions of this story. For one I believe he shows himself stronger than the other slaves because he stuck out from the other slaves, not easily broken as others were, committing suicide because they weren’t strong enough. Another way to see this story is he doesn’t show himself so awfully treated as other slaves were because he doesn’t want to put himself in the spotlight as they should be. I know he was once extremely beaten but didn’t suffer constantly through life as the other slaves did most likely; he was the lucky masters that were as cruel as others were. In the end was placed in the right hands that would be humane and reasonable to let Gustavus Vassa earn his freedom by earning the money that was paid for him. Telling other slave owners “why can’t we all be reasonable?” If they were better treated maybe they wouldn’t be so relentless to work for you after all as Gustavus wasn’t for Mr. King. He did wish for his freedom as any slave would but didn’t try anything as others did because of their ill treatment. It is in this story we also see Christianity used as a tool to keep slaves from rebelling slavery. The consequences were “God would not love me” (692). Gustavus was faithful to god will and might have believed what his master said to be true.

An Indian's Looking-Glass... -William Apess

Book Quote:
“And you know as well as I that you are not indebted to a principal beneath a white skin for your religious services but to a colored one” - Apess

Online Quote:
“Apess contrasts whites’ savage treatment of non-whites with their professed Christianity… This concept of equality of all people under God made Christianity very appealing to Indian converts and to slaves.” –Cengage Learning

Summary:
This essay first describes the conditions for the people, mainly the women and children of Indian tribes. The white mans' usage of women and “rum.” Part of the reason it was like this because they lacked knowledge and were defenseless (reminds me of Douglass). But white men like these were professed Christians and to be looked up to though they were not like God for God was not white skinned. He reads passages of the bible to prove these men to be false. Men such as these are hurtful non-Christians.

Opinion:
These white people saw themselves so close to God and being so close, they could mistreat others; even though Christ wasn’t white. Some slaves and natives were encouraged or forced to convert to Christianity, part of the way to clean their souls that are to be damned for not being white. They also needed to be constantly punished, beaten to pay for their sins, for being non-white. It was just another tool to make non-whites fear the white man for he could influence God to let them in if he wanted to because he was so committed to him. The white man is a servant of God, the color man is a servant of the white man. Apess cracks that invented story having been one to convert to Christianity by his master. Apess saw “Christianity as incompatible with any form of race prejudice” as racism reeked in that time period.

Rip Van Winkle -W. Irving

Online Quote:
“…a man, a country who is longing to be free. Rip Van Winkle also depicts the life of a town before and after "liberty." Rip Van Winkle's character portrays the society of America as it was seen by England at the time, as lazy and unproductive, England is represented by Rip's wife, Dame Van Winkle, orderly and productive...” –Associated Content

Book Quote:
“the country had thrown off the yolk of old England-and that, instead of being a subject of his Majesty… he had got his neck out of the yolk of matrimony, and could go in and out whenever he pleased.” –Irving (964)

Summary:
Rip Van Winkle was a good kind man who would help all his fellow townsmen and played with the children. He however did not act the family man that he should have been in his wife’s eyes. He didn’t farm, he didn’t work; he would leave the house everyday and hunt. When he was hunting he explored with his dog Wolf. He is out one day and it starts to rain but he helps a man asks him to bring a load to Kaatskill mountains. He spent a night there and returns to town to find out twenty years has passed. His home is gone and his family. He cannot find his friends but meets a group of people saying he is “a loyal subject of the king” to those who have had a revolution to end the kings’ power. Rip finds his daughter a good wife and mother; his son turned out as he did. He finds his wife dead to his relief, free at last.

Opinion:
Rip Van Winkle represented the colonists who were rebelling against the king. His wife was seen as the king who demanded order and obedience. Rip wants to be free to do as he pleases; his wife wants him to be a farmer that is the suitable job for him and other colonists. Colonists were to farm and send their crop to England after all. Rip is comforted to learn that his wife has died as the people are happy to have liberties. When he hears of the matters the people are discussing he is at lost. What are they thinking? Is there such thing as having freedom? Something the people couldn’t imagine could happen has happened and Rip is just as surprised because it isn’t his time and his time would never hear of such a thing. Excommunicating the king would be high treason and the people loved their king no matter what. Yes Irving was freed from commitment to his fiancé and responsibilities to work in the family firm. He did use marriage to show the need of responsibilities and commitments that held Rip. He is free when his wife dies and his children are grown. The whole point of the story was “freedom.”

Resistance to Civil Government - Henry D. Thoreau

Book Quote:
“There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them; who, esteeming themselves children of Washington and Franklin, sit down with their hands in their pockets, and say that they know not what to do, and do nothing”
– Thoreau (1860)

Online Quote:
“he believed his truest identity would be found in differentiating himself from the common herd of humanity, which he saw as mediocre, morally lazy, and cowardly. He was an individualist; he held that each person’s responsibility is to follow the highest leadings of personal conscience”
- Enotes.com

Summary:
Thoreau’s essay is about our government’s disadvantages to us the people. Our government is “but a tradition, though a recent one.” The corruption and in just in the government is not the idea when creating the Constitution but has over taken its purpose. It is a nuisance for the people and does not intend to improve on its own unless the people demand it, you must speak. War is not the answer. The Mexican War was a root to the civil war and was taken place during the creation of this essay. Thoreau did not support the war and did not pay the poll tax for it and goes to jail for a day willingly. He was the nonconformist that others were afraid to be. Everyone else felt they needed to follow as none of them could think for themselves as they should.

Opinion:
I truly get Thoreau’s thoughts about everyone, including myself, being the cowards of the government. Too afraid to be seen as a traitor should we speak against it. War should not be the answer to anything and that is what this essay is mainly about as he wanted to write about his imprisonment for not paying the war tax the “poll tax.” Everyone has an opinion but doesn’t go farther than that because they are cowards and can’t see themselves making a difference to anything so stay in the dark. As this happens you leave the government to make the decisions for you, which you will go along because again, you see yourself as too small. Though this describes the government in Thoreau’s time, eighteen forty-nine, we still have these issues in two-thousand and nine. War is our answer, we don’t see our selves making a difference so we just go as far as making opinions. Of course the middle class is still taxed the most, “the institution which makes him rich.” Of course the government is going to be looking out for themselves and put away their consciences.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl -Jacobs

Book Quote:
“When they told me my new-born babe was a girl, my heart was heavier than it had ever been before. Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own” (Jacobs 1820). –Norton Anthology: American Literature

Internet Quote:
“a unique perspective on the complex plight of the black woman as slave and as writer. In a story that merges the conventions of the slave narrative with the techniques of the sentimental novel, Harriet Jacobs describes her efforts to fight off the advances of her master, her eventual liaison with another white man (the father of two of her children), and her ultimately successful struggle for freedom” –Oxford University Press

Summary:
A born slave, Linda Brent (Harriet Jacobs) is not aware that her future has been decided since she was born. When she is six years old she becomes possession but is not treated as a slave until she is twelve years old. Her first mistress was close to her mother and taught Linda to read and spell. When she moves to her new master’s Mr. and Mrs. Flint, she is talked down to and is of interest to Mr. Flint. Falling in love with a colored free born, is forbidden to marry and that is when Mr. Flint starts to show his interest in her and abusing. Afraid of giving Flint satisfaction, she gives her innocence to a white-man named Mr. Sands. Unmarried as he was didn’t seem so bad, giving Sands two children one a boy and one girl (the one who will suffer greatly as her mother did). She decides to hide in her grandmother’s attic for seven years as slave catchers would surely catch her. Runs to the north with her daughter as her son hides in California. She learns she legally has a new master who is set in getting their property back, her. Running away she is informed she has been purchased by her friend Mrs. Bruce. She dislikes this notion but accepts her friends’ kindness and returns to her in New York. She is freed from Mrs. Bruce as she purchased her to have to power to do so.

Opinion:
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl exposed more than other writers did at this time, exposing her shame as others wouldn’t. Women were to be pure, no matter what your status was. She had to share her story, hoping others to see what she went through and making the necessary changes for others. Of course there were scholars that have said it is fiction. Make it seem that there is no truth; otherwise people would want to end slavery. Men suffering in slavery are mentioned very little because they have been exposed enough by other writers, someone needs to remember the women slaves who have additional tasks than the field worker, such as warming the bed with her master. Causing problems could result in the separation of her family as it had happened to her grandmother who she was close to hers. Jacobs didn’t want peity but want us the reader to feel her pain and to know her feelings as to feel enough to try to abolish slavery.

Narrative Of The Life -Douglass

Book Quote:

“if you teach a n----r… there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of not value to his master…. I now understood … the white man’s power to enslave the black man” (Douglass 2086).

Internet Quote:

“he realizes that the ability of powerful whites to control slaves comes not so much from physical control as it does from mental domination. As long as whites can keep slaves ignorant, they can control them” by Yahoo Education Cliff Notes

Brief Summary:

Frederick Douglass, a born slave, taken from his mother early in the story, is unaware of who is his father and shares their awful treatment, their punishments, and the unfairness. He is sold to another farm before he goes to Baltimore. It is when he is about eight is when he is sent to Baltimore, as a slave to start working as one, that he sees the light, the hope of another life rather than forever be a slave. When he arrives at Baltimore, his mistress, not knowing how to act as a slave owner, starts to teach him how to read. Though this is soon stopped, it was what triggered him to continue, knowing the possibility of it leading him to his freedom. He was not badly treated there but was forbidden to learn. However whenever he had a chance he was reading newspapers, books, practicing writing with people in a tricky manner. He is however sent back Colonel Lloyd’s plantation that he works as a slave does, and is broken by it. He final however fights back, restoring his confidence that he can find a way to get his freedom. Later he makes a plan to runaway but is caught with others but is sent to back to Baltimore, works a while until he finally makes his second attempt to runaway and succeeds. Throughout this story he is around Christian people who are preached to beat their slaves and torment them, making it seem they are doing the lords work in doing so.

Your Ideas:

Born a slave, never believing there was hope in becoming free, he was kept ignorant of how he could rebel from this slavery future. They were meant to know nothing only to work. By reading they would know what was going on, try to have an impute in the world, leading to them just as knowledgeable as white men, making them seem equal. The white folks would also see their jobs given to cheaper black men to do the same job (sort of like now with work going overseas). Not to mention if they knew how to write then slaves could write a free pass for themselves as Frederick did. The south were going to lose their slaves, meaning their fortune like Colonel Lloyd would because of his cheap labor. Education was the key to freedom and possibly to the end of slavery (since it wouldn’t work when everyone is educated, giving them a chance for a better life). It amazes me how they were kept in the dark, never having a actual thought on how the slave-owners kept them under control, at least Frederick didn’t until Mr. Auld discusses it with his wife in front of him. Slaves just accepted that they were meant for that life and no way to escape it except to die, as many did choose to. If only they knew there was the north, a place that they could run to for freedom, they could at least die trying instead of just giving up but ignorant as they were they probably didn’t even know which way was north nor did they know that is what any different than the south.

The Fall of the House of Usher -Poe

Book Quote:
“The result was discoverable, he added, in that silent, yet importunate and terrible influence which for centuries had molded the destinies of his family, and which made him what I now saw him—what he was. Such opinions need no comment, and I will make none.”

Online Quote:
“[Poe would] create powerful emotional responses in his fiction through the use of language. Several of his stories depicted psychologically unstable characters” –enotes.com

Summary:
The story begins with a narrator, also known as the friend, speaking of his history with Roderick Usher as he journeys to visit him. The friend was requested by Roderick after so many years, as they were child hood friends, and speaks urgently as he desperately needs him. He arrives at the Usher mansion, a most depressing place from the looks of it and only to see his friend the same way. Roderick had a sister, a twin, who had died recently, who he sees as a ghost and the narrator stays with him hoping Usher will get his sanity back. Finally putting Madeline into a proper resting place only later does she raise from the dead in a storm and takes her other half of her, her brother.

Opinion:
This story seems to be about insanity. How do we become insane and how you could cure it. We are shown the different ways to become insane in this story. The gloomy, traditional mansion, extremely quiet, and the marriages within the same blood line. Poe liked looking at the unstable people and think what thoughts they might have as well.

"The Minister's Black Veil " -Hawthorne

Online Quote:
“Other scholars have found that the focus of the story is not on what motivates Hooper to wear the veil, but the effect the covering has on the minister and his congregation”- enotes.com

Book Quote:
“’Why do you tremble at me alone?’ cried he, turning his veiled face round the circle of pale spectators. ‘Tremble also at each other… I look around me, and lo! on every visage a black veil!’”

Summary:
The Minister’s Black Veil takes place in Milford, Massachusetts during the time of the first puritans. Reverend Mr. Hooper has a reputation of being a great minister and enters into Milford. The story starts on his arrival and the people start their uproars and gossiping on the meaning of the black veil. There is soon a funeral of a young lady, leading rumors that he had loved this woman which would be obvious that he loved her and would mourn for her death. There is a couple that marry soon later and the veil is seen as “evil” as it is black, make everyone scared for the couple. After the wedding he sees his reflection causing him to leave. His fiancé, Elizabeth, too is disturbed by the veil and its meaning and leaves him. After many years had passed he is near death. They wish to take off his veil but he finally brings us some understanding for the veil. As the people fear him because the veil is symbolized as sin and at this time you would avoid sin, even if they have done it themselves. They have all sinned, not just him, “every visage a black veil!”

Opinion:
We have all sinned one way or another; he chooses to punish himself by
covering his sinful face. The puritans see him as a monster, not normal. Others travel far to see him because they believe him to be a god fearing man who has sinned as they have but think it ridiculous to punish himself instead of waiting for judgment day as they all are. He wants to do the good works before being judged and so is a minister and covers his face to show he knows he has done wrong and wishes to be forgiven. Hooper wears an actual black veil to hide his sinful face but the people around the community can’t or won’t see why. They have sinned and wear a black veil though they don’t constantly remember themselves having it (having sinned) and why (and how they have sinned).

Book Quote:
“I want you to come down and look at this Wolfe, standing there among the lowest of his kind…remember the heavy years he has groped through as a boy and man…There is no hope that it will ever end” –Davis, 2605

Online Quote:
“This was Rebecca Harding's vision of industrial Appalachia, and it was an incendiary one—reminding the country that Appalachia was not a foreign land, but a vital American crossroads of immigrant groups, blacks, and courageous women, all of whom were playing a significant role in our nation's industrial saga.”

-Jeff Biggers, The Atlantic

Summary:
Davis tells us these hard labors environment conditions and how no one will attempt to fix them and their situations. There are men who claim that they cannot afford to help, actually keeping their superior status instead. There are those who claim to be not so wealthy as they appear to be and others who openly state their opinions on the less fortunate as they do not see their benefit in helping those less fortunate. Deborah, a woman who can never be seen as beautiful in Wolfe’s eyes as he has an eye for it, try’s to gain his love by stealing the money needed to start a new life, away from such conditions. Attempting to return the money, Wolfe is caught while deciding what he will do, with or without the money. He is caught and sentenced the max of time “but it was for ‘xample’s sake”. Cell neighbor, Deborah, sees the symptoms of his soon to be death, “the gray shadow”. He would have slept with the mud and ash as he did when alive but is taken to a peaceful hill.

Opinion:
Davis’s Life in the Iron-Mills main focus is these immigrated hard labor workers and their chances of rising. They live in such terrible conditions and cannot see themselves rising from them. It is even likely it will pass on to the next generation as they were born a part of. There is no help in rising from the mud and ashes. These women like Deborah worked to death and lose their face in society as they become deformed from the long hours of labor. These meaningless creatures are given a choice to continue hard labor work in factories, their death sentences, or escape it by taking from the rich.

"Uncle Tom's Cabin" - Harriet B. Stowe

Book Quote:
“’Ma’am,’ she said, suddenly, “have you ever lost a child?’” -Stowe


Internet Quote:
Her basic argument is that black’s suffer just as much as whites, and therefore it is just as wrong to mistreat them. Throughout the book Stowe approaches the idea of slavery from an unwavering Christian viewpoint.
-Ink Weaver Review

Summary:
Eliza is a runaway slave with her son who is to be sold. Desperate to keep her only surviving son she runs and is chased after the trader who is to sell her son. The trader is accompanied by Sam and Andy who are seen to be idiots as slaves are believed to be. Sam and Andy with the women folk attempt to slow down the trader from catching Eliza and her son. Eliza manages to Meet Mr. Bird, a senator and Mrs. Bird, a Christian woman. The couple dispute over the Christianity of turning in slaves until they are involved in a similar case of their own, the separation of a son. Feeling as they do about their lost son, they know Eliza’s pain in the possibility for her son so they help her.

Opinion:
Eliza and Mrs. Bird are used to show their similar emotions, their humanity. Eliza seems to have attempted to compare herself to Mrs. Bird, as if they have the same feelings as a human being does. Eliza is no less a human being than Mrs. Bird. They have experienced lost and are trying to cope with it. As Eliza has lost her other sons to death and her husband to a slave owner, what she has left is her son. Mrs. Bird had lost a son to death but still has her other sons and a husband. Eliza will have nothing if she loses her son, nothing will be left to live for. Sam and Andy play the trader (the white people) who sees them as idiots because of their station and uses it to their advantage in helping slow the trader from finding Eliza. Maybe if they were respected as human beings they act do better, but they’re not. But as the bible says to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, and comfort the desolate, it does not say only to certain people. Who’s law should be followed; the courts or gods?

Second Inaugural Address -Lincoln

Book Quote:
“declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation”- Lincoln

Internet Quote:
“According to Brooks, Journalist Noah Brooks, the audience received the speech in ‘profound silence,’ although some passages provoked cheers and applause. ‘Looking down into the faces of the people, illuminated by the bright rays of the sun, one could see moist eyes and even tearful faces.’”
– Speeches and Writings

Summary:
Abraham Lincoln’s speech is not what the people would have expected it to be. Instead of celebrating the fact that they are winning the war, he reminds them it’s a war not a competition. They have been in war for four years and because it has been long, they have forgotten why and how it started in the first place. There were those who sought out to dissolve the Union and made a war to see it happen. The government wanted to do no more than to restrict the expansion of slavery. Though all have read the bible we manage to ask the lord to dominate over each other, the north and south. Let them finish the work of war and prevent it from happening again. The war may be over soon but we cannot be sure. And when God says enough we still need to fix the wounds of the Union.

Opinion:
Most presidents would give a speech encourage the people to fight, win, and be better than others as long as it is an enemy. Lincoln shocked his audience as they were expecting such a speech. Realizing no matter winning or losing the war, they are actually losing. As it is not a war with someone else, it’s a war within themselves, their nation. Americans fighting Americans.