Civil_Rights

Discuss the nature of the relationship between the English and the Indians, the techniques used by both sides to assert their interests, and the reasons the English were ultimately victorious. In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue. He found the new world, a world which was soon to be dominated by the white man. Initially, for a little time, there were good relations between the Indians and the English. This was yet to be changed drastically. The English brought with them diseases such as plague and smallpox which the Indians were not immune to, animals the Indians had never seen, and weapons the Indians may have never even thought of. The English were prepared with guns and mechanical weapons while the Indians had poor resources, able to only fight with bows and arrows. Being peaceful, the Indians wanted no violence to erupt with these new folks, but that wasn’t going to last forever, rather it wouldn’t last for even a little time. The English were coldhearted and ready to massacre the Indians unlawfully. When the English came to the new world they tried to dominate everything they could. They tried to steal the Indians’ land, their children, and their women. The Indians couldn’t do much, they lacked the equipment to fight back and they were peaceful, not wanting to fight. As time flew by, the English fully established their presence in the new world. It was clear that they were here to stay, and their impact was yet to get severe. Over time, as the English were establishing their presence and creating a new society, they were pushing the Indians away from the land that once belonged to them. Although the Indians may have wanted to do something there was so much they could actually do. They were outnumbered in power and resources, it would be impossible to stop the English. By the 1600s, as the Indians had moved deeper into the west, laws were being created in the new English society that would help to better it. The Virginia House of burgesses, in 1619, enacted ways to stabilize the foundation of the new world by trying to convert the Indians into Christianity. They hoped to accomplish this by acquiring native children and hoping to educate them in Christianity. The English hoped to do this mostly with young boys, insightfully “brainwashing” the young children and raising them with this religion and hoping to educate them. This may have worked to gain the English more support from Indians. Furthermore, for every attempt the Indians made to peacefully interact with the English, the English took the opportunity to foolishly dishonor the respectful Indians. In Document B, Edward Waterhouse, an English man, recalls a day in 1622 when some Indians came into some English men’s home unarmed and trying to sell or trade deer, turkeys, fish, furs, and other provisions for glass, beads, and other little things. The English took these kinds of opportunities many times to maliciously attack and murder the innocent, unarmed Indians. No matter what the Indians did, in the most peaceful manner, the English had to turn everything violent. The illustration in Document C depicts the attack on Pequot Fort, to the Pequot Tribe. The English defeated the Pequot’s during the war as the English burned down their homes and obliterate the villages of the Indians. There was so much the Indians could do to fight back the Indians who had much more sophisticated weapons and techniques. This shows just one way how the English took advantage of the Indians. As the years went by, times slowly changed. In a way, perhaps, after violently torturing the Indians, depriving them the little bit they had to begin with, the English were becoming a bit fond of the Indians. For the most part, it wasn’t a lot of the English folks, more so the few English that were nice to the Indians were infuriating the vast majority of other English men. As Document E shows, in 1677 a Governor that sought to protect the Indians was the center of riots and infuriated citizens. The Governor then sought to secretly trade with these Indians who had actually treated the Governor much better than his own people. In conclusion, although the Indians were peaceful people that did nothing to deserve what they got from the English, they were taken advantage of and sabotaged. In the 1600s, continuing into the 1700s, the English-Indian relations may have enhanced slightly, but a majority of the time the English did a whole lot to torture the Indians. The Indians when trying to make peace were brutally murdered, their homes were destroyed, and they were outnumbered in power by the English who had sophisticated weapons and techniques that were used to take over the Indians’ land. More so, the English were ultimately victorious because they had the upper edge in planning, weapons, and they were facing a group of people that did not wish to be violent to begin with.