Right from the start of chapter 2 in the first paragraph, we see this idea of salves—” She came, she traded, and shortly afterwards was gone. Probably no ship in modern history has carried a more portentous freight. Her cargo? Twenty slaves” (23). From reading the first paragraph, it never occurred to me that we aren’t taught that there are slaves brought to Jamestown. While I was in elementary school, we took a field trip to Jamestown—while here, what I recall, the workers reenact what life was like during the settlement, and not one of the workers was a person of color. Jamestown and education failed to mention the idea of slaves during the early part of the English settlement.
Another interesting thought that really was never taught was the idea that Zinn states, “The Indians were on their own land. The whites were in their own European culture” (25). The Europeans did not ask, they just took and kept taking what they wanted. The natives were forced by the Europeans to move and make room. I wish that just simple phrases and ideas like this were taught in history. We are taught that natives were here, but never taught that this truly was their home and their life. Going back to the first Thanksgiving… we are taught that it was peaceful and there was no conflict at all. No mention of the natives they were basically forced to give way to the Europeans. In a way, all the Europeans thought that they were superior to everyone else. Going back to Columbus he did not care about the lives of natives. If they were in his way, oh well move them out. The Europeans in almost every case thought that they were the shit and we are taught that they are pretty much just that. History in schools needs rewriting.
I like how you say that we are taught that Native Americans are here rather than this being their home. I never thought about it, but that is very true. The way we were taught made it seem like the Native Americans occupied the Americas but it was never really theirs. This way it made it seem like the actions of the Europeans were less aggressive.
I totally agree I feel that people often forget that the Europeans invaded the indigenous people’s home. It is sometimes viewed and taught that the Native American people are not viewed as real people, even animal-like, due to the lack of technology they had while living. I think the lack of respect for the Native Americans, even in today’s society, has allowed people to be quite ignorant to the perspective of the indigenous people in the times that the Europeans were invading.
That quote really spoke to me too. The natives were in their home, the europeans were within their culture, but the Africans were completely stripped of their families, language, culture, and identity. That along with the truly traumatic, inhumane experience they had before even getting on that ship, will completely break a person. There is no where to run to, there’s no hope of getting out because there is no where to go, no one to run to.