Chapter IX Of Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation

Significant changes occurred in the North American landscape as a result of European settlers. Many of these changes were due to the fundamental differences in which the land was viewed, and thereby treated, by the Native Americans versus the incoming European settlers. Although both groups made significant impacts on their surroundings, the novel Changes in the Land argues that the actions of those inhabiting the English colonies caused much more dramatic and long-lasting alterations. The author of Changes in the Land, William Cronon, attempted to dispel the myth of the first English settlers stumbling upon “virgin land.”

Within the two passages, two Native American writers, N.S. Momaday and D. Brown, deliver two contrasting views on the Native American landscape and experience. Momaday’s awestruck diction and peaceful imagery revel in the seclusion of a scenario which promotes creation. On the other hand, Brown’s forlorn diction and passive tone mourn the lifeless landscape and loss of people forcibly detached from their land. While Momaday writes to explain the admirable beauty of Rainy Mountain, Brown writes to mourn the loss of life stripped in the barren landscape.

The Native Americans offered them succour, which led to new adaptations Colonialism changed the lives of colonists due to harsh climate, new adaptation, and illnesses. In the historical document “ from of Plymouth Plantation,” William Bradford

The ^American Spirit United States History as Seen by Contemporaries Ninth Edition Volume I: To 1877 Houghton Mifflin Company Boston New YorkContents 1 2 Preface xxi New World Beginnings, 33,000 B.C.-A.D.1769 1 A. The Native Americans 1 1. Visualizing the New World (1505, 1509) 1 2. Juan Gines de Sepulveda Belittles the Indians (1547) 3 3.

The ideal most important to early colonists’ survival and success was piety. One way we see this is in William Bradford’s text, “Of Plymouth Plantation”. Bradford states, “Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord, and He heard their voice and looked on their adversity.” This explains the pilgrim’s belief, that without God they would have succumbed to the harsh way of life. Piety in this moment was vital to the pilgrim’s survival, without their strong belief in God they wouldn’t have had the will to survive. Evidence of piety can also be seen in “A Model of Christian Charity”, by John Winthrop. “We must delight in each other, make others’ conditions

Throughout William Bradford’s “Of Plymouth Plantation”, his attachment to his religion was very strong and very verbally shown throughout his work. Bradford was between the age of twelve and thirteen when he had first heard his first sermon by a minister named Richard Clyfton and he later joined with Clyfton in the year 1606. Bradford begins with “…some godly and zealous preachers, and God’s blessings on their labors…” God is already being praised in the first few sentences of this work to bless the labor of their works and throughout the land. The goal of this paper is to bring into light three different sections throughout the work, where Bradford uses his religion to prove a point and to show how his religious faith is freely expressed by leaving England.

In William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation he articulates that living in young America was a tough life that included dangerous living, starvation and disease. Bradford sailed from Holland with the Pilgrims and when their first governor died in 1621 Bradford was elected. Bradford’s opinion was well respected in the community and he was reelected to his position thirty times. This position gave him the ability to have many of his works published and read by many. An example of him describing the new world as dangerous is when he painted the picture of a wicked forest across “the whole country” . He went on to describe this forest as having a “wild and savage hue”. Another problem addressed in William Bradford’s piece is starvation. He described that once winter arrived many people began to die and by February “half [the] company died”. Finally Bradford described the new world as a haven for disease. As the starvation began to set in in the early winter so did the

William Bradford’s writing Of Plymouth Plantation Is a written record of the journey from his old home in Europe to the settlement in the new world. The separatist traveled from England to Amsterdam and finally to the new world and later the life of the colony. Reading Of Plymouth Plantation presents us with an understanding of the basis of American culture and history. His writings are used to help us understand the reasons for the settlement of America as well as the hard ships the pilgrims had to face in order to escape the religious prosecution. His Writing also acts as an example to follow for several of our present day religions such as the many Mormons moving too their main church in Ohio. Mormons like the pilgrims move in search of religious freedom and to escape prosecution in a place with people who share similar beliefs with them. This Work also

The binary of culture versus nature has extensive implications on the relations between settlers and native populations in the political community of the United States. Locke leverages the “wild indian” as a tool in his writing to represent a being in the state of nature. He does this while explaining the foundation of property rights (12), how labor leads to ownership (14), and the value of land versus money (55). The parallel between Natives and nature is repeatedly reinforced in the reader’s mind. Locke, at one point, directly distinguishes the Natives as uncivilized.

In contrast, some divisions of the colonial population supported Britain whole-heartedly with their lives. They delighted in the short-lived emboldened ties. A New England minister proclaimed “…the Children of New England may be glad and triumph, in Reflection on Events past, and Prospects for the future…” (Document E). Comprehensibly, he felt that Britain gave them a future, that they owed their lives to their mother country. “…Mother, who has most generously rescued and protected us, [must] be served and honored…” (Document E). This is a deep contrast to the ways of thinking possessed by the soldiers and Native Americans, and it would not last long.

When the first colonists landed in the territories of the new world, they encountered a people and a culture that no European before them had ever seen. As the first of the settlers attempted to survive in a truly foreign part of the world, their written accounts would soon become popular with those curious of this “new” world, and those who already lived and survived in this seemingly inhospitable environment, Native American Indian. Through these personal accounts, the Native Indian soon became cemented in the American narrative, playing an important role in much of the literature of the era. As one would expect though, the representation of the Native Americans and their relationship with European Americans varies in the written works of the people of the time, with the defining difference in these works being the motives behind the writing. These differences and similarities can be seen in two similar works from two rather different authors, John Smith, and Mary Rowlandson.

The colonisation of North America by the Europeans became one of the most crucial points for the native North Americans. The differing experiences of contact between both cultures had overwhelmingly disastrous impacts on the normal way of life. From such contact arose the issue of land disputes, in turn resulting in massacres and frontier wars which could have otherwise been unnecessary. The factors stated above provide a suitable stimulus for a discussion in regards to the varying encounters of the Indigenous North Americans.

The long history between Native American and Europeans are a strained and bloody one. For the time of Columbus’s subsequent visits to the new world, native culture has

1620. Athwart these rigid lands stand the New World; an unknown terrain we set sail to travel en route. Under the demand of our Almighty Lord, we seek to purify these churches. 100 people on board, 50 of us pursue a new beginning. In God’s will, we set sail in his favor.

Bradford, instead, writes about the condition of the men who arrived to the shore. He also mentions that, in the New World there was no one to welcome them, more over there was no place to stay in, no houses, no inns. Smith argues about the pleasure of erecting towns and populating them.