Dutch – American History to 1877

January 29, 2014

New England and the Middle Colonies

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Taylor took an in-depth look in chapter nine at the Puritan New England colony. What was especially interesting to me was his contrasting of English and Indian culture. There were critical differences between the two, such as the more nomadic Indian life as compared to an English settlement and also the differing gender roles of each. It was cultural misunderstandings that precipitated the clashes like the Pequot War and King Philip’s War, although greed I am sure played a large role. The Puritans thought they were superior, and the benefits of the New World were a gift to them by God himself. The idea of Praying Towns seemed to have ulterior motives, where on one hand they were trying to settle and eventually convert groups of natives, they were also boxing them in and taking land for themselves, which does not seem as noble.

As mentioned in an earlier blog post, I too was also very interested in the history of New Netherlands for the same reason of never having covered it in depth. It seemed like a lucrative port that was not constrained by religious and missionary efforts, and from the first part of the chapter I was questioning why I was not speaking Dutch right now, because it seemed like a complete success. But as the chapter would explain, Netherlands was almost a victim of its own success back home. There were not enough settlers willing to leave Netherlands, which left them thin in New Netherlands and susceptible to Indian attacks.

However they did leave a model for the English to follow by showing them how important and prosperous it was to control the seas. England came up with the Navigation Acts, which solidified their control of the colonies oceans, as well as encouraged more ships to be built. Without the Dutch precedent, the English may have taken more time to develop their sea presence and other colonial powers may have became more of a threat.

This reading did not really address how slavery played a role in the founding of these middle to northern colonies, which is in stark contrast from last classes readings and the blog posts that addressed them. I think it was alright for Taylor to omit this information because it was more of a “minor” issue for these colonies, and most people reading this book would already have a base of knowledge to know that slavery is happening. Taylor continued his pattern of a more Eurocentric take on colonial history.

January 28, 2014

Violent Puritans and the Not-So-English Middle Colonies

Focusing now on how the Puritans interacted with the Indians, Taylor develops significantly the portrayal of New England from last week’s reading. His descriptions of Puritan anxiety to suppress natives and of imbalanced trades capture the darker facets of New England, practically unmentioned in chapter eight.

The special attention given to King Philip’s War certainly addresses Shane’s concern last week, that Taylor writes of “internal problems” in New England with little regard for potential “external threats.” Charlotte, similarly, wrote that the violence present in Jamestown seemed to create a contrast to New England relations with natives; like the Americans of classic Thanksgiving stories, the Puritans of chapter eight appeared “democratic” and “egalitarian.” Although Taylor mentions the persecution of religious dissenters, until chapter nine, the harshness of the Puritans is far from apparent. Instead of families searching for religious freedom and harmony, the Puritans referenced in King Philip’s War feel “compelled to destroy their Indian enemies” to prove “their own worthiness” in God’s eyes (200).

This point also raises questions about religion as a justification to exploit native people, an issue which Taylor does an excellent job of highlighting. Puritans claim that they’re permitted to exploit others because they are in God’s favor, but the fact that they do so successfully is also used as proof that God does in fact favor them. The rationale seems circular and flawed, yet the Puritans saw no faults with it, and their religious convictions only increased violence in their interactions with natives.

I appreciate Taylor’s emphasis on the effects of King Philip’s War within English colonies, as I was mostly familiar with its damages to the many native tribes involved in the war. Taylor’s observation that the New English faced “shocking and demoralizing” losses and mass destruction from the Indian rebels creates a more complex context for colonies in the New World. The New English may have decimated the natives in some respects, but both sides suffered dramatic losses, and English losses often left settlements vulnerable to their European enemies, such as the French. Taylor’s forte as a historian is arguably showing the complexity and diversity of American colonies over time. Though he struggles to incorporate all elements of the story at times, the story he does tell challenges common notions of colonial America and reveals much overlooked in a high school US history course.

This trend of pulling focus from the English continues in Taylor’s description of the middle colonies, when he devotes almost half of the chapter to the Dutch Empire. I found the detailed information on Dutch activity in the New World especially intriguing because in my former experiences with US history, the Dutch are merely mentioned in passing. The brief background usually presented only serves to clarify later English activity, yet Taylor closely examines the Dutch in their own context, thereby enriching the following account of English middle colonies. I didn’t realize how extensive the Dutch Empire was in the New World, and while Taylor’s focus on the non-English has some flaws, in this instance it also created a richer context for the middle colonies, much more diverse than New England and the Chesapeake Bay colonies.

Taylor’s writing best suits one already acquainted with American history, for his approach to history, while a fresher perspective than that of a textbook, does overlook points generally emphasized in the history of colonial America. As someone mentioned earlier in class (my apologies, I don’t recall who), John Smith, a renowned and significant figure in American history, receives little attention, while Taylor’s account of the French fur trade spans a considerable number of pages.

In these chapters on the English middle colonies, Taylor once more struggles to include the important information about the English without giving them the spotlight. He provides invaluable and often overlooked information in many instances, but his writing is best used when supplemented with other material and discussion; it perhaps lacks the focus to serve as a fundamental resource on American history. I enjoyed reading about the Dutch history in the region but was surprised by the resulting lessened importance of English colonies. I’m left wondering: what exactly is best to include in an account of American history?

January 26, 2014

The Great Complexity of the Slave Trade

These chapters of Human Bondage are certainly eye-opening to the sheer size of the slave trade in the new world. We have already discussed the complexity with generalizing within native cultures or European colonizers, but these new interactions weave an entirely new web. In the fourth chapter Davis attempts to convey how the many European powers began to involve slavery into daily lives and constructs the argument for the inherent racist nature of slavery in Europe. He says that white Christians found it naturally wrong to enslave other white Christians, but even by simply having darker skin they are more like the “devil.” It seems that religion plays almost as key of a role in justifying slavery in these chapters as it did with subjugation and colonization of the natives in Taylor’s American Colonies. It is also overwhelming to learn how many players were in the African slave trade market, from the Portuguese to the Dutch and how many places African slaves could find landfall after their departure. The mass displacement of persons and the disproportionate amount of males could have had extreme effects on populations in Africa as well. Although Dana mentions that it was commonplace in Africa for enslavement to occur, it was undoubtedly influenced by the high demand the new world was placing on the market.

As to where slaves would find landfall, the enslavement system, labor and life seems to mimic or at least echo colonizations and some of the themes we discussed in class. If I were to generalize, colonies typically attempt to find the most economically sound product and utilize the cheapest labor. This is why many slaves in Brazil and the West Indies would be in the sugar cane industry and why eventually the American South would find cotton to be invaluable to their lifestyle. Even as far as New York slavery would be found in houses and many markets would take place to enhance the economic prowess of the colony. One thing I generally disliked about the reading and disagree with Dana’s point is the quickness with which when discussing slave history, we wish to find the definitive location where slavery was “the worst” or “the best” or where they would have picked for themselves. Slavery was an inherently evil construct and while it is obviously incredibly important to remember and discuss slave conditions in different colonies and areas of the Americas, trying to deduce or argue about who treated slavery worse for what reasons is fruitless and ultimately ties back to how the colonists could abuse and utilize them for economic gains. Davis does an incredibly good job at depicting the lives of slaves in each area of the world and how they were consistently humiliated and degraded and that, in my opinion, should be the history remembered most vividly.