In Chapter 8: \u201cPuritans and Indians, 1600-1700\u201d of American Colonies<\/i>, Alan Taylor addresses a series of violent conflicts that occurred between the New England Indians and the Puritans shortly after Puritans founded the Plymouth settlement. While Taylor focuses on an overview of the wars until the Indians\u2019 defeat following King Phillip\u2019s War in 1676, he also outlines Puritans\u2019 justification for aggressive action against the Indians, which often included massacres of Indian women and children. Puritans, who perceived themselves as \u201cGod\u2019s Chosen People,\u201d considered Indians to be \u201csavage people, who are cruel, barbarous, and treacherous.\u201d\u00a0Throughout Taylor\u2019s text, as well as in many other academic histories I have read, white western Europeans frequently describe Indians and other non-Aryan races as \u201cbarbarous\u201d in comparison to their own \u201ccivilized\u201d society.<\/p>\n
Coincidentally, just before reading Chapter 8 of Taylor, I read Walter D. Mignolo\u2019s The Idea of Latin America<\/i> for my Spanish seminar, \u201cLatin American Culture and Literature Before 1900.\u201d The central argument of Chapter 1: \u201cThe Americas, Christian Expansion, and Racism,\u201d affirms that European colonizers justified their dominance over South and North American Indians by categorizing them into varying degrees of \u201cbarbarous\u201d, thus affirming Europeans\u2019 superiority over them. Bartolome de Las Casas, a Spanish friar who participated in the colonization of the Americas, outlined the racial inferiority spectrum, dividing \u201cbarbarians\u201d into four distinct categories. The first form of barbarians exhibited irrationality and \u201ca degenerate sense of justice reason, manners, and\/or human generosity.\u201d The second categorization deemed barbarians to be a group of people who lacked a written alphabet and language system mirroring Spanish\u2019s appropriation of the Latin language. Third, barbarians did not have a formal system of law and justice as defined by the nation-state. Finally, groups of people who rejected the Christian faith were Pagans, and consequently, barbarians.<\/p>\n
While the Puritans did not specifically utilize Las Casa\u2019s system for barbarianism as justification for their violent oppression of the Indians, it is a useful template to understand the complex system of racialization that cemented Puritans\u2019 sense of superiority. In her blog post, \u201cViolent Puritans and the Not-So English Middle Colonies,\u201d Rebecca articulates Puritans\u2019 religious rationalization for the massacre of Indians, who \u201cclaim they are permitted to exploit others because they are in God\u2019s favor.\u201d Rebecca does an excellent job of explaining this vicious cycle; Puritans\u2019 successful massacre of Indians served as Divine validation for their superiority, thus perpetuating Puritans\u2019 belief that they were \u201cGod\u2019s Chosen People\u201d and Indians were Pagan barbarians. Following Las Casas classification of barbarians, Puritans primarily grouped the New England Indians under the fourth category\u2014Pagan barbarians who rejected Christianity. Puritans, whose entire society centered around conservative Protestantism, judged Indians with respect to their religious beliefs. It is significant to recognize that other colonizers, like Spanish conquistadores, may have placed a larger emphasis on different types of barbarism in affirming their superiority over Indians. For instance, South and Central American Indians\u2019 lack of a conventional language and alphabet system highlighted their alleged barbarity in terms civility and intellectual capabilities.<\/p>\n
Most importantly, I believe one must recognize that Europeans did not cognitively articulate the grounds for Natives\u2019 inferiority that justified the oppression and annihilation of Indian population. Rather, during the period of colonization, the complex system of racialization that still polarizes modern society was already cemented in the collective mindset of Europeans. Indians\u2019 barbarity need not be articulated, it just was. In the study of American history, we must consciously acknowledge the racialization that shaped society and not ignore it as relic of antiquity, or risk being complicit in the institutionalization of racism.<\/p>\n
Knowlton, Rebecca.\u00a0\u201cViolent Puritans and the Not-So English Middle Colonies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mignolo, Walter D.\u00a0The Idea of Latin America<\/em>. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2008.<\/p>\n Taylor, Alan.\u00a0American Colonies<\/em>. New York: Penguin Books, 2001.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In Chapter 8: \u201cPuritans and Indians, 1600-1700\u201d of American Colonies, Alan Taylor addresses a series of violent conflicts that occurred between the New England Indians and the Puritans shortly after Puritans founded the Plymouth settlement. While Taylor focuses on an overview of the wars until the Indians\u2019 defeat following King Phillip\u2019s War in 1676, he … <\/p>\n