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By Sherwood

In chapter two of his book “Removable Type: Histories of the Book in Indian Country, 1663 – 1880,” author Phillip Round describes how natives likened themselves to Europeans during the 18th century, especially through literature. First and foremost, literacy enabled natives in the northeast to become Christians. They read the Bible and religious tracts, and wrote about their own religious views and experiences. In short, they were able to engage with the English colonists in an conversation that was not only European (Christendom), but also distinctly English (Protestantism). During the first Great Awakening of the 1730s and 40s, the element of performance that emerged from dramatic, evangelical gatherings gave traditional native rituals, which were themselves performative, greater authority in the eyes of Europeans.

Besides religion, the natives also became more similar to Europeans by organizing their communities with written documents, including “records, dispositions, wills, petitions, [and] letters” (49). They also became more materially similar by employing “knives, combs, scissors, guns, [and] hatchets” (49). Incorporating these cultural practices made natives more effective at negotiating with Europeans, but did not resolve the tension between the two parties. For one, they frequently and violently clashed with each other. For another, an underlying incongruity made it impossible for natives to fulfill European expectations. And that’s what I want to talk about.

The position that European migrants imposed upon natives during the 18th century, which Round briefly describes, seems altogether contradictory- Europeans celebrated natives for being “noble and ‘republican’ in their traditional oratory,” but admonished them for being “‘unlettered’ and anti-intellectual in their grasp of alphabetic literacy” (48). In the eyes of the Europeans, natives like the 18th century Mohegan missionary Joseph Johnson could have either one or the other, but not both. For whatever reason, the noble lifestyle that Europeans admired in natives was fundamentally at odds with the “alphabetic literacy” that Europeans expected and encouraged. Johnson was forced to abandon his own culture and adopt Christendom, among other European customs, in exchange for his literacy; he was made to meet the Europeans on their terms. This contradiction caused literate natives to doubt their own their own writing abilities, despite being fluent in multiple languages and frequently reading the Bible, as was true in the case of Johnson. Apparently, despite a significant degree of assimilation, the European consciousness was not prepared to fully accept natives into their societies.

I think I’m the first to post for this week, so I had some difficulty finding another post to reference. I do think Cordelia’s post is tangentially related though, since it describes a similar phenomenon. Black students are taught and expected to accept the romanticized story of our nation’s founding, which is a primarily white narrative. But however well they internalize this perspective, tension between blacks and whites will likely remain.