Dr. Shrout – Page 24 – Atlantic History

Final Project Topic

October 7, 2016December 16, 2020Dr. Shrout

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The topic that I want to research for my final project is about the Plymouth Colony and their relations with the Natives in New England. I chose this topic because I wanted to research more about the Pilgrims reasons for traveling across the Atlantic and how they were able to maintain relations with the Native people in New England. The Pilgrims sailed across the Atlantic because their religious views differed from the Church of England. They had intended to reach Virginia, but instead sailed north to present-day Massachusetts. The Pilgrims are famous for sharing a feast with the Native inhabitants, what we consider the beginning of the Thanksgiving holiday.

I intend to research more behind the Pilgrim’s background and reasons for traveling across the Atlantic. I know that Plymouth Colony did not become a state and I plan to research why the colony declined overtime. I also want to research their relations with the native population and whether any deteriorating relations caused the decline of the colony, as well as the decline of the native population in the present-day Massachusetts area.

Final Project Topic

October 7, 2016December 16, 2020Dr. Shrout

For my final project I plane to write on indentured servitude. Specifically how it relates to the British and the early American British colonies. I would like to see how this servitude worked for both parties, as in the type of deals that were typically agreements typically entered into and how both parties benefited from these contracts. While also looking at the effect it had on the growth of the American colonies and also on the economy. I am also interested in looking at the social aspects of those who entered into this meaning how they were viewed by others around them and how respected they were in the society.

Final Project Proposal

October 7, 2016December 16, 2020Dr. Shrout

From the project choices I posted during Week Five, I plan on researching the how the American Civil War changed cotton trade between the American South and the European counties of Great Britain and France. Before the American Civil War, According historian Louis P. Masur, three-fourths of the world’s cotton supply was produced in the American South. The Atlantic cotton trade not only made the Southern aristocrats wealthy, it also established the American South as a world economic power. Under the myth that Southern cotton was an indispensable commodity, Southern Senator James Henry Hammond in 1859 made his “King Cotton” speech. In the speech Hammond said that no one makes war on cotton because if the cotton trade is disrupted or stopped that the whole civilized world would collapse starting with England. Since the South relied heavily on foreign trade, the “King Cotton” diplomacy would end up hurting the Southern states. During the American Civil War, the North constructed a blockade which virtually cut off Southern cotton trade with European nations. Instead of trying to sell off the cotton they had on hand, the South started their embargo of cotton to Europe. Producers cut back on production and also burned excess cotton. The rationale behind the embargo was that British and French powers, needing Southern cotton, would crush the Union naval blockade and involve themselves in the Civil War. This was flawed thinking. What the South did not know was England and France were sitting on enormous reserves of cotton due the Southern overproduction. Also cotton production in Egypt and India started to yield acceptable cotton crops. As a result, Britain and France with the cotton supplies almost virtually uninterrupted would not come to the aid of the South and their war to continue the system of slavery. I recently found out about the European connection (mostly Britain) to the American Civil War where there was an actual fear and threat of European involvement interested me in this topic. Since most people think the Civil War was a conflict between the North and South, the Atlantic world dynamic shows how the war not only affected the United States but also Europe.

Final Project Topic

October 7, 2016December 16, 2020Dr. Shrout

For the final project for this class, I have decided to write about slave women across Africa and in Caribbean society. I intend to look at the life of these women slaves and examine their role in society. I’d like to answer questions like how did they came into enslavement, how they were treated, and their experience in the plantations… I also want to look at the influence and contribution (if there were any) of slave women to politic and the economy.

My interest in women’s history is what draw me to this topic. In my previous women’s history classes, women in slavery tend to be discussed very briefly, typically in the first few lectures. Most of the topics tend focus on the Victorian women and the more modern issues like the women’s suffrage, and the feminist movements etc. Therefore, this is my chance to dig deeper into women’s history and examine the role of female slaves.

Final Consideration for Topic

October 7, 2016December 16, 2020Dr. Shrout

After consideration of the three topics that I have considered initially – The Slave Trade in North America, The Sugar Route: The Effects to the Europeans Nations, and Life on Board: The Atlantic World Living Perspective, I have decided that I would like to complete my research on The Slave Trade and its effects in North America. The reason why I have selected this topic because I have a particular interest in learning and researching about the effects that the slave trade had in the North American region. In my current knowledge of The Slave Trade in North America, those that benefit the trade were the American colonists, and then the United States until the Slave Trade was banned. I want to go into further detail on how the Slave Trade affected American social life, economics, and politics, especially those that caused a divide between ideologies.

The Impact of Protestant Christianity on Native American Religious Practices

October 7, 2016December 16, 2020Dr. Shrout

Syncretism is defined as the amalgamation and blending of different cultures, values, beliefs, or religions. An important part of the Columbian Exchange was not only commerce, pathology, and demographic patterns, but also the diffusion of culture. In class, we discussed “cross cultural contact” and how it lead to Native Americans and Europeans adapting each others’ technologies or agricultural practices whenever practical. It naturally follows that some attempts might have been made by Native Americans in the Northeast to incorporate aspects of Protestant Christianity with their own indigenous religious practices. Native Americans had transcendental religions complete with cosmologies, deities, and beliefs in an afterlife. They mirror aspects of Christianity, including its own origin myth, belief in a higher power, and belief in an afterlife. These similarities would have made religious syncretism relatively seamless and attractive to some. I would like to conduct my research specifically on early Native Americans in the Northeast Atlantic who came into contact with Dutch and English iterations of Protestant Christianity.

What drew me to this topic is my awareness of how Mexican folk religions and Catholicism have been syncretized by indigenous Mexicans. In our textbook, a brief blurb was mentioned on the origins of the Day of the Dead. It went into detail how Mesoamericans substituted indigenous gods with Catholic saints to continue celebrating their holidays with church approval. The unique adaptation of the Virgin of Guadalupe as a patron saint of Mexico comes to mind as well. It occurred to me that Northeastern Indians such as the Iroquois or the Algonquin may have attempted something similar, and perhaps appropriated certain iconography (although bearing in mind Protestantism as a whole frowned upon icon worship). Religion in the Americas is a fascinating topic, especially considering how it strongly motivated mid-Atlantic voyages and the influenced the experiences Europeans, Africans, and indigenous peoples had with each other.

Final Project Topic

October 7, 2016December 16, 2020Dr. Shrout

The topic I chose for the final project is the Zong massacre. The story is in 1781 the crew of Zong, a slave ship, murdered 133 African slaves in order to collect the insurance. Evidence showed the ship ran low on water and made many navigational errors. These reasons led to the crew throwing living slaves overboard at sea, living them to drown. Because of this action, the remaining slaves on the ship survived and the crew would not lose money due to slaves dying because of not having water. It was common to take out insurance on slaves because they were seen as nothing but cargo.

The Zong massacre was very important in having a part in abolishing slavery later on. It was highly publicized and made people aware of the terrors enslaved people were forced to endure. It created laws to have less slaves on the ship and culture of arts surrounding it.

The reason I chose this topic was because I think it is very important for people to be aware of these events, especially an important turning point in history. As historians, we know that slaves were thrown off ships, but to have a case that would later be used to help rid the world of slavery is incredible. I became aware of the Zong massacre when I watched the movie Belle and instantly became interested in the topic. I feel it would relate back to many themes we have discussed in class such as slavery, seeing enslaved people as commodities, social hierarchy of races, government, and even economics.

Final Project Topic

October 6, 2016December 16, 2020Dr. Shrout

The topic I have chosen for my final project revolves around the Europeanisation of Pocahontas. I have always been intrigued by her life as well as the fictional versions surrounding her legacy. While the majority of people are familiar with Disney’s image of Pocahontas, I thought it would an interesting opportunity to do research on the actual person herself. The myths that followed her have led to several reimagined stories of her life, and I intend to study a more accurate picture of her experiences. She was indeed part of a cultural interaction between indigenous people and Europeans in North America. Her connections with the Jamestown settlement would make a fascinating study in white and indigenous relations, as well as conflicts between the two groups. What has seldom been mentioned in romanticized portrayals of Pocahontas’ life is that she went through Europeanisation. She adopted European dress and beliefs, actions that were deemed proper by whites. I feel it is important to acknowledge that Pocahontas was not a kind of mythical figure, but an actual, living person. Colonization, strained relations, and the enforcing of European ideals were both part of her history and Atlantic history as well. She witnessed firsthand the impact of colonization in an Atlantic space and in her own life. Studying Pocahontas’ life would lead to more understanding of her place in history, albeit an accurate one. She was not a singing princess searching for romance as depicted in the Disney movie; she was a woman who experienced dramatic changes and shifts in the Atlantic.

Colonial Failures and Successes

October 5, 2016December 16, 2020Dr. Shrout

Kupperman argues that the success or failure of American colonies could be largely attributed to a knowledge of the region in which they were settled. Likewise, Brooks argues that the success and failure of various African groups were dependent on the understanding of the region and the environment I which groups settled. Proto-Mande goups settled along the river after learning more about the region. They stayed away from unknown areas, such as those to the South, as they had no knowledge of the region (Brooks 28). Likewise, Jamestown colonists settled near a river and also did not stray far from the region (Kupperman 6). The English also found that the region was fertile and would be ideal for growing crops and creating a plantation.

Likewise, both authors argue that interaction with other natives to a region was vital in a group’s survival. In the beginning, Jamestown colonists became very dependent on the Indians for food and help surviving (Kupperman 8). Without the help of the Indians in the region, Kupperman argues that those in Jamestown would not have been able to survive. Mande groups near the Senegal and Niger Rivers relied on commerce from a trans-Saharan trade route during the 3^rd century (Brooks 31).

However, there were vast differences between the groups. Many of the Mande people were settling in lands for the first time, as their experiences date back millenniums. The Americas had largely been settled by other European powers, and Indian groups had lived in the New World for millenniums as well. Because of this, the Mande were the first to discover how to survive in various regions. However, those at Jamestown and other colonies relied on others who were very well versed in the region for more than trade; they relied on them to help learn about the land and how to survive it. My colleague Tram Hua argues that the Europeans fundamentally misunderstood the Indians in the region. I agree with this statement, but I would also argue that the Indians did not understand the English. It was a mutual misunderstanding that led to Jamestown’s survival, as the Indians helped the English for more than they otherwise would have. This mutual misunderstanding was not present in the narrative of the Mande.

Migration in Africa and The Jamestown Project

October 5, 2016December 16, 2020Dr. Shrout

Karen Kupperman’s Jamestown Project examines the temporal and geographic background of Jamestown, and George E. Brooks’ Ecological Perspectives on Mande, Population Movements, Commercial Networks, and Settlement Patterns from the Atlantic Wet Phase (Ca. 5500-2500 B.C.) to the Present studies the migration and settlements of the Mande people based on the geographical changes of the African Sahara. Both readings offer insight into how geography and the changing of land over time contribute to the moving and settling of peoples.

In Ecological Settlements…, Brooks discusses settlement and migration in west Africa over a period of eight millennia. He explains the need to survive through “adapting to changing rainfall patterns in a given area, migrating to different locations, taking advantage of circumstances regarding commercial exchanges, or raiding neighboring groups” (Brooks, 24). In order to successfully survive the harsh climate changes of west Africa, Mande speaking peoples adapted their necessities to live in environments that were neither stagnant nor comfortable. Matthew Liijova wrote that to survive, the Mande people followed rainfall, as water is paramount to thriving in any environment. I completely agree with this point, as Liijova successfully points out that Mande peoples adapted in order to accommodate for the most basic needs to survive. Brooks states that 5500 to 2500 B.C.E. was a time of flourishing for African peoples, as this was the time of the Wet Sahara–a green land with possibly three to four times more rainfall than there was between 1930 and 1960 (Brooks, 26). This point also relates to Liijova’s statement in that it reiterates the idea that simply in order to live, humans must have access to at least water.

Karen Kupperman’s Jamestown Project also discusses survival, but touches more on the myth of the Jamestown failure and how settlers had to survive through cooperation in order to create a successful colony. According to Kupperman, “Virginia’s early history… has been deemed a dismal failure. But… the Jamestown experience had produced a fundamental understanding about human understanding” (Kupperman, 327). Despite its rocky start, Virginia is a pinnacle of success in the establishment of western colonies abroad. Both Kupperman and Brooks write about survival, but in different ways. Brooks discusses survival over 8 millennia, while Kupperman discusses the failures and successes of the establishment of one colony. This shows the broad scope survival encompasses, as well as its role in the continuation of the Atlantic as a diverse environment regarding its people and geography.

Atlantic History – Fall 2016

Author: Dr. Shrout

Final Project Topic

Final Project Topic

Final Project Proposal

Final Project Topic

Final Consideration for Topic

The Impact of Protestant Christianity on Native American Religious Practices

Final Project Topic

Final Project Topic

Colonial Failures and Successes

Migration in Africa and The Jamestown Project