Pre-Columbian America to the Revolution

1. Pre-Columbian America to the Revolution Native American Cultures and European Conquest, Colonial Life and Revolution.

2. Class Overview • Discussion of reading and articles • “America” Before the Europeans • European Explorers and the Americas • Native American Population Collapse • White Settler Society • Slavery • Build up to Revolution

3. Native American History • How Long Have People Been in America? • Bering Strait Land Bridge Theory – 40,000 years? 12,000 years? • Bering Strait • World Map • The Creation Stories of many Native American Nations hold that their cultures occupied the land for much, much longer, even since the beginning of time.

4. Native American Cultures • Many diverse Native American societies existed in the Americas, North and South, before Europeans arrived. They spoke many languages and employed many different methods of farming and hunting. US Map • Native American societies did not, as is popularly believed, depend mostly on hunting for food. Most relied on farming, often employing sophisticated methods. Native American women often did much of the farming work. • The Yuma Indians of Arizona were able to raise multiple crops in the arid conditions of the Sonoran desert.

5. Native American Cultures • In these Southwest desert areas, Native Americans raised corn and squash 4,000 years ago. They later grew beans as well, making up what the Indian people called the "Three Sisters.“ • By 3000 B.C., Native Americans were living east of the Mississippi River. Trade networks extended as far as Mexico. • By 300 B.C. the Anasazi people of the Colorado Plateau had developed a complex agricultural system. They farmed on terraces to prevent erosion and irrigated their land with ditches. They lived in villages built into canyon walls and valleys, but they died out, probably due to a very long drought, around 1300 AD. • By 900 A.D., large cultures, such as that of the Mississippians, existed in South-Eastern America. They farmed the fertile river plains and lived in large communities. Cahokia, which was in present day Illinois, was home to 30,000 people. The Mississippians lived in communities built on mounds of earth. US Map

6. Native American Governments • Native American tribal governments were often composed of the eldest members of the community. Some were run through a council, with women often participating, and others had a single “Chief.” • Many Native American societies had systems wherein tribal members could elect and depose their leaders. • Native Americans operated under a system of reciprocal obligations in community life (such as child-rearing) and in matters of defense. • Many Native American cultures did not have the concept of private ownership of land, instead understanding that use of the land belonged to everyone.

7. Religion • Native American nations had a variety of spiritual beliefs. • Many of these placed great emphasis on the natural world, and, although American Indians were not always the environmentalists of myth, they tended to live in greater harmony with nature than did the European settlers. • Perhaps the most complex religious system in North America was that of the Iroquois Nation of the East. • They believed that a Great Spirit made and ruled the world, and that this spirit was represented on earth by spirits of great power

8. In contrast to Christians, who often felt that the earth was theirs to make over (as the Bible states), the Iroquois felt that man was too insignificant to change the great spirit’s creation in any meaningful way. • These contrasting views of man’s place in the world, and over systems of land ownership, as well as the Christian belief that “heathen” Native Americans were damned by God, caused much conflict between Native Americans and European settlers, who began to arrive on the east coast in the 17th Century.

9. Early European Explorers • The first European to set foot in North America was probably Leif Ericsson, a Norwegian outlaw who set out west from Norway around the year 1000. • Leif's Journey • Ericsson established a settlement called Vinland in what is now North-Eastern Canada. They stayed only one winter before heading back for Norway. • The next European visitors came in the 15th and 16th Centuries, as nations such as Spain and Portugal sent explorers off in search both of gold and a passage to India.

10. Columbus • In 1492,sailing for the King and Queen of Spain, and thinking he had found India, Christopher Columbus arrived in Hispaniola • Columbus wanted gold, but also saw a chance to exploit the Native peoples he met, as this letter to Spain shows. • Columbus began a 400-year-long process during which Spain conquered the indigenous cultures of South America, Mexico, and parts of North America, including Alaska. The Spanish were often cruel and violent towards the conquered people. Sometimes, they tried to convert natives to Christianity.

11. Columbus Exercise • Team up with 2 or 3 of your friends • Read Columbus’ report to Spanish rulers King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella concerning the “New World” and its inhabitants. • Discuss the following questions: • 1) How Does Columbus Describe the “Indians” of Hispaniola? • 2) Why does Columbus think Spain should try to colonize the Americas?

12. Christopher Columbus has long been considered a national hero in the U.S. Yet, as the article we read pointed out, some view his arrival as the start of a tragic and deadly history. • Some Native peoples protest on “Columbus Day,” and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez recently asked Latin American nations not to celebrate Columbus. • It is certain that Columbus’ arrival, followed by that of other explorers and then settlers, began the long demographic collapse of American Indians. The extent of the collapse is much debated

13. Native American Population Decline • The United States census of 1890 enumerated approximately 100,000 Native Americans in North America. • Scholars are still arguing about how many Indians were living in the Americas in 1492, so the extent of the population collapse is very unclear. • Some scholars say that the pre-Columbian population of North America was 1-2 million. The highest estimates reach as much as 18 million. • Sources are limited, so it’s difficult to tell. Scholars have used multiple methods, not all very reliable, to try and make a guess. Later examples, such as Hawaii, help explain what may have happened in the Americas.

14. Population • Debates over the pre-Columbian population are heated because of the implications they carry. • Larger figures suggest more developed agricultural systems, larger cities, and also a longer tenure on the land. • Some say the smaller estimates are designed to mask the horror of what happened to Native Americans. • Others say the higher numbers are a modern invention designed to make contemporary Americans feel guilty about the past and to diminish the achievements of European settlers.

15. Why Did the Native Americans Die in Such Numbers? • Disease: Native Americans had not been exposed to European diseases, so when settlers and explorers brought Smallpox, Chicken Pox, Influenza, and many other ailments, they spread very quickly with terrible effects. • Because Native Americans had not domesticated animals, they were not immune to these diseases. • Furthermore, they often fled diseased areas, carrying pathogens with them to other communities. • Diseases also destroyed many Indians’ ability to reproduce, further reducing populations.

16. Population Decline Continued • Native American artifacts, such as Winter Counts, depict many of these epidemics. Diseases often outpaced the Europeans, so that Native populations were already decimated by the time whites arrived. Disease also helped Spain conquer South America in the 16th Century – (Clip from Guns, Germs, and Steel). • Although disease did much damage, warfare also damaged population levels, as did dispossession by Europeans, intermarriage, and alcoholism. Timeline • The Iroquois spent most of the 17th Century at war with other tribes and with European powers such as France. By the mid-17th Century, the Iroquois were halved in number and had been forced from their lands. • Some cultures were entirely killed off. The Yahi-Yana Indians of California faced many massacres by Spanish settlers, and were entirely removed from their lands by the 19th Century.

17. White Settler Society • Many European nations attempted to settle the Americas. Famously, in 1607, the British founded the colony of Jamestown, in Virginia. • In 1620, the first shipment of enslaved Africans were brought to America. This was the same year that the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock. • In 1629, the Puritans, a much larger group, founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony, governed by John Winthrop. • The Puritans wished to escape the persecution of European Protestants, and saw themselves as creating a new, more virtuous culture free of the Old World’s corrupting influences. • Puritan Leader John Winthrop told travelers that they were going to establish a "City on a Hill“ as a shining example to Europeans. Winthrop saw the death of so many Native Americans as evidence that God wanted Englishmen to have the continent. In 1634, Winthrop wrote, “For the Natives, they are neere all dead of small Poxe, so as the Lord hathe cleared our title to what we possess.”

18. Puritan Beliefs • Puritan society was very austere and strictly religious. Those who thought differently were exiled or punished. Roger Williams, an early settler who advocated religious freedom and the separation of church and state, was exiled in 1636, and founded the Rhode Island Colony, which remained a haven for religious tolerance. • Principles of Puritan Thought • Through a series of Royal Charters, the British Crown claimed ownership of the North-Eastern United States. • The British were able to displace their European rivals. By the mid-18th Century, they had defeated an alliance of Iroquois and French to further exert their control, and held much of the eastern US and Canada.

19. British Colonialism Exercise • Again, team up with 2 or 3 others. • Read 2 of the three extracts on “Motivations for English Colonization.” • Consider this question: • For what reasons do these Englishmen advocate overseas colonization?

20. Colonial Life Continued • Most Colonial Americans were farmers. They farmed small plots of land parceled out by community leaders. • Colonists often struggled at first, and had to rely on help from Native Americans to survive. Though most felt that the Native Americans were “savages” or heathens, some had more positive views of the Indians • Women had very few rights in Colonial America. They owned no property and had few rights without their husband. • By 1750, larger towns and cities were growing up to meet the needs of a rising population. • (Americans have reproduced the conditions of life in Colonial Virginia at the Colonial Williamsburg tourist attraction). • But soon, the American Colonies would become tired of British rule, and decide to rebel.

21. Southern Slavery • Europeans first enslaved Africans because they were not Christian, and thus deserved no rights in Christian eyes. Furthermore, the colonists found that Native Americans were very resistant to enslavement, and Africans, torn from their homes, were more subservient for the labor-intensive cotton farms of the South. • Slavery Timeline • Slavery also existed, on a smaller scale, in the North. • Some Americans opposed slavery, of course. Revolutionary figure Thomas Paine was one of them. • (More on slavery and emancipation tomorrow)

22. Build Up to The American Revolution • In the early 1760s, most colonists considered themselves loyal to the British Crown. • But the Crown began to impose taxes and limitations on its colonial holdings. • In 1763, settlement west of the Appalachians was prohibited. • In 1764, the currency act forbade the colonies from printing paper money. • In 1765, the Quartering Act forced five of the colonies to support British troops. • The Stamp Act of 1765 caused much resentment in America.

23. Build Up to Revolt… • The Stamp Act forced colonists to buy specially marked paper in order to print newspapers, property titles, legal documents, even playing cards. • The American Assembly held that only they had the right to impose taxation. Farmers and artisans objected to the rise in their cost of living that the Act produced. • The Stamp Act Congress of 1765 issued a Declaration of Rights and Grievances, arguing that America already made a big contribution to the King’s coffers. • Britain withdrew the Stamp Act but restated its right to tax the colonies and began to impose new trade duties on imports to America.

24. At the same time, philosophers’ ideas about the “rights of freeborn Englishmen” to liberty from government interference spurred a republican movement in the colonies. • In 1767, Britain imposed the Townshend Revenue Acts. • In 1768, British troops were sent to Boston • In 1770, British troops killed 5 Americans in the Boston Massacre. Crispus Attucks, a black American, died 1st. • In 1773, Bostonians responded to the newly imposed Tea Act by dumping a shipment of 45 tons of tea into Boston Harbor. This is known as The Boston Tea Party • Responding to this growing unrest, Britain passed a series of laws known as The Intolerable Acts.

25. In 1774, representatives of 12 of the 13 colonies met at the Continental Congress to think of ways to force Britain to repeal the Intolerable Acts. • Some attempts at reconciliation were made, but by 1775 fighting had broken out between revolutionaries and those loyal to Britain. • In 1776, the Second Continental Congress began and the Declaration of Independence was issued. The American War of Independence was about to begin. • We’ll look at the War of Independence tomorrow!