Us History to 1865
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MIDTERM EXAM CH 1-8
The Collision of Cultures: “The Discovery of The Americas did not begin with Christopher Columbus. It began many thousands of years earlier, when human beings first crossed into the new continents and began to people them”. (Ch 1 page 1) I specifically chose this chapter because it’s what I remember most growing up in school and learning in Social Studies. We were taught Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas and because of this and his encounters with Indians I remember learning back then is why we celebrate Thanksgiving. Of course over the years I’m aware of majority events have been re documented and also determined that was far from the truth. To this day archeologists are still discovering artifacts that may even suggest that Europeans before Columbus may have migrated here. Many Asians migrated here crossing the great Bering Strait. Some facts even suggest that Asians may have steeled as far south as Chili and migrated here not by land but by sea. So there is so much information to be learned and discovered and this is what excites me.
Transplantations and Borderlands: Native Americans and The Middle Ground. “Indians were presented either as murderous savages or as relatively docile allies of white people, but rarely as important actors of their own.” This is again what I remember growing up and also through Hollywood. That Indians were just a cruel and emotionless civilization. Historians has since then changed their views and ultimately realized that Euro Americans had just plain out victimized the Indians. Now with this new view of what happened some scholars challenged this theory. “More recently, however, a new view of the relationship between the peoples of the Old and New Worlds has emerged. It sees Native Americans and Euro-Americans as uneasy partners in the shaping of a new society in which, for a time at least, both were a vital part.” But then in the end The Indians did end up being defeated and “downsized”. We have discussed this issue in class I believe first couple of days. How Indians dealt with the white invasions, how they helped white settlers, how they turned on other tribes and became allies with the whites but I believe they were just manipulated by a more experienced and advanced Euro White settler
(Brinkley 48, Ch 2).
Debating the Past: The Witchcraft Trials. The Witchcraft Trials is an interesting subject for the fact that its witchcraft. To me this was magical, evil and crazy. The victims were mostly woman, widows or property owned woman who posed a threat to the then others including many women that were accustomed to women as subordinate members of the community. I talked about this in third week of class as well in the notes. Witchcraft too was another way to disengage from the English puritans and the dominant religion that was forced. A way of being free was to believe in or practice in whatever it is you wanted too. Some argued also just portrayed those accused as a product of displaced anger about social and economic differences. Again over the years there have been many theories on how, why and what reason were behind the “hysteria”
The Empire in Transition: Taverns on the Revolutionary Massachusetts.
Of course this is going to interest me. Taverns back then played a very important role. It was the demographic meeting place were most men could engage in drunkenness and politics. This happens till this day so I like to think I am keeping History alive in a way. I’m only kidding but this is true. What better place to go and enjoy the company of others and talk. It also served as much of importance to those who could not read cause these taverns allowed them to go, drink listen and