My first reflection happened within the first forty pages of Sarah Vowell's book. On page thirty Vowell explains diseases, she retracts what her first line of the book says ("The only thing more dangerous than an idea is a belief."). She replaces this thought by saying 'Sometimes there's nothing more dangerous than a germ.' Vowell goes on to explain how diseases claimed nine out of ten native lives.
A few paragraphs later Vowell talks about King James' reaction to hearing of the epidemic. She quotes him as saying "Almighty God in his great goodness and bounty toward us." 'for' '"this wonderful plague among the savages."' Here was where I discovered that the Puritans did not just want land and seeds to grow crops and live in peace with the natives. They wanted all of the land, and crops, and didn't want to teach the natives anything. They wanted them to just to be out of the way. To be dead. To not have to worry about anything that the natives might be doing, while they aren't watching. Almost as if the Puritans were in some reality television show and they wanted to win, they wanted to be the last ones standing. As if life is a competition.
Winthrop is quoted by saying such things equally vile. He says '"God hath hereby cleared our title to this place"'. This again sends the reader pondering about why the Puritans didn't trust that they would be able to live in peace with the native people.
In reality it was the Puritans that came and killed off the natives with disease, they should have been the ones that went down in history as savages.
July 20, 2010
The Wordy Shipmates
By Sarah Vowell
Reflection
PS. My blog will not let me tab any new paragraphs.
I agree with you, I think that the Puritans acted more savagely than the Natives. It’s worse that they try to justify it by saying that God cleared it for them. I would think that human nature and compassion would be stronger than a belief, but I guess what Sarah Vowell said on page one was completely true. There isn’t anything more dangerous than a belief. It makes me wonder if we as Americans do this in anyway today.
ReplyDeleteDakota
I liked that you repeated what Sarah Vowell said about the Puritans saying God cleared it up for them. That doesn't sound like an idea any decent, or any human even would think of thinking, or even writing down.
ReplyDeleteEmma,
ReplyDeleteNice comments.
The Puritans, despite mouthing some pieties to the contrary, really never had any intention of living side by side with the native Americans. They were uncivilized savages. At this time, Europeans had a long history of dealing with uncivilized peoples.