Spaniards, often single, young, and male, emigrated for the various promises of land, wealth, and social advancement. Laborers, craftsmen, soldiers, clerks, and priests all crossed the Atlantic in large numbers.
What would they have done if they found out that the promises were lies? And would social advancement mean moving up the hierarchy?
In the encomienda, the Spanish crown granted a person not only land but a specified number of natives as well.
The Natives were treated as objects that could be given as a gift.
Some groups used shifting cultivation where farmers cut the forest, burned the undergrowth and then planted seeds in the nutrient rich ashes of what remained. When crop yields began to decline, farmers would simply move to another field and allow the land to recover and the forest to regrow before they would again cut the forest, burn the undergrowth, and restart the cycle.
So basically the farmers would use the land until it was no good or damaged to the max, then find a new location until the damaged land recovered, and then go back and use it again. They were recycling the land in a way.
And as paleo-Indians populated mountains, prairies, deserts, and forests, cultures and ways of life as arose as varied as the geography.
Paleo-Indians populated different types of landscapes and environments.
Nomadic hunter-gatherers, they traveled in small bands following megafauna–enormous mammals that included mastodons and giant horses and bison–into the frozen Beringian tundra at the edge of North America.
Nomadic hunter-gatherers did not have settled homes, that's why they were always traveling. They live on the move.
Missionaries, most of whom were members of the Franciscan religious order, provided Spain with an advance guard in North America
How did missionaries advance guard in North America?
Apalachee farmers grew an abundance of corn and other crops
The fact that they grew a large amount of corn and other crops was probably one of the reasons why they were very powerful.
e found between 150,000 and 300,000 Native Americans. But then two-and-a-half centuries of contact with European and African peoples–whether through war, slave raids, or, most dramtically, foreign disease–decimated Florida’s indigenous population.
150,000-300,000 seems like a lot and a little at the same time given the circumstances, and imaging how many of those Native Americans were killed from war or disease is unbearable.
And to avoid such a great evil we passed a law so that any white man living inour Kingdoms and wanting to purchase goods in any way should first informthree of our noblemen and officials of our court whom we rely upon in this mat-ter
I wonder how accurate this law was. What if these noblemen were bribed sometimes? Because back in those times people got away with a lot with bribes.
very often it happens thatthey kidnap even noblemen and the sons of noblemen, and our relatives, andtake them to be sold to the white men who are in our Kingdoms
So Affonso was okay with captives being sold into slavery, but he wanted to draw the line when he realized that noblemen and relatives, basically freemen, were being captured and sold.
He dug into the sand and soon found clay with which to mould figures like himself
According to many religious backgrounds, humans were made from clay. In Genisis 2:7 is says, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground.." In the Qur'an it says God created man from clay. In Greek mythology it is said that Prometheus created man from clay.
Wherever the sand landed it formed dry land, the bigger piles becoming hills and the smaller piles valleys.
So the white hen is what created the hills and valleys, what could the white hen stand for?
gold chain long enough to reach below, a snail's shell filled with sand, a white hen, a black cat, and a palm nut, all of which he was to carry in a bag.
I wonder if these all symbolize for something?
three crops in particular–corn, beans, and squash, the so-called “three sisters”–provided nutritional needs necessary to sustain cities and civilizations.
So these 3 crops were the main food sources during this time. How was squash preserved?
It was found that he had made the country all rocks and full of ledges, and also a mosquito which was very large.
Othagwenda believed in creating a hard life for humans. He had no intention of making a paradise for them.
and the fruit of the sycamore to become small and useless
I understand making the fruits small, but making them useless seems a bit too much.
How did human beings arrive in the world? • How were animals helpful? • What did twins do to create the world?
Human beings arrived in the world when the chief up in the Heaven’s was trying to help his ill daughter by placing her by a tree they had to dig up and someone who was against the idea of killing a tree pushed his daughter down the hole. The hole led to earth where the daughter gave birth to a girl and then her daughter gave birth to 2 twin boys. The animals were helpful by providing the fallen daughter a permanent resting place by getting soil from the bottom of the primal sea to create land. One of the twins, Othagwenda, created a world where humans had no chance of living with huge mosquitos and rocky landscapes. So the other twin, Djuskaha rubbed the mosquito down with his hands to make it smaller and blew on it so that it could fly. Djuskaha created a world that was very easy for humans to live in with fat animals that could hardly move, sugar-maple trees that dropped syrup, sycamore trees that bear fine fruit, and rivers that flowed up and downstream. Othagwenda saw this would have been way too easy for humans, so he made the animals smaller, made it so the sugar-maple tree only dropped sweetwater, made the sycamore tree to bear small, useless fruits and made the rivers flow in one direction
I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
This is showing how God chose to give us life in different forms such as trees and the fruits they provide.
he made the stars also
I would say stars were made for the night because it was darker and the moon's brightness doesn't compare to the sun's, so the stars make up for that.
God called the firmament Heaven
So according to this, there are waters above Heaven
While Northerners appealed to their states’ rights to refuse capturing runaway slaves, Southerners demanded a national commitment to slavery.
Southerners were pro slavery while Northerners didn't.
The protection of child laborers gained more middle-class support, especially in New England, than the protection of adult workers.
I guess child labor was a much bigger issue compared to protection of adult workers. There is still child labor in many countries around the world today.
In England, an economic slump prompted Parliament to modernize British agriculture by revoking common land rights for Irish farmers.
How does revoking land rights from Irish farmers modernize British agriculture?
But a new system, “piece work,” divided much of production into discrete steps performed by different workers. In this new system, merchants or investors sent or “put-out” materials to individuals and families to complete at home. These independent laborers then turned over the partially finished goods to the owner to be given to another laborer to finish.
This system reminds me of the assembly line. It's almost similar.
Counterfeit bills were endemic during this early period of banking, as some individuals sought their own way to capitalize on the nation’s quest for wealth
Fake bills were showing up which become a problem for the government.
Inspired by a strategy known as “moral suasion,” these young abolitionists believed they could convince slaveholders to voluntarily release their slaves by appealing to the their sense of Christian conscience.
So they believed that they could convince slaveholders to release their slaves by using their faith and religion againts them.
In order to accomplish their goals, abolitionists employed every method of outreach and agitation used in the social reform projects of the benevolent empire.
This shows how dedicated they were to helping the blacks and African Americans.
I can’t read, but I can hear. I have heard the Bible and have learned that Eve caused man to sin. Well if woman upset the world, do give her a chance to set it right side up again
There is a valid point here. If women were the reason why everything went bad, then they should be given the chance to make up for it.
but they had souls large enough to feel the wrongs of others, without being scarified in their own flesh.
So basically even though they haven't been through tragic, unjust situations, they still understand the feeling of it.
This call, without signature, was issued by Lucretia Mott, Martha C. Wright, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Mary Ann McClintock
These 3 women were the ones who called for the meeting.
Christmas traditions of John Canoe, or “Jonkanoo,” took different forms in African diaspora communities in the Caribbean, Bahamas, and southern United States.
Slaves took on the Christmas traditions in their own forms.
Folklore often conveyed religious worldviews and beliefs while relating the more mundane routines of everyday life-from the way families functioned through the rituals of birth and death, to simple routines of cooking and clothing, and the local calendar of celebrations.
Folklore could be about something deep like their beliefs or something simple like routines for cooking.
Knowing then they would betray me
How did he know he was going to be betrayed?
Then the fears and labors of another day begin; and until its close there is no such thing as rest....
This is basically where the title came from.
“Prime field hands,” as they were called by merchants and traders, averaged $1,600 at market by 1850, a figure that fell in line with the rising prices of the cotton they picked.
These were basically boys who were younger and had a lot of energy for cotton picking.
In 1793, just a few years after the first, albeit unintentional, shipment of American cotton to Europe, the South produced around five million pounds of cotton, again almost exclusively the product of South Carolina’s Sea Islands.
five million pounds of cotton is A LOT. Imagine all the labor that took.
The astronomical rise of American cotton production came at the cost of the South’s first staple crop—tobacco
Tobacco is a very difficult crop to grow because it kills the land.
First, it was simply impossible to secure unanimous endorsement by all thirteen states of even the most modest amendment -- and the proposed Constitution was far more than a modest amendment to the Articles. Second, the framers of the Constitution realized that the state legislatures woud not accept a system that diminished their authority. Third, the framers noted that they were creating a new constitution for a united American people.
These were the three reasons why the amendments would fail under Article 13's procedure.
the “Great Compromise”: each state would have two senators, who could vote independently
This was how the states settle the dispute about representation.
popular protest by common colonists
Does this include the poor? What would be considered "common colonists"?
Now this distress lasted Almost two years: - Poor – Me – Miserable me. – It pleased God to bring on my Convictions more and more, and I was loaded with guilt of Sin, I saw I was undone for ever; I carried Such a weight of Sin in my breast or mind, that it seemed to me as I should sink into the ground every step; and I kept all to my self as much as I could; I went month after month mourning and begging for mercy,
This was a test in my eyes. God tests us in this world to see if no matter what the situation is, we will still have faith in Him.
For white women, the legal practice of coverture meant that women lost all of their political and economic rights to their husband.
I believe this says the same for women outside of the white race as well.
An elected assembly was an offshoot of the idea of civic duty, the notion that men had a responsibility to support and uphold the government through voting, paying taxes, and service in the militia
This is basically how the United States is now. Except, now it's not only men, but women and men.
Historians estimate that between 24,000 and 51,000 Native Americans were forced into slavery throughout the southern colonies between 1670 and 1715.
Does this number include women and children? It would have been at least somewhat better if all of these slaves could of been indentured servants rather than actual slaves. It's still not fair, but at least it would have been better and possibly more tolerable.
“that Negroes and Indians are otherwise than Beasts.”
This was how many of the people (whites) during this time thought of the Natives and Africans. They did not think of them as humans and believed that they were lower than them.
All male property holders could vote in town meetings and choose the selectmen, assessors, constables, and other officials from among themselves to conduct the daily affairs of government.
So the ones who are allowed to vote are basically men who are wealthy enough to own property because they probably believed that only those men were capable of making the right decisions as to who should run what.
these first Africans in North America could also work for only a set number of years before becoming free landowners themselves.
Even though the Africans were not being treated equally, this deal was far more bearable than the deal they get during slavery later on.
The colony’s great labor vacuum inspired the creation of the “headright policy” in 1618: any person who migrated to Virginia would automatically receive 50 acres of land and any immigrant whose passage they paid would entitle them to 50 acres more.
50 acres of land! Just given to you! Imagine what those people thought when they came across Virginia and was gen this much land. However, the purpose of being given this land is to grow tobacco, and from what i read earlier, tobacco kills the land,
English privateering provoked Spain. Tensions worsened after the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, a Catholic. In 1588, King Philip II of Spain unleashed the fabled Armada. With 130 Ships, 8,000 sailors, and 18,000 soldiers, Spain launched the largest invasion in history to destroy the British navy and depose Elizabeth.
This invasion was provoked by England's expansion and empowerment. It's unbelievable how many soldiers and sailors were a part of this invasion. And to think with this many people, they were wiped out by a storm, leaving England with victory.
But then a fluke storm, celebrated in England as the “divine wind,” annihilated the remainder of the fleet. The destruction of the Armada changed the course of world history.
If it wasn't for this storm, then England may not have won dominance in North America and they would have never expanded through the opened seas. .
In fact, over the entire history of the Atlantic slave trade, more Africans were enslaved in Brazil than any other colony in the Atlantic World.
So African slavery had a higher percentage than Native American slavery because most Native Americans were dying off from diseases.
both Portugal and Spain were instructed to treat the natives with Christian compassion and to bring them under the protection of the Church.
I wonder they were able to control themselves and force themselves to follow this rule.
Like the French, the Dutch sought to profit, not to conquer. Trade with Native peoples became New Netherland’s central economic activity.
Not only were the French capable of living in peace with the Natives, but also the Dutch. If the French and Dutch are capable of treating the Native Americans as humans, then why could the Spanish be the same? Why did they have to be so greedy for power and find them unequal. Maybe if the French and the Dutch could have joined forces with the Indians sooner, then they could have conquered over the Europeans and saved many Natives.
the Spaniards slaughtered nearly half of its roughly 1,500 inhabitants, including women and children. Oñate ordered one foot cut off of every surviving male over 15 and he enslaved the remaining women and children.1
The amount of brutality that occurred in New Mexico is devastating. It's one thing to capture and enslave people, but to being even more torture and pain to them is so cruel. What was going on in the minds of these men during the time?
New diseases wiped out entire civilizations in the Americas, while newly imported nutrient-rich foodstuffs enabled a European population boom.
So the Europeans gained some benefits from the Columbian Exchange.
the Puritan had made a covenant with God to establish a truly Christian community, in which the wealthy were to show charity and avoid exploiting their neighbors while the poor were to work diligently.
This could have been a test that the Puritans created for themselves to show God their ability to work together and find a common solution among the wealthy and the poor.
Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck and to provide for our posterity is to follow the counsel of Micah: to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with God. For this end, we must be knit together in this work as one man; we must hold each other in brotherly affection; we must be willing to rid ourself of our excesses to supply others' necessities; we must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience, and liberality. We must delight in each other, make others' conditions our own and rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and common work, our community as members of the same body.
This passage describes what many religions ask of us as people who follow God and want to do what He asks us to do. It describes being part of your community, working together, having the same mind set, etc.
In each seventeenth-century New England colony, government itself rested on consent. Governors and legislative assemblies were elected, usually annually, by the freemen of the colony.
This system sounds much better and very similar to our system today with voting. Although the votes were restricted to only freemen of the colony, it's still one step closer to more fairness.
Since tobacco production rapidly exhausted the soil of nutrients, the English began to acquire new lands along the James River, encroaching on Indian hunting grounds.
More and more land was being taken since tobacco was killing off the land.
And the Christians attacked them with buffets and beatings, until finally they laid hands on the nobles of the villages. Then they behaved with such temerity and shamelessness that the most powerful ruler of the islands had to see his own wife raped by a Christian officer.
How could they call themselves Christians with this kind of act of behavior?
For in the beginning the Indians regarded the Spaniards as angels from Heaven. Only after the Spaniards had used violence against them, killing, robbing, torturing, did the Indians ever rise up against them....
The Indians probably thought that these people are going to share with them their ways as they would have done with them, only to get the exact opposite. They believed that since they are all kind and loving, that others lived the same.
the most obedient and faithful to their native masters and to the Spanish Christians whom they serve. They are by nature the most humble, patient, and peaceable, holding no grudges, free from embroilments, neither excitable nor quarrelsome. These people are the most devoid of rancors, hatreds, or desire for vengeance of any people in the world. And because they are so weak and complaisant, they are less able to endure heavy labor and soon die of no matter what malady.
These Indians most likely lived in harmony together at peace and knew how to survive among each other without having conflict.
Sir, Your Highness has been kind enough to write to us saying that we should ask in our letters for anything we need, and that we shall be provided with everything
The king of Portugal may have said this to them, but it seems to me that he wasn't living up to his word given how Afonso has sent many letters and has gotten very little change.
very often it happens that they kidnap even noblemen and the sons of noblemen, and our relatives, and take them to be sold to the white men who are in our Kingdoms
I could understand the lower class/poor people being taken and sold, but how are they able to capture noblemen?
According to King Afonso, what have been the detrimental effects of the Portuguese presence in his kingdom? What steps has he taken to deal with the problems caused by the Portuguese? Why is he appealing directly to the Portuguese king for aid? Does King Afonso see the Portuguese presence in his kingdom as a right or a privilege? How does King Afonso distinguish legitimate and illegitimate trade in slaves? What elements of Portuguese culture does he welcome? Why?
According to King Afonso, what have been the detrimental effects of the Portuguese presence in his kingdom?
His kingdom verged on disintegration because of the Portuguese. The introduction of European products and customs caused widespread dissension and instability. Also, the unceasing Portuguese pursuit of slaves undetermined Afonso’s authority and made his subjects restive. Another issue was natives, sons of the land, noblemen, their sons, and the Afonso’s relatives were being captured and sold to the white men living in the kingdom.
What steps has he taken to deal with the problems caused by the Portuguese? In 1526, the king wrote three letters to King Joao 3rd of Portugal, urging him to control his rapacious subjects. Why is he appealing directly to the Portuguese king for aid? He is appealing directly to the Portuguese king because he can control who and what goes to Afonso’s kingdom. Since Afonso’s power and authority is being overseen, he has no choice but to seek aid from the Portuguese king since the Europeans will only follow him now. Does King Afonso see the Portuguese presence in his kingdom as a right or a privilege? I believe he see’s the Portuguese presence as a privilege because he needs certain things from the Portuguese for his kingdom. That’s why instead of trying to kick the Europeans out of his kingdom, he sends letters to the Portuguese king trying to fix the situation without losing any ties. In one of the letters, Afonso is asking for the king of Portugal to send two physicians, two apothecaries and one surgeon for his kingdom because they are in need of their assistance. So from that I can see how having connections with the Portuguese is a privilege because he also needs them for wine and flour for the holy sacrament as well as priests and people to teach in schools. How does King Afonso distinguish legitimate and illegitimate trade in slaves? King Afonso passed a law where if a white man living in the kingdom wants to purchase goods, he has to inform three of their noblemen and officials of court who will investigate if the mentioned goods are captives or free men. What elements of Portuguese culture does he welcome? Why? King Afonso adopted Christianity as the state religion, imitated the etiquette of the Portuguese royal court, and used Portuguese as the language of state business. He did this because he dreamed of achieving a powerful and prosperous state through cooperation with the Europeans.
A 10,000 year history of disease crashed upon the New World in an instant. Smallpox, typhus, the bubonic plague, influenza, mumps, measles: pandemics ravaged populations up and down the continents.
Diseases were the ultimate downfall for people during these times..
Mestizo mothers, for instance, might insist that their mestizo daughters were actually castizas, or quarter-Indians, who, if they married a Spaniard, could, in the eyes of the law, produce “pure” criollo children entitled to the full rights and opportunities of Spanish citizens.
The mother's were trying to look out for their daughters but it's sad how in order for them to have a better future, they need to pass as "castizas". What would happen if they were caught in the lie?
. In the encomienda, the Spanish crown granted a person not only land but a specified number of natives as well. Encomenderos brutalized their laborers with punishing labor.
What gave them the right to have control over another human being? And while having control, why do they feel the need to brutalize them with labor?
But now it was a long, long ways back to the top. So the little muskrat, as he reached for the bottom, he did get a paw-full of mud.
This kind of loyalty coming from an animal is just like the loyalty you see in dogs today. There are a lot of articles about dogs savings lives of humans. It just shows how every soul is beneficial for the world and for each other one way or another.
The birds got together and they decided the big words with the big, big wings they decided they would open their wings; they would fly up and catch this creature on top of their wings because she didn’t look like she had wings.
So are they birds part of the sky world or water world?
The woman was very curious and so she came over to the hole and was peering deep, down into the hole and wanted to see what was there.
Did she want to roots to begin with? Or was she actually bored and wanted to create some excitement by having her husband pushed over the tree to see what lies under them. Or did this urge to see what's under come after the tree was pushed over.
Wave after wave she unleashed, until much of the land was underwater and many of the people were drowned.
How could Olokun not care for the lives she was killing?
The new people built huts as Obatala had done, and soon Ife prospered and became a city.
This is when civilization began.
Obatala settled down with the cat for company.
So the cat didn't bring any use to the creation of earth, it was just there for company? But even that didn't work because he eventually got bored.
¶ And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
Dry land was created for the rest of nature that God wanted to create as well as for humankind.
But Columbus had come for wealth and he could find little. The Arawaks, however, wore small gold ornaments. Columbus left thirty-nine Spaniards at a military fort to find and secure the source of the gold while he returned to Spain to great acclaim and to outfit a return voyage. Spain’s New World motives were clear from the beginning. If outfitted for a return voyage, Columbus promised the Spanish crown gold and slaves.
Even though Columbus was astounded by how sweet and peaceful the Arawak's were, he was more interested in the gold that they owned and wanted to find out where it was coming from.
Thus were born the first great Atlantic plantations.
These plantations consisted of African slaves?
A series of military conflicts between England and France–the Hundred Years War–accelerated nationalism and cultivated the financial and military administration necessary to maintain nation-states.
So the war between England and France lead to the growth of Nationalism. Why is that?
Spiritual practices, beliefs on property, and kinship networks differed markedly from Europeans. Most Native Americans did not neatly distinguish between the natural and the supernatural. Spiritual power permeated their world and was both tangible and accessible. It could be appealed to and harnessed.
What does the sentence "spiritual power permeated their world....and accessible" mean?
. The food surplus enabled a unique social organization, where individuals achieved social status by giving elaborate feasts, called potlaches. These days-long parties allowed the host to demonstrate his wealth by feeding and entertaining guests with food and artwork.
I'm guessing this is another way for the wealthy to present themselves as a higher class. Would they use these parties as ways to make people in debt with them?
By 1300, the once powerful city had undergone a series of strains that led to collapse. Scholars previously pointed to ecological collapse or slow depopulation through emigration, but new research instead indicates that mounting warfare, or internal political tensions led to the collapse of the once mighty city.
Whenever there is too much power somewhere, there is always political tension. Did the fight over power lead to the collapse of the city?
Native American agriculture varied. Some groups used shifting cultivation where farmers cut the forest, burned the undergrowth and then planted seeds in the nutrient rich ashes of what remained. When crop yields began to decline, farmers would simply move to another field and allow the land to recover and the forest to regrow before they would again cut the forest, burn the undergrowth, and restart the cycle.
I've never heard of this kind of technique for farming. And I find it amazing how patient the farmers would be when the crops stop growing. They would just move to a different location.
Whether because of overhunting, climate change, or a combination of the two, the megafauna population collapsed and mastodons, horses, and other large mammals disappeared. But native populations adapted: they fished, hunted small mammals, and gathered nuts and berries. Native peoples spread across North America.
You could say this links to Charles Darwin's "Survival of the Fittest". The Native American's were able to accommodate to a lifestyle where they would be able to survive in the areas they were surrounded by.
What were the variety of exchanges that occurred in Native American Societies? What role did giving play in establishing status and obligation? The Native Americans exchanged material goods, marriages across community lines, resources, labor of ideas, techniques and religious practices. Exchanges sealed social and political relationships. It was done to earn prestige, where they would be thought highly of by the individual or group who had received the exchange, Also, by giving away things, it makes the other party obligated to give something back or do a favor. Exchanges also lead to respect in their eyes.
What developments occur in Europe that help set the foundation for European exploration and empire building?
First, there was a massive growth in population recovering from the plague of the fourteenth century killing half the population of the region. Second, population growth brought the growth of national economies and raised the demand for consumer goods. Third, this growth led to the development of advances of shipbuilding and navigation so that sea merchants could compete more effectively in expanding trade. Fourth, these trades led to the rise of large kingdoms and powerful monarchs who wanted to consolidate their power and increase the economical development of their nation.
What was Portugal's interest in slaves? What role do the Portuguese come to play in the trade of African slaves?
Portugal’s interest in slaves was from the growth of sugar and sugar plantations that spread from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic island off the coast of Africa. There was an increase in slave labor, and so the Portuguese traded with the Moors. By the beginning of the 1500's, the Portuguese had turned themselves into major purchasers and sellers of slaves in West Africa. They became the middle men in the trade in slaves in West Africa that had existed prior to their arrival.