Change Looming in the Future

The coming of the revolutionary war meant to the inhabitants of America that change was looming in the future, some of it good, some of it bad, and even some that would take a while to come about, but never the less, change. For the already powerful colonist that were running the Continental Congress and making decisions on how we would combat the British rule, a revolution meant they would become the new government and would have say on what went on in the thirteen “states” that already existed. For the poor whites a war and a promise of a new government where they “would have say” was a glimmer of hope they could make it out of poverty and prosper in the new world like everyone had promised. The eastern Indians had a completely different feeling towards the matter though, because a victory for us was going to spell out defeat for them. So things were defiantly going to change; only some would be for the better and others for the worse.

                The rich white men of the colonies were continuously having trouble with lower class rebellions, and most of the time these were reckless riots thrown together by angry farmers, but sometimes they turned into more. Going all the way back to Bacon’s Rebellion for example, showed that when organized, the angry colonist could really have an impact. Moving forward to the 1760s when there were still problems with uprisings, the rich white leaders figured out that if they could organize this anger and point it towards Great Britain, they would have a revolution on their hands, and for once it wouldn’t be against them. On top of that, a succession from Great Britain would help them even more because they could make more money off of their crops (referring to the rich white plantation owners) and wouldn’t have to give any of the profit to a government they had no say in. This war dint come without any risks though; if we would’ve lost all of the signers of the declaration would’ve been executed and that goes out to all of the rich supporters as well, but they felt that the risk would be worth the reward if we won.

                The idea of a democracy for once instead of a monarchy was an incredible motivator for the poor colonist to fight the British, because for once they would have a say in how the government would be run and what taxes would be put on them. Also the angry, rebellious colonist I referred to earlier were partially the poor colonist. They were tired of the ridiculous acts that were being brought upon them to fund England’s excursions. For example when England passed the Quartering Act in 1765 which required residents of Boston to provide places for soldiers to sleep and food to eat, needless to say, the Bostonians were outraged. Eventually a skirmish broke out in which three colonists were killed, and what is now known as the Boston Massacre. Fallowing this event, Britain withdrew the troops from the city as to not cause anymore trouble with the Bostonians, but this was a very focal point leading up to the revolution because colonist now had a strong reason to want to fight. Another thing is these poor colonists were pretty much at rock bottom, so they didn’t have much to loose even if they lost the war, so why not try to make things better for themselves.

                The side to the revolution that most don’t hear or realize is that the eastern Indians wanted Britain to win the war, solely because they actually drew a boundary line where the colonist could go no farther west, this line being the Appalachians. The Treaty of Easton, which marked the end of the French and Indian War, stated that English settlement beyond the Appalachians would be prohibited, and that the English had gone as far west as they were going to allow, but two main problems existed with this treaty, and they became apparent. First, during the war a road was hacked through the mountains so the troops could reach the area where they were fighting, and since you can’t undo building a road, the road still existed after the war. This presented a huge problem because they had to tell the colonist to basically stare at the road (to “free” land) and don’t go down it, something that wasn’t going to happen. The second problem was that the colonist were human, and being human wanted to explore and expand on the area around them, and since next to no one respected the Indians as people, they felt there was no problem in taking land from the Indians. Now I’m not saying that if Britain would’ve won the war that the Indians wouldn’t have ever been bothered again, but I am saying that there was a heck of a lot better chance that happening with the colonist under English rule, than under their own rule.

                The group(s) of people that haven’t been addressed is the black slaves and the women of the time. Some people wonder how much the women supported the war even though in the new constitution there were no rights written in for them, but this wasn’t a new idea, so I don’t think it really mattered. In that time period there wasn’t a country in the world that gave women any rights, and this wasn’t done to spite them, it was just the way they thought. So my take on the matter is that the women most of the time felt the same way their husbands did and supported their decisions. What the war meant for the slaves was probably pretty close to what it meant for the poor whites, a chance that they would gain rights and that the “rules” of slavery would change. When the British began to move up the coast, starting in the south, they offered freedom to all of the slaves they came across that would fight for them, so if you were a slave at that time the white man’s war that was going on possibly meant freedom for you. Sadly, unlike the poor white colonist, nothing really changed for the slaves after the war so all of that hope came to nothing.

                The Revolutionary War was exactly what the title entails, a revolution, and when you have a revolution you experience a big change in how things are run. The rich whites ended up coming out on top when the revolution was over because most of their problems were vexed after the war. The Indians, landing on the opposite end of the deal as they saw their land begin to be taken from them starting before the war, and all the way up to just a little while ago. Where the final group(s) of people landed could be debatable, but really the black slaves and women didn’t see anything go their way until post Civil War and on. Now days all of these groups have had things swing back their direction, so the positive change has made its way into all of these groups.   

Reflection On The Movie "Crash"

The film Crash really opened my eyes to how much racism still exists in the United States, or how much blatant racism rather. I’ve know that there still exists racism because I see it everyday in jokes or what have you, but the whole serious political side of it was a little new  for me to see still existing. For instance when the head policemen, being African American, couldn’t say anything about the white cop that would physically violate African American women while on the job, for fear that he would have his job of 17 years taken away from him. Also the D.A. was afraid of saying that his vehicle was stolen, at gunpoint, by two African American men, because he felt that he would loose the African American vote in the up coming election, and wanted to go to the point of giving an African American a medal to show he still likes them. I’m sure that the city in which you are located in defiantly has an effect on the type of racism that you encounter, but this film showed that it is still a pretty big part of society as a whole.

Columbus: Hero or Villain?

For the past 500 years we’ve thought of Columbus as a heroic explorer who stumbled upon America as he was on a quest to find a western route to the Indies, nothing more, and nothing less, but now that perspective is beginning to shift. Accounts tell of Columbus doing unimaginable acts to thousands of innocent Indians, with the main quest being, you guessed it, gold. Everywhere you look you find a different perspective of Columbus’s journeys and conquest, some making him appear as a hero, others as a villain, but not all telling all sides of the story.

            When Columbus first landed in the America’s he and his men were greeted as gods by the local Indians, this being because they actually thought they were gods. They believed that the sailors flew down from heaven in their ships with “giant white wings” (sails) bearing gifts of jewelry and beautiful trinkets, so they equally covered the sailors in gifts. Bartoleme de Las Casas spoke of them being, by nature, the most humble, patient, and peaceable people he’d ever met. However, Columbus, being the explorer he was, immediately claimed everything he saw for the Spanish Crown, even the people that stood in front of him, because that was exactly how the Spaniards saw the Indians, as property. After the Indians realized where they stood in the minds of the explorers they quit being the kind hearted people they first were, and began to stand up against them, but this would, sadly, lead to their downfall.

               The first resentment from the Indians came when the explores demanded that they gave them all of their gold, but because they had so little even when they had given all of it up, it wasn’t enough for the greedy Spaniards. They began to “battle” with the Indians as their request for gold wasn’t being fulfilled, and they tore the natives up. Anyone who survived the fights were captured and handed out to all of the rich Spaniards, that had built plantations on the islands, as slaves, but due to the harsh working conditions they rarely survived long. Also as their gold quota wasn’t being met the Spaniards began to go around to all of the islands and go on slave raids, because they had to fill the boats back to Europe with something or possibly loss the funding for the trips to the new world. This plan backfired on them though because lots of the Indians would die during the voyage or would die soon after they were sold in Europe.

            However not all of the Indians met the same fate, but that doesn’t mean that what happened to them was any better. On one of the islands the Indians were visited by priests, were “converted”, and were given pictures of Christ and the Virgin Mary to pray to. The Indians, not understanding the purpose of these pictures, buried them in their crop fields hoping that their new gods would bring them a plentiful harvest, but this wasn’t taken to lightly with the soldiers. When they found out what the natives had done with the pictures they went, gathered them up, and burned them at the stake, punishing them for “disgracing” their God. As you probably guessed, the soldiers never asked for an explanation for why the natives did what they did. (Eduardo Galeano, Genesis) I’m sure this wasn’t the only instance where this happened but this is an instance that really stuck out in my head.

            After reading all of these horrific accounts I really started to wonder why in the world people still loved Columbus, until I found a text from a long time ago that told a child version of the story of Columbus. In a Lincoln Reader I read the story of Christopher Columbus and it sounded like a fairy tale compared to everything else I’d been reading. The part of the expedition when Columbus traded gifts with the Indians and then takes some back to Spain to show the King and Queen the book makes it sound like the Indians gave their gold away as soon as the explorers asked for it and some of them just volunteered to make the harrowing trip across the Atlantic to meet their new king and queen. The real story however is that the explorers fought the Indians for all the gold they had and then captured Indians to take back to Spain, most of which either died or came very near to by the time they made it back to Europe. But after all I have to remember that this story was taught to children and I probably would’ve been scared if I heard the real story as a young child.

            The only part that was missing in my head is how United States citizens actually came about loving Columbus so much, but I soon had a pretty good idea why. A couple years after the American Revolutionary War, everyone was longing for a national history and a national identity, and strangely all of the Revolutionary War heroes were reluctant to fill the position because being raised above others would be undemocratic, or so they believed. So people started to turn towards Columbus, because of how he found the new world, which led to others, like themselves, to escape the tyranny of Europe and go start a new life. The part of this process that puts a bad taste in my mouth is when Americans began to see Columbus as their real founding father, rather than all of the men who just risked their lives to make the United States of America.

            All of this being said, Columbus was just a visionary who sought to find an easier and cheaper route to the Indies, and just happen to run into this huge continent now called North, Central, and South America, and him doing what explorers did in that time period, claimed what he saw for Spain. Now that doesn’t excuse him from all of the horrible things he did to the natives, but the explorers that followed him were practically war lords so they made him look good. Columbus never got as low as a villain, but never quiet reached true hero status either, nonetheless he did discover the continent we live on today so he is almost a hero, but just a little short.

Caleb Darland