Colonial America & the Native Americans
- Colonial America Depended on the Enslavement of Indigenous PeopleArticle from Smithsonian Magazine discussing the enslavement of indigenous peoples during the founding of America.
- European Americans and Native Americans View Each Other, 1700-1775In British America, there was no greater sense of Otherness than between Europeans and Native Americans. Both Indians and Africans represented the "other" to white colonists, but the Indians held one card denied to the enslaved Africans—autonomy. As sovereign entities, the Indian nations and the European colonies (and countries) often dealt as peers.
- Library of Congress: Virginia's Early Relations with Native AmericansInformation from the Library of Congress on Virginia's early relations with Native Americans.
- National Geographic: Native Americans in Colonial AmericaNative Americans resisted the efforts of the Europeans to gain more land and control during the colonial period, but they struggled to do so against a sea of problems, including new diseases, the slave trade, and an ever-growing European population.
Streaming Media
- Politics and Indigenous Relations in the New England ColoniesThe New England colonies differed from the Chesapeake colonies in their economies and environments. However, as Kim Kutz Elliott discusses, both regions shared forms of government that were unusually democratic for the time period, as well as a policy of excluding Native Americans from their societies.
- The Natives and the EnglishIn which John Green teaches you about relations between the early English colonists and the native people the encountered in the New World. In short, these relations were poor. As soon as they arrived, the English were in conflict with the native people. At Jamestown, Captain John Smith briefly managed to get the colony on pretty solid footing with the local tribes, but it didn't last, and a long series of wars with the natives ensued. This pattern would continue in US history, with settlers pushing into native lands and pushing the inhabitants further west. In this episode, you'll learn about Wahunsunacawh (who the English called Powhatan), his daughter Pocahontas, King Philip's (aka Metacom) War, and the Mystic Massacre. By and large, the history of the Natives and the English was not a happy one, even Thanksgiving wasn't all it's cracked up to be.
- Colonizing America: Crash CourseIn which John Green teaches you about the (English) colonies in what is now the United States. He covers the first permanent English colony at Jamestown, Virginia, the various theocracies in Massachusetts, the feudal kingdom in Maryland, and even a bit about the spooky lost colony at Roanoke Island. What were the English doing in America, anyway? Lots of stuff. In Virginia, the colonists were largely there to make money. In Maryland, the idea was to create a a colony for Catholics who wanted to be serfs of the Lords Baltimore. In Massachusetts, the Pilgrims and Puritans came to America to find a place where they could freely persecute those who didn't share their beliefs. But there was a healthy profit motive in Massachusetts as well. Profits were thin at first, and so were the colonists. Trouble growing food and trouble with the natives kept the early colonies from success.
- Life for the Native Americans Before and After European ArrivalThis film examines what life was like for Native Americans prior to European arrival. Following the arrival of white settlers, it's estimated that the Native American population was reduced by 90-95% in 100 years.
Perspectives
The World Turned Upside Down
This unique collection presents Native American perspectives on the events of the colonial era, from the first encounters between Indians and Europeans in the early seventeenth century through the American Revolution in the late eighteenth century. The documents collected here are drawn from letters, speeches, and records of treaty negotiations in which Indians addressed settlers. Colin Calloway's introduction discusses the nature of such sources and the problems of interpreting them and also analyzes the forces of change that were creating a "new world" for Native Americans during the colonial period. An overview introduces each chapter, and a headnote to each document comments on its context and significance. Maps, illustrations, a bibliography, and an index are also included.
This Land Is Their Land
Ahead of the 400th Anniversary of the first Thanksgiving, a new look at the Plymouth colony's founding events, told for the first time from the perspective of the Wampanoag natives. In March 1621, when Plymouth's survival was hanging in the balance, the Wampanoag sachem (or chief) Ousamequin (Massasoit) and Plymouth's governor John Carver declared their people's friendship for each other and a commitment to mutual defense. Later that autumn, the English gathered their first successful harvest and lifted the specter of starvation. Ousmaequin and ninety of his men then visited Plymouth for the "First Thanksgiving." The treaty remained operative until King Philip's War in 1675, when fifty years of uneasy peace between the two parties would come to an end. 400 years after that famous meal, historian David J. Silverman sheds a profound new light on the events that led to the creation, and bloody dissolution, of this alliance. From the vantage of the Wampanoag Indians, Silverman deepens the narrative to consider tensions that developed well before 1620 and lasted long after the devastating war tracing the Wampanoags' ongoing struggle for self-determination up to this very day. This unsettling history reveals why some modern Native people hold a Day of Mourning on Thanksgiving, a holiday which celebrates a myth of colonialism and white proprietorship of the United States. No Reason to Give Thanks shows that it is time to rethink how we, as a pluralistic nation, tell the history of Thanksgiving.
The First Thanksgiving
ForeWord 2013 Book of the Year Award Finalist (Adult Nonfiction, History)The Pilgrims' celebration of the first Thanksgiving is a keystone of America's national and spiritual identity. But is what we've been taught about them or their harvest feast what actually happened? And if not, what difference does it make? Through the captivating story of the birth of this quintessentially American holiday, veteran historian Tracy McKenzie helps us to better understand the tale of America's origins--and for Christians, to grasp the significance of this story and those like it. McKenzie avoids both idolizing and demonizing the Pilgrims, and calls us to love and learn from our flawed yet fascinating forebears.The First Thanksgiving is narrative history at its best, and promises to be an indispensable guide to the interplay of historical thinking and Christian reflection on the meaning of the past for the present.