Most schools teach American History in a very compacted way. For example, most people do not realize that the colonists were in American for about 150 years before the Revolutionary War. Many people also do not realize that during this time each of the thirteen colonies were basically separate entities with nothing to bind them, such as an agreeance to adhere to a central government. People also do not realize that the Revolutionary War was not motivated by the need for independence from Great Britain, but over money and land. Thomas Jefferson stated once that 33% of the people were fighting for “freedom”, 33% were on the side of the English and 33% did not care either way. Modern historians have put the number of people on the English side at 20-25%, with the vast majority of the colonists not caring either way.
Historically the vast majority of the men pushing for the war were wealthy land and/or business owners who did not want to pay taxes as British citizens. Many of these men had also brought tracts of land in the Ohio Valley region. The government of Great Britain had promised the Native Americans that the settlers would not be permitted to settle pass the Appalachian Mountains. This meant that everyone that had already settled past the Appalachians had to move. Most importantly, it meant that all of the men who had purchased land in the Ohio Valley Region were going to lose a lot of money. What is taught in schools about the Revolutionary War is that the settlers came over. England wanted to tax the tea, people threw the tea in the Ocean. The British retaliated by shooting Crispus Attucks and the war began.
The lie-The settlers came to America looking to escape religious persecution in England. The Pilgrims befriended the Native Americans, who helped them survive a harsh winter. The Native Americans soon turned against the settlers and began unjustifiably attacking them. The United States government had no choice but to take decisive action to curb the threat. This led to a number of small battles that killed the majority of the Native American population. The rest of the Native Americans agreed to live on reservations. The need for the United States government to either assimilate or regulate the movements of the Native Americans have been strongly implied in History books to be a result of (1) the Native Americans being warlike savages (2) having no morals or religion (3) they were all rapists and murderers. Other ideas perpetuated about the Native Americans are (4) they were all of the same tribe (5) they were not slaves
The reason for this is because up until 10-20 years ago textbooks “presented Native Americans through white eyes” (Red Eyes pg.1). Since the mid 1980’s the depiction of Native Americans in textbooks has begun to showcase Native Americans not as primitive savages, but as people who were fighting to save their culture and home, even with the depictions of Native Americans improving there is a lot to be desired. A couple major issues are (1) the lack of visual representation of Native American in textbook. According to the author of Red Eyes there were less than twenty pictures of Native Americans in textbooks in the late 1990’s (2) the authors of the textbooks are still writing to appease the conscious of the settler’s descendants. Some of the more positive aspects of current textbooks are the fact that they are trying to portray Native Americans in a more accurate fashion. The authors have come to realize that each Native Americans tribe was a separate nation, with their own beliefs and customs. That is the crux of another problem. While the authors acknowledge that the tribes are different, they still only present the various Native Americans cultures in a minimum amount of pages. This means that students are still not getting a well-rounded view of Native Americans, which probably contribute to any negative or biased views of the Native Americans that still exist.
The truth of America’s history with the Native Americans goes a little more like this. After the settlers came many tribes began to naturally assimilate to the ways of the settlers. This caused the Native American that did so to lose aspects of their cultural heritage after coming into contact with both Africans and Europeans (Red Eyes pg.4) Native Americans began incorporating things like blankets, kettles, house building, guns and Christianity into their culture (Red Eyes pg.4). The willingness of many tribes to respect if not assimilate white culture was not enough for the settlers, who saw the Native Americans as both a means to an end and a hindrance. The white settlers instigated conflicts between Native American tribes by providing weapons to the tribes they were closest to. This promoted animosity amongst the tribes allowing the settlers to take advantage of the situation to take Native American land. The United States accomplished this through the “Removal Act”. This act basically said that the Native Americans had to give up their land east of the Mississippi, but anything west of the Mississippi would be theirs forever. (Chapter 7 pg.9). Many tribes left willingly, but some tribes like the Creek, Choctaw and Cherokee tribes resisted. They would end up being marched out west. These forced excursions were quite brutal and a large number of Native Americans died. The excursion of the Cherokees, who were bound in stockades was the worst, with and estimated 4,000 Cherokees dying of heat exposure, drought and sickness, the path they took was later named the “Trail of Tears”
Another thing that the Native Americans endured that History never mentions is slavery. The reason for this may be because the Native Americans were already here and were not brought here on slave ships or perhaps it is because there were slightly less Native American slaves than there were African slaves or maybe for descendants of white settlers it’s bad enough that our ancestors either perpetuated or practiced slavery in regards to African American slaves that we do not want to admit doing the same to the Native Americans. The reasoning for History ignoring this fact is irrelevant. The enslavement of the Native American went back to Ponce de Leon, who when he discovered Florida took captured Native Americans back to Spain with him as slaves. The slavery of the Native Americans contributed to African American slavery because Africans from the West Indies were brought to trade for Native America slaves. According to the record of the New York slave rebellion that took place in 1712, 25% of the residents were enslaved and 25% of those enslaved were Native Americans. (Red Eyes pg.6) The center of both Native American and African American slavery was South Carolina. South Carolina in 1708 had 4,100 African slaves, 3, 960 free whites, 1,400 Native American slaves and 120 indentured servants (Red Eyes pg.6). These numbers are not truly reflective of the situation because they do not include the figures for trade, when the colonists sent Native Americans to the West Indies in exchange for African slaves. In the west the number of Pawnee enslaved by the settlers was so high that Pawnee became the word for all slaves (Red Eyes pg.6). According to Pierson Reading, one of the managers of John Sutler's huge tract of Indian land in central California in 1844: “The Indians of California make as obedient and humble slaves as the Negro in the south.” (Red Eyes pg.6). The War for Independence and the Constitution were about profit as was slavery and the removal of the Native Americans from their lands. This is why the founding fathers chose to fight the British over taxes instead of outlawing slavery in 1773 (Tea and Sympathy pg.5)
Sources Used
Brands, H.W. "Founders Chic." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, Sept. 2003. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
Lepore, Jill. "Tea and Sympathy - The New Yorker." The New Yorker. 3 May 2010. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
"Red Eyes." Lies My Teacher Told Me. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
Zinn, Howard. "As Long As Grass Grows or Water Runs." As Long As Grass Grows or Water Runs. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.
