Eman Zahir
HIST 1301-21008
Mike Moore
17 October 2017
Since the human history is known the people have just cared about the power and the ways to dominate each other whether it be on the basis of their economy, color, race, creed or just for the different equipment one has that are better than the ones possessed by the others. When we talk about American history we talk about people from different nation we talk about the diversity and we talk about the evil acts done on this land. By evil acts we mean not only the how wars were fought but also how people failed to learn the lesson of that particular war and how those acts interfere our daily lives.
The first document about Gottlieb Miltenberger is about the indenture servitude which took place from 16th century to 17th century. An indentured servant is a free person who agrees to work for another person for a certain period of time. In American history, Indenture servants were those people who needed a new opportunity to get rid of economic and social imbalances in England. On establishment of English settlements on Chesapeake Bay, bad environmental conditions made people sick which caused a lot of tobacco cultivations to be destroyed. Due to desperate need of work force, Englishmen were offered their passage to the new World in exchange of their work for certain period of time which usually lasted 5-7 years in average and in the end of their indenture they would get paid ‘freedom dues’ which were typically metal tools, guns, money, tobacco, free corn for a year. A large amount of people agreed to be indentured servants and happily signed the indentures. When they were taken to the ship to get loaded into the ships, they were not treated any less than African slaves. They were instantly thrown into the ships. Each ship contained 400 people with 8ft2 for each person. Indenture servants included young and old men, women and sometimes children. No matter how old they were, what gender they were, they were treated the same way, mercilessly. Due to heat and suffocation in the ship the bad odors due to perspiration created a bad environment to breathe in the ship. Plenty of people died while other got sick. Due to sickness, they were unable to either drink or eat but they were inhumanely made their mouths open in order to fill it with cold and worm-filled food. They were made to drink dirty fecal water from the ship which was extremely unhealthy for them to drink. A lot of indentured servants lost their lives but the crewmen of the ships didn’t care about anything but themselves. Sick servants were thrown into water to die because all they wished is to keep them healthy so they could land in America to take care of the economy of new world by cultivating the and providing benefits to the planters. In the 7-week voyage 20% of indentured servants died. While the rest upon landing on land, the American soil, indentured servants were chosen by the planters for surety that they would do the work as expected. While the unfit ones stayed on the coast waiting for someone to come and cover their expense for this awful journey. In this way children got separated from their families and the families are now broken up. In my opinion, this would be the worst thing every experienced by the people when they had positive attitude for something and which turned out to be something completely negative and evil. So many people didn’t even make it to the end of their indenture which is quite sad and devastating.
In the second document the journey of an African Slave Olaudah Equiano is explained by himself. Slavery is old since human beings started to depend on status quo system. If we talk periodically then slavery started in 650-1800 CE from Africa. Status quo in Africa was not based on the race or creed but it was just a division between the rulers/leaders and people other than them. African leaders are guilty of using their own people as the property they owned, thinking that they would get only benefits economically but the truth is they got devastated.
In 1400s trades mostly used to take place between Europe and China and India through Mediterranean seas. Since the distance between this region was large and the equipment used to travel were expensive they started to run of financial sources. Spain was Europe’s most powerful countries discovered technologies for long distance travel called Compass and Caravel. Compass is an equipment used to keep track of locations and Caravel is a type of ship which can be used to travel long distances. On travelling Portuguese and Spanish navigators reached African coast.
Portugal was already struggling for power so they decided to establish trade with Africa. This trade was adapted by many other European countries. When Portuguese started to explore African coast they found gold, sugar cane and tobacco. This drew all European leaders’ attention towards Africa and its treasures. The African leaders offered them slaves in exchange of goods like metal tools, gun etc. They had many tricks to drag their countrymen towards slavery. The people were condemned criminals or debt collectors, so as a punishment of their unknown sins they were forced to be slaves. These people were forcefully dragged into ships and sailed towards the destination they weren’t aware of. Their destination was called America, which was across Atlantics and the passage is called middle passage because it is a three-way passage i.e. from Europe to Africa and from Africa to America. Now all sugar plantations had moved to Americas where, due to several contagious and deadly diseases whole native American population got wipe off while the remaining people resisted. Africans were treated in the worst manner a human being could be treated. 400 slaves were carried in each boat where each person was given only 4 ft2 area to fit in. Men were made to stay under the deck while women and children were asked to stay on top. The crew members had to keep them healthy, at least just that they are able to work so they were forced to eat cold food with worms in it. They were given dirty water. Due to heat and less area, people suffocated and bad odors, due to perspiration made them sick to death. A lot of them wished to die while a lot of them were out thrown when the crew found out that they are sick unfit for work. The slaves were also given punishments for little wrong things they did. Some of them were also killed. The black African slaves saw white men as cannibals, they were afraid that they would eat them alive or after killing them. They thought as if they were in the world of bad spirits. After reaching North America, the selection of slaves had to be done. The ones who were fit were chosen to do the work in the plantation in Virginia while the others were punished severely and later sold to someone else. These slaves after getting out of that hellish ship were never free but some of them acquired freedom and later worked hard for the abolition of slavery from the world.
The third document written by J. Hector St. John Crevecoeur is about the American life and the people of America. Crevecoeur was a French who came to the new World as a militiaman during French-Indian war. After British defeat to the French army he settled a huge farm in Orange county New York in 1769. While living in New York he used to write about his experience and feelings about America. His letters came out as a book in 1782 as “Letters from an American Farmer”. According to this book the late 17th century America was very prosperous and advance. It made an ideal country for people from every nation of the world to come and live here. America was nothing like Europe. If Europeans would come to America to see how it is, they would be proud of Englishmen for settling this beautiful region. It was described as a society where arts, science and ingenuity of Europe was inherited through the settlers. After going through so much this country turned out to be the most secular and free country where people from every region and religion could practice their customs and value. There was no difference left between the rich and the poor just it did in Europe. They didn’t have any kind of power to be under control. The architecture of this new country was great. It had roads and beautiful homes. The most respected profession of America was lawyer and farmers who helped the country to grow economically and socially without interruption of any kind of inequality. Whoever the traveler of this country would be, would think that who are the Americans? Are they Dutch, French, Irish, Scottish or German? While they all were the Americans. The people coming from different region of the world would love America more than they love their own country because in America, the person is able to earn his own bread without any difficulties. He would get plenty of opportunities to make his life better than anyone else. If the person is dedicated and sober, he would also easily earn bread for his family too. What else was left for America not to be loved? It had protection, freedom and bread for which Europeans were striving for. Here a person lives according to his will and equality without being subjected to any kind of racism and this is what makes America an American, free country!
In my opinion for all three documents, everyone stated their own experience in which race and social status really mattered. Like in the first document, a poor Englishman signed an indentured servant and was treated bad. In the second document, Africans were forced to be enslaved by the Whites and in third document, a rich French settler sees America as an ideal country for all because he never got subjected to the injustices of America.