Infamous Individualistic Attitude The Colonists example essay topic

Looking Out for Number One: Conflicting Cultural Values in Early Seventeenth-Century Virginia By: T. H Breen The main focus of Breen's essay the focus is on the fact that colonists in Virginia were driven and motivated to come to the New World, predominantly for monetary reasons. Virginia's soil was found to be unusually well suited for growing tobacco, which is why it drove such a variety of people to migrate there. The colonists, though said to be religious, were extremely individualistic, selfish, as well as primarily drawn in by the economic opportunity in Virginia. These attitudes and ideals are what consequently resulted in numerous military defeats and massacres. They avoided their military obligations, thus naming them the vulnerable "poorly defended white settlements".

These settlements were very easy for the Indians to take advantage of, as Breen writes. Early Virginia's flourishing cultivation of tobacco drew a diversity of people, from fresh war veterans and former soldiers, to adventurers and ordinary people looking to recoup from former monetary losses. However the tobacco did not only alter the country culturally and economically, but it " threw more wood into the fire". It strengthened the infamous individualistic attitude the colonists had.

The adventurers began to have a very competitive attitude and took upon themselves as many others did an anarchist or mutinous perspective, where government intervention was view as a threat to there independence. Breen clearly depicts the Virginians attitude by saying that if they would have landed in a "cold, rocky, inhospitable country... they would probably have given up the entire venture... ". Throughout this essay Breen reiterates the fact that the Virginians were out for private gain.

They took it to such an extent that they isolated themselves throughout the land, which they exploited to all ends. Their relationships between each other and social behavior clearly portrayed the individualistic attitude they had. Slaves were used as a resource to increase profit. In Virginia you seemed to either be a resource used for profit or an exploiter who utilized those resources. In order to keep all people able to work on the fields working, the colonists' discouraged church and school within Virginia. The lack of emphasis on education and religion was disgraceful.

Although from time to time something might have been mentioned, nothing was done. The military was also something of great importance, but belittled. It was despicable how the fixation of personal gain was more persuasive than the idea of creating a reliable system of defense. Due to the lack of military planning, in 1622 there was a massacre.

The Indians attacked the clearly defenseless colony, in which 347 colonists had been killed. After this attack the Virginians realized something had to be done. They couldn't live so far apart, they had to collectively put aside the prosperity and construct actual towns. Ultimately, the inevitable occurred, and the colonists looked at the massacre and tragedy only in terms of personal loss. Colonists began moving back to the isolated plantations. Predictably, things went back to the way that they were, with the same problems that initially caused their distress.

Since clearly the colonists were not going to do anything about it the Virginia leaders felt obligated to deal with the Indians. Some of the options they thought about included making military so profitable that the planters would leave the plantations to defend the land. An alternative approach was to assign other people to protect the colony. The state could transfer public funds to people who would, as a result, build forts, and the like.

Unfortunately, these ideas used nearly the entire public treasury, but did not create permanent results. In the mid 1620's Virginian leaders failed in an attempt to obtain cheap, dependable military force by petitioning to English government for supplies, men and the like. The settlers were helpless, and in 1644, there was a bigger, more deadly massacre by the Indians, feeding off the pathetic military of Virginia. Despite the fact that they all were individualistic and selfish, and portrayed the same 'private gain' attitude, they were not able to overcome the many individual differences they had. There was no way they would be able to form a successful society when they had no group identity, and had so much social turmoil.

Throughout the seventeenth-century though, the Virginians did in fact alter things such as intense individualistic attitude, into a passion for independence and freedom.