Native Americans example essay topic

What Was an American? During the eighteenth century, thousands of Western Europeans fled their homes of England, Scotland, Germany, France, and the Netherlands to come to the newly discovered America. For most, it was a long, stressful journey that seemed to have no end. They arrived to a country experiencing colonization, growth, slavery, oppression, and hope. Some came for better economic aspirations, some came to escape the cruel living conditions of their previous homes, and some were shipped out of their homeland to be sold and treated as property. The American was a man of innovation, searching for personal interests and a common unity, which were not accessible from his land of origin.

St. John Crevecoeur described the American as something new, his belief of an American, "is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions". Arriving to a new continent, where there was no ruling of kings and queens, the American were establishing "new laws, a new mode of living, and a new social system. ' Americans are descendents of Europeans who all shared the same vision for starting a new life, hence a 'strange mixture of blood,' where "individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men". The American was the merchant who came from Germany, who had never witnessed the land he was relocating to, he could have possibly been divided from his children for the rest of his life; all because he wanted a better life for his family and the opportunity to attain freedom.

The journey across the Atlantic even given the most favorable winds took seven weeks. The ships were crowded with putrid smells, mouth-rot, scurvy, diarrhea, and shortage of food. These men endured such misery, they cried for home: "Oh! If only I were back at home, even lying in my pig-sty!" When they finally arrived to Philadelphia, they had to pay for the unbearable voyage so they were forced "to remain on board until purchased by Englishmen, Dutchmen, and the High Germans", where they were separated from families, and wives and children, based on health.

Kids the ages of ten to fifteen would have to bind themselves to contracts to work until the age of twenty-one. They believed all this sacrifice was for the better of the future and more promising than their prior gloomy lives. The American was a determined force, wanting to take over the land with brute force, with no regard to the Indians who had lived there years before. Chief Tecumseh gives us a glimpse into the Native American account of how the settlers took over the land: "Our beloved chief Moluntha stood with the American flag in front of him and that very peace treaty in his hand, but his head was chopped by an American officer, and that American was never punished".

To the Native Americans it sounded ridiculous to sell land; land was not to be owned, but to be shared amongst everyone, "sell a Country! Why not sell the air, the clouds, and the Great Sea". An American was like the deceitful Captain William Tucker who even after having signed a treaty invited the Native Americans for a toast and celebration, but secretly poisoned them, and then proceeded to burn down their villages, and collect their heads. The American was the Southern plantation owner, arguing against the abolishment of slavery because he believed the slave to be a piece of personal property. An African American slave was believed to be "the most valuable and indispensable Article of our property, our SLAVES". An American was a man that saw slavery as acceptable, "For we find it in the Old Testament... slavery was permitted by the Deity himself".

Families were separated and people kidnapped from the entire western coast of Africa, all from diverse tribes and speaking different languages, but to the eyes of an American were all the same because of skin color. The American tried to escape from Serfdom, where taxes were unbearable, where they weren't permitted to shoot the deer that roamed on their farms and destroyed their crops; and when in times of wars soldiers would take over their house, and sleep in their beds, while they slept on straw. This being the reason, he as well as many others, took the long trip to America, it was an issue of personal freedom and desire to strive for unity and independence. They came to the New World "in order to escape servitude and enjoy liberty". The American was the German immigrant who supported the Revolution, because he feared that, without it, he would be taken back to the conditions of serfdom. An American was the English Pilgrim who wanted religious freedom, salvation and separation from the Church of England, and the riddance of persecution by King James I. For this reason, the pilgrims sailed across the Atlantic with William Bradford on the Mayflower to come to Plymouth Rock.

They endured cold and brutal winters in order to create an ideal society centered on God. An American was the pioneering of a new life and the becoming of a new man. To be an American was the chance for freedom, a new society, religion, race and culture. Depending on where one originated in Western Europe and where in the New World they were arrived meant different outcomes. For some, like St. John Crevecoeur, an American was about freedom and excitement. For others it was a growing process of attaining freedom.

In sum an American was the hopeful Pilgrim, the supportive German, the oppressive white man, and the seemingly immoral slaveholder.