Thought Of The Indians As Barbarians example essay topic

All of the authors we have conversed about in class and studied about at home are connected in at least one way, if not many more. For example, Anne Bradstreet, Jonathan Edwards, Michael Wiggles worth and John Winthrop all write about God and the way we should all act and the simple fact that we all need to be Christians and so must the Indians who occupy their lives. Where as these authors are writers of the Heavenly Father, the authors that I wish to write about, though they do speak a little about God, I am writing on their influence on the Indian culture as well as the impact the Indians have made in Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca's, Mary Rowlandson's and Samson Occom's lives. First of all I wish to write about Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and how he perceived life as he lived with the Indian people and the culture he took in as his own as he lived with them.

Cabeza de Vaca thought, I assume, that the Indians were semi-humans compared with he who was fully human because of his undemanding nature and his involvement with the King of England. Cabeza de Vaca calls, in his narratives, the Indians he lives with 'people'. Thus saying they are human, not animals or monsters as other authors thought. He thinks that they need to be converted to his beliefs, because he is 'right', to be fully human beings. I get this feeling from his statement, "Clearly, to bring all these people to Christianity and subjection to Your Imperial Majesty, they must be won by kindness, the only certain way". (Pg 67) Therefore, to me, this says that he thinks the Indians, along with himself, are just the same as the English Christians.

Cabeza de Vaca writes, "After this we had a hot argument with them (the Christians), for they meant to make slaves of the Indians in our train". (Pg 69) He believes the Indians are human too and are able to live the life they are 'supposed' to live. Although he could not get the ones he lived with to believe it; he says, "To the last I could not convince the Indians that we were of the same people as the Christian slavers". (Pg 69), he told his king and the world, and I trust we understand. I reflect that Cabeza de Vaca thought the Indians would not be converted, to any of the English ways; nor did he consider they would be annihilated. I imagine he thought they would just live their lives as they know how.

Obediently. Mary Rowlandson has a very different view about the Indians, I suppose, because she has an extremely diverse attitude while writing about them. Rowlandson, at first, thought of the Indians as barbarians, and I expect she still thought that way after her return to her husband, but she became a part of them, without wanting to be willing to, but having to, mainly to stay alive. I feel she knows she is part of the Indians way of living, but she cannot bring herself to say they are not barbarians, although she realizes she is becoming just like them with the eating of their foods and learning their language".

It was upon a Sabbath-day-morning, that they prepared for their travel. This morning I asked my master whether he would sell me to my husband. He answered me 'Nux,' which did much rejoice my spirit". (Pg 322) Rowlandson directly states that she thinks the Indians were not humans, for she calls them". ... those barbarous creatures... ". (Pg 311) So, she read to them Bible verses - I do not know exactly why, except for wanting to convert them.

She read two different passages that definitely hinted toward the more narrow path, Job 1: 15 and Psalm 38: 5-6, but she never thought they would actually convert to Christianity. Rowlandson, herself, wondered about herself because of the ways she connected with the Indians. They ate what the Indians were supposed to eat. The meat that sticks out the most in my mind is the horse liver, but they quoted the Bible and were given knitted sweaters that Mary Rowlandson made them.

I feel the Indians were conflicted, and I consider that it was Rowlandson that made them that way. She saw the way they acted, their 'barbarian' ways and their kindness, but Rowlandson never changed her mind - not in her stories anyway. As far as my previous authors were concerned the Indian culture was not a human culture, but Samson Occom thought, and knew differently. He was of the Pequot tribe and was converted at the age of 16 years old. Occom was an Indian; therefore, he knows that he was not a barbarian or some type of animal; he was human.

Although Occom was both Indian and human, he believes he became 'fully human' when he was converted to Christianity - and after that moment in his life, as he writes, "We met together 3 times for Divine Worship every Sabbath and once on every Wednesday evening". (Pg 649), he devoted himself to converting other Indians just like himself. ". ... because I Can't Influence the Indians so well as other missionaries; but I can assure them I have endeavored to teach them as well as I know how... ". (Pg 652) Occom, I do not infer, directly stated how he felt, but he definitely conveyed it in descriptions throughout his accounts. The very last sentence he says is this, "I Can't help that God has made me So; I did not make myself so".

- (Pg 652), as if to say that he understood that he was not perfect... just converted". My Method in the School was, as Soon as the Children got together, and took their proper Seats, I prayed with them, then began to hear them". (Pg 649) With saying this, Occom shows he truly believed he, along with the other missionaries that believed, could convert the rest of the Indian culture to Christianity. That is what Occom wanted, nothing else, but to see his family and friend to be just as he was, 'fully human'.