Early American History

¶ … American History

The Huron creation story is a story of brothers and sisters living together, and eating only a single basketful of corn everyday. One day, one of the sisters got tired of having to reap these corns everyday so she decided to simply cut down all the cornstalks. Having angered her siblings for ruining their subsistence, they decided to drop her through a hole in the ocean. The wild geese who were aware of a body about to fall, gathered closely and the woman fell gently on their backs. After getting tired of having to carry the woman in their backs, they looked for someone who will do the task for them - then came the turtle. A toad later came with a mouthful of dirt which the woman sprinkled in about an arm's length from where she was lying. The land then grew around here where she eventually walked on. The toad also gave the woman seeds of all the plants that can be reaped. After some time, she got lonely and wished for a child. She found a twin which she eventually took care of. The elder of the twins made all that is found in the earth, including the living beings. The other twin then wanted to create beings as well, so he created the monkeys (Rushforth & Mapp, date, pp.1-2).

Examining closely, we can find significant components in the Creation story that are also significant in the cultural lives of the North Americans. The ruin of the siblings' means of subsistence which deeply angered them leading to eviction of their own sister reflects the crucial role the corn had to these people. By and large, the corn signifies their economic well-being. Animals such as the geese, the turtle, and the toad also played significant roles in the Creation story. Hence, the magnitude of importance Huron people give to their ecological resources cannot be downplayed. Another important aspect that needs to be looked at is the fact that the "creators" in the story are males and females. This is in stark difference to other popular creation myths were the "male/s" played the central (if not the only) figure as "creators." This has important implications in the way we see the male-female power structures of this society.

Winthrop's 1630 sermon on the model of Christian Charity opens with the theme of predestination as he says that God created some people rich, poor, powerful while others bear opposite profiles. The creation of this diversity and variety showcases God's glory and wisdom. Moreover, it is through this that God can manifest his power to moderate and restrain the wicked. It also through this diversity and variety that men will find the need for his brothers and sisters - these differences knit the people in the Bonds of Brotherly affection. The rich and the poor will help one another and guide each other to the path of Justice and Mercy. Hence, we should all treat each other as friends. As Christians have signed in a covenant with God, they are to strictly impose upon themselves the articles of faith as well as the percepts of moral law which can be summed up in treating one's neighbor as yourself. It is also the duty of Christians to give, lend, and forgive. At the end, Christians are expected to improve their lives (through brotherly cooperation) and to be of even greater service to the Lord (Winthrop in Rushforth & Mapp, n.d., pp. 125-128).

Winthrop's sermon can be seen as a mere justification of the status quo glazed my moral and religious fundamentals; hence can be branded as a conservative ideology. It is an ideology because it blinds us from the fact that socio-economic diversities are results of concrete economic conditions. Structurally, this strategy can also be taken as almost inevitable since during Winthrop's time of writing, his flock is undergoing such a crucial social transformation - they were crossing America. In this time of history, there was great need to strengthen, establish, and spell out their fundamental values. As these people are faced with great need to re-establish and re-institute themselves in a different setting, social solidarity needed to be heightened more than ever; hence the emphasis on brotherly affection and unity. At that point, there was no room for liberal and radical preaching.

Nathaniel Bacon, a wealthy planter staged an uprising, which eventually developed into a rebellion, against Sir William Berkeley's corrupt regime. His manifesto opens with how perverted the morality of the colony has become. Bacon enumerates corruption, where the quality of the lives of their colonizers have greatly improved but the welfare of the colony has stagnated and downgraded, the administration's protection of their" darling Indians," where the interest of the people have not been protected but these "darling Indians" have been, as crimes of the Berkeley's administration. In return, the manifesto suggests the need to expatriate all Indians as well as to extinguish all forms of commerce and trade with them. Even though the rebellion failed, it has had some positive effects: the reduction of taxes as well as the end of rule of the "grandees" (Virginia Magazine of History and Biography in Foner, 2008).

In most societies where unjust practices are ubiquitous, a form of social retaliation is almost always imminent. The colony, which was ruled by an administration guilty of corruption and unfair practices, found an agent of social transformation via Nathaniel Bacon. But it is vital to understand that Bacon himself staged this uprising because he also has his own interests to protect and preserve. It just happened that he shares the same interests with the majority who were ruled by the Berkeley administration. The antagonistic nature of this historic marker is a clash of interests among the powerful and the subjects. The manifesto, although clearly laying out the crimes committed by the administration, however fell short on the expatriation of Indians component. It calls for the expatriation of Indians as well as the termination of commercial transactions with them but it offered no suggestions as to where Indians should be relocated. This lowered the feasibility of the manifesto's expatriation demand. This case reflects the unjust social hierarchy which has long existed: where the powerful oppresses the middle class, and in turn, the middle class oppresses those on the lowest end of the social triangle.