Neal Salisbury, Manitou and Providence

Neal Salisbury, Manitou and Providence

The reading highlights how the victory of the Europeans over the native population of the Americas was not due to moral superiority, but to a complex interplay of technological, economic, social and political factors. Indians had not built up tolerance to European diseases; natives gradually became dependent on trading with the Europeans, the Europeans had a thirst for land and valuable commodities because of the drive to 'win' the control of valuable trade routes from rival Continental powers, and the Europeans possessed a very different view of territorial and property integrity than the natives.

The first phase was the growing dependence of New England Indians upon trade with European settlers. The Indians grew accustomed to the advantages goods such as weapons and horses provided them -- and they were also exposed to European diseases, which reduced their numbers. The rapid increase of the European population and the rapid decrease of the native population made the natives more vulnerable to European territorial encroachments. The New England settlers secured valuable coastal areas important in trade. The settlers' attitude to the land was completely different than that of the native population's -- the colonists regarded land as something to be owned and possessed. They did not view themselves as existing in a reciprocal relationship with the land, like the Native Americans.

Q3. Despite the image of the Pilgrims enjoying a communal meal with the Indians at Thanksgiving, the Puritans saw themselves as on a mission from God, specially designated to build a New Jerusalem in the Americas, as crafting a shining city of moral Christian purity. The Indians were seen as savages, and utterly opposed to the Christian religion and its values. This is not to deny the importance of material accumulation in the lives of the settlers. However, their religious ideology enabled them to morally justify some of their more blatant land-hungry tendencies.

Neal Salisbury, Manitou and Providence, 110-135

Q1. I was surprised at the initial good faith shown by the natives to the settlers. I was also surprised by the degree to which the natives were willing to trust the settlers, in exchange for trading agreements. The relationship between the natives and the settlers, which was unequal from its inception and in its subsequent outcome, is a powerful illustration of the danger of putting material goods at a higher priority than territorial security and upholding one's values as a people.