1. With your group you are going to talk about our large topic (Cultural Encounters and Frontiers) and how it can be tied to the two most recent readings we have done.
What MESSAGE ABOUT cultural encounters and frontiers do these two selections communicate? Not just that they show cultures encountering one another, but detail out a specific message about the encounters that they show. Please use textual evidence in your argument.
Post your group’s answer as a comment and make sure all of your names are listed in the text of the reply.
Once your group has discussed the topic “Frontiers and Cultural Encounters” and tied these two authors to it (and written it with textual evidence as a reply to this), work on your own to answer this question. (You will answer this on your blog)
2. Do you think either of these (de las Casas’ and Equiano’s) accounts changed the audience? How? Why yes or no? If no, what could they have done to more affect their audience?
Aim for around a paragraph, making sure to answer all of the questions and connecting them to each author.
Without an established society there’s going to be a lot of issues. ” They committed other acts of force and violence and oppression which made the Indians realize that these men had not come from heaven” -(Bartlemoe De Las Casas Story) This can relate to both stories in ways that they are both treated very poorly by the white man. Except the Native Americans and just mudered and stolen from, while the Afircan Americans are forced to labor, and are punished or executed if they do not obey their “masters”. In both stories the colonists and the slave traders both used their power in society to command over both the Native and African Americans.
Trevor, Aaron, and Hailea
Cultural Encounters often end up with a superior and insuperior relationship, both stories display this idea as The Devestation of the Indies the Natives are opressed by the spaniards and in The Life of Olaudah Equiano the Africans are opressed by the whites. “And they committed other acts of force and violence and oppression.” this quote shows the opression natives experienced by the spaniards and it also shows that the spaniards were quick to take advantage of the Natives. “…which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himseld, almost suffocated us.” Both of the insuperior groups were treated in inhuman ways and were forced to do what there opressors ordered.
Emma D, Keegan H, Isaac Q
Abbee, Berlyn, Noah.
These two texts both share the same idea of spreading the message about slavery in the middle passage between the two cultures. Both cultures experienced enslavement. In both messages white people took advantage of the other group and enslaved them. For example, “The spainyards have brought to the island of hispaniola and the island of san juan more than two million souls taken captive” This quote shows spainyards taking advantage of the Native Americans. A quote from the text of The Interesting Narritive of the Life of Olaudah Equiano shows “I even wished for my former slavery in preferance to my present situation.” This quote explains the voilence taken to enslave. Overall when a overarching group encounters another, violence will be taken to enslave them.
When cultures clash, they often turn to violence and anger against each other. Both writings included the devistation of people because of white people. Both writings also communicate the message of unfair treatment to people different to the wrong do-er. ‘in “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano”, he writes “…. The air soon became unfit for respiration, from the variety of loathsome smells, and brought on sickness among the slaves, of which many died” (Olaudah Equiano 87). This shows cultures clashing, when the ship masters decline basic care and necessities for the slaves they unrightfully stole these people from their countries and homes. “…. Two million souls taken captive, and have sent them to do hard labor in the mines, loabors that caused many of them to die. And its great sorrow and heartbrake to see this costal land which was so flourishing, now a depopulated desert” (Bartolome de las Casas 90). This quote shows just how brutal the Spanish people were to Indians and how little they cared for them and their land.
Carson, Emma, Blake
In both texts there were examples of slaves and the cruelty they were put through by the white people. Both of the readings have the same purpose to inform the people who don’t understand what the slaves are put through. In “The Very Brief Relation of the Devastation of the Indies” the author writes, ” and if the pearl diver shows signs of wanting rest, he is showered with blows, his hair is pulled, and he is thrown back into the water” (Bartolome De Las Casas Pg 89). This relates to “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano” because in that story there were many examples of how badly they were treated. For example it he writes, ” One of them held me fast by the hands, and laid me across, I think, the windless, and tied my feet, while the other flogged me severely” (Olaudah Equiano Pg 86) Both of these are examples of the cruelty that that slaves faced from the whites.