James Lincoln Collier - Clash of Cultures: Prehistory - 1638

T HE D RAMA OF A MERICAN H ISTORY

CLASH of CULTURES

Prehistory1638

Christopher Collier

James Lincoln Collier

ACKNOWLEDGMENT: The authors wish to thank Neal Salisbury, Professor of History, Smith College, for his careful reading of the text of this volume of The Drama of American History and his thoughtful and useful comments. This work has been much improved by Professor Salisbury's notes. The authors are deeply in his debt but, of course, assume full responsibility for the substance of the work, including any errors that may appear.

Photo research by James Lincoln Collier.

Cover photo: Jamestown-Yorktown Educational Trust.

PICTURE CREDITS: The photographs in this book are used by permission and through the courtesy of:

Chapter I: Plimoth Plantation/Ted Curtin : dugout canoe. Plimoth Plantation/Gary Andrashko : warrior. Jamestown-Yorktown Educational Trust: fishing nets, Indian dwelling, weaving a mat, spear/arrowheads, stone ax head. National Museum of the American Indian : basketry hat, gorget, duck decoys, pottery bowl, duck bowl, wampum belts, pendant, effigy jar.

Chapter II: Jamestown-Yorktown Educational Trust: "An Aged Man in his Winter Clothes," charnel house, "Their Manner of Carrying Children," "A Chief Lady of Pomeiooc . " Corbis-Bettmann: broiling meat, harvesting rice. Plimoth Plantation: a typical English village.

Chapter III: Corbis-Bettmann: Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, Jacques Cartier, Indians bearing heavy burdens, Indian slaves in salt mines. Jamestown-Yorktown Educational Trust: massacre at Cuman .

Chapter IV: Jamestown-Yorktown Educational Trust: early map of North America. Corbis-Bettmann: Elizabeth I, Sir Walter Raleigh, Chief Powhatan, John Smith, Pocahontas, tobacco plant, tobacco shop.

Chapter V: Corbis-Bettmann: "Mr. Winslow, attending on Massasoit," Myles Standish, Indian massacre.

Chapter VI: Corbis-Bettmann: attack on the Pequot village.

AUTHORS' NOTE: The human beings who first peopled what we now call the Americas have traditionally been called Indians, because the first Europeans who landed in the Americas thought they had reached India. The term Indians is therefore not very accurate, and other terms have been used: Amerinds, and more recently, Native Americans. The Indians had no collective term for themselves. Today, most of them refer to themselves as Indians, and we will use that term here, while understanding that it is not very accurate.

1998 Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the copyright holders.

First ebook edition 2012 by AudioGO. All Rights Reserved.

Trade ISBN 978-1-62064-491-1

Library ISBN 978-0-7927-9533-9

CLASH of CULTURES

Prehistory1638

C ONTENTS

P REFACE

OVER MANY YEARS of both teaching and writing for students at all levels, from grammar school to graduate school, it has been borne in on us that many, if not most, American history textbooks suffer from trying to include everything of any moment in the history of the nation. Students become lost in a swamp of factual information, and as a consequence lose track of how those facts fit together, and why they are significant and relevant to the world today.

In this series, our effort has been to strip the vast amount of available detail down to a central core. Our aim is to draw in bold strokes, providing enough information, but no more than is necessary, to bring out the basic themes of the American story, and what they mean to us now. We believe that it is surely more important for students to grasp the underlying concepts and ideas that emerge from the movement of history, than to memorize an array of facts and figures.

The difference between this series and many standard texts lies in what has been left out. We are convinced that students will better remember the important themes if they are not buried under a heap of names, dates, and places.

In this sense, our primary goal is what might be called citizenship education. We think it is critically important for America as a nation and Americans as individuals to understand the origins and workings of the public institutions which are central to American society. We have asked ourselves again and again what is most important for citizens of our democracy to know so they can most effectively make the system work for them and the nation. For this reason, we have focused on political and institutional history, leaving social and cultural history less well developed.

This series is divided into volumes that move chronologically through the American story. Each is built around a single topic, such as the pilgrims, the Constitutional Convention, or immigration. Each volume has been written so that it can stand alone, for students who wish to research a given topic. As a consequence, in many cases material from previous volumes is repeated, usually in abbreviated form, to set the topic in its historical context. That is to say, students of the Constitutional Convention must be given some idea of relations with England, and why the revolution was fought, even though the material was covered in detail in a previous volume. Readers should find that each volume tells an entire story that can be read with or without reference to other volumes.

Despite our belief that it is of the first importance to outline sharply basic concepts and generalizations, we have not neglected the great dramas of American history. The stories that will hold the attention of students are here, and we believe they will help the concepts they illustrate to stick in their minds. We think, for example, that knowing of Abraham Baldwin's brave and dramatic decision to vote with the small states at the Constitutional Convention will bring alive the Connecticut Compromise, out of which grew the American Senate.

Each of these volumes has been read by esteemed specialists in its particular topic; we have benefited from their comments.

C HAPTER I: N ORTH A MERICAN L IVES

ONE OF THE great themes in the history of human life is the clashing of cultures. Everywhere, at all times, groups of people with different ways of doing things, different ideas about themselves and the world around them, have been in conflict. This is as true today as it was as far back as we can see in human history. Such clashes of culture do not inevitably lead to killing and war; sometimes they are settled peaceably. But unfortunately, killing is a frequent result of the conflict between different cultural groups.

The history of what is now the United States began with such a cultural conflict: the dramatic and long drawn-out battle between Europeans and Indians for control of the continent of North America. And there is no doubt that the battle was one of the crucial events in human history, for it changed the state of life on earth forever.