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Natives Perspective And Experience Essay

479 Words2 Pages

The Accounts of Natives: Perspective and Experience Everyone has a general understanding of the events, as well as the perspectives of when the Europeans: Thomas Harriot, Richard Frethorne, and John Smith touched down in the Americas. However, it is a rare occurrence that the perspectives are combined. The stark differences in each perspective make the idea of comprehending the events that unfolded--without bias towards one perspective--very difficult. It is apparent that the conceptions of natives in America are solely based on perspective and experience. Harriott’s account of the natives paints them as docile creatures, rather than cannibalists. In “A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia”, Harriott describes the village in which the natives live as a place of organized joy and primitive survival. Whereas Frethorne’s letter to his parents describes the idea of enslaving a …show more content…

It was so unbearable, that Frethorne begged his parents to send him food if they could not pay off his debt. The plantation that he worked was riddled with illness and starvation, and he was still sentenced to slave over the land. It is only reasonable to assume that his overexertion, and confrontations with the natives, played a huge role in his overall opinion of the natives. The conceptions of the natives in America are solely based on perspectives and experiences. The stark differences are obvious through the accounts of John Smith, Richard Frethorne, and Thomas Harriott. Also, the perspectives of Frethorne and Smith are similar in the intent to exploit the natives, but vastly differ in the motives behind them. Lastly, Frethorne’s perspective exclusively depended on his experiences and a desperate indentured servant that fought natives. All of these aspects tie together to assert the fact that each man’s perspective was directly affected by their experiences with the

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