ipl-logo

Summary Of David Henderson's Surviving Genocide

814 Words4 Pages

The American Revolution, celebrated for its ideals of liberty and freedom, stands in stark contrast to the harrowing reality experienced by Indians. Instead of liberation, this period ushered in a time of betrayal and a desperate struggle for survival. One instance of this brutality occurred at the hands of the Paxton Boys, who mercilessly murdered 20 unarmed Conestoga in the town of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Jeffrey Ostler’s Surviving Genocide states that during their march to Pennsylvania, the Paxton Boys openly announced their genocidal intention to kill Indians. The Philadelphia officials’ reluctance to prosecute the perpetrators can be speculated upon by various factors: dispatching troops was economically inconvenient, and the Paxton Boys …show more content…

This formal authorization offered an additional measure of legitimacy for the actions of the Paxton Boys. David Henderson’s account of the Indian murders also underscores that the boys “have shown a ferocity equal to that of the Savages themselves” and asks the Pennsylvania officials to take action: “I have given you the trouble of this letter, from the only feelings of humanity that you may take such measures as you think proper, & may be in your power to preserve this Land from further guilt.” Henderson approaches from an ethical perspective, and emphasizes that the guilt of the land lies in the officials’ hands. Unexpectedly, the government makes no response, and the Paxton Boys join the history of unaccounted violence perpetrated against Indigenous people. Formal approval or not, the Paxton Boys’s intent to kill a racial group constitutes genocide and reflects a broader tendency to wipe out Indigenous peoples of colonial …show more content…

In a fierce echo of the Paxton Boys’ savagery, 160 militiamen under the command of David Williamson clashed with just over 100 Moravian Indians. After enduring a harsh winter without food, the Indians were quickly rendered defenseless. This tragic event, formally known as the Gnadenhutten massacre, saw Williamson and his men vote for mass execution, accusing the Moravian Indians of espionage before allowing them time to “prepare themselves in a Christian manner.” The irony lies in the frontiersmen’s belief that offering time for prayers and singing would somehow mitigate the atrocity of slaughtering innocent women and children. In the following morning, the militiamen wielded swords, knives, and mallets, ruthlessly killing ninety-two of the ninety-four captives, with two boys surviving, albeit one left scalped and presumed dead, managing to crawl away. In total, the Williamson militia slaughtered a total of ninety-six, but their murderous spree was long over; they later attacked a group of Delawares under US Protection near Fort Pitt and struck Indian villages that had previously raided American settlements. Earning a reputation as the “head murderer,” the Indians sought revenge by capturing the operation’s leader, Colonel William Crawford, subjecting him to a similarly brutal fate: burning and torturing him for at least two hours at the stake. The gruesome massacre serves as yet another chilling testament to colonizers’

Show More
Related

Summary Of Charlene Teters Whose History Do We Celebrate

545 Words | 3 Pages

In “Charlene Teters (Spokane) Asks ‘Whose History Do We Celebrate?’ 1998” the main author is Charlene Teters. The authors main purpose in writing this article is to raise awareness on the lack of education of Native American history and gives examples from his past. The article is written in the being of the year 1998 and is dated due to the anonymous letter being quoted at the beginning. The events taken place in New Mexico is what brought Charlene Teters attention to writing this article. Charlene Teters writes, “One of many brutal truths selectively omitted from most history books is this: in 1599, Oñate attacked Acoma Pueblo in retaliation for the death of his nephew, ordering that the right feet of all men in the pueblo above the age of 25 be chopped off” (492).

Read More

John Sassamon Case Analysis

710 Words | 3 Pages

In December of 1674, John Sassamon set off to, allegedly, warn Governor Josiah Winslow that, “the Wampanag sachem (New England Indian hereditary leader) King Philip […] was preparing for war against the English settlers” (p. 1). Unfortunately, Sassamon did not return from his journey and, on January 29, 1675, was found dead in an icy pound with his “hat, a gun, and a brace of ducks” nearby (p. 1). On March 1, 1675, three Wampanoag Indians – Tobias, Mattashunnamo, and Wampapaquan – were indicted for Sassamon’s murder (p. 100). Based on New England’s legal system, Tobias, Mattashunnamo, and Wampapaquan did receive a fair trial in that the case was tried in a General Court, and not dealt with privately between the Indian groups as was customary (p. 103).

Read More

Review Of Facing East From Indian Country By Daniel Richter

1184 Words | 5 Pages

Both Indians and Anglo-Americans wanted to exterminate the other from their lives. The last chapter examines the tensed racial views. Groups like Pennsylvania’s Paxton Boys ruthlessly encouraged the removal Indians. Unfortunately, racial divisions grew, and an attempt by the Indian people to integrate Europeans into their paths ended in increasing violence. Of all the chapters, Richter

Read More

How Was King Philip's War Affected Puritan And Native American Society?

781 Words | 4 Pages

This proved to be a devastating loss for both sides in the conflict and more was lost than just human lives. It would prove to be the most destructive war per capita in American history. In Daniel Gookin’s tract, it is made evident just how blurred the lines were throughout the war. He describes an account of the “praying Indians” and how difficult their lives were. They were constantly pressured by the Native tribes to join their fight against the English, however, they received little support from their fellow Christian English.

Read More

Summary Of Andrew Jackson And His Indian War

995 Words | 4 Pages

To coincide with Jackson’s fears and inability to trust the Indians, Remini provides an excerpt of a speech delivered by Shawnee Chief Tecumseh to the Creek Indian tribe in 1811 (Remini, p.1). Remini quotes the Indian chief saying, “Burn their dwellings-destroy their stock-slay their wives and children that the very breed may perish” (p.1). Hence, it is evident that the Indians aimed at dealing with the whites in a ruthless manner, a fact that warrants the United States’

Read More

The Unredeemed Captive Book Report

1412 Words | 6 Pages

It is January of 1704. As John Demos puts it, “A night of winter, a night of want, night of war.” The Iroquoi Indians and French invade an English frontier capturing or killing many of its inhabitants. This is the night that starts the ripple effect that John Demos traces in his book, The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America. Of the many that were captured by the Kahnawake Indians, Revered John Williams, a minister from Deerfield and his large family were among them.

Read More

Bad Indians By Deborah Miranda Summary

1007 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout history, there have been many literary studies that focused on the culture and traditions of Native Americans. Native writers have worked painstakingly on tribal histories, and their works have made us realize that we have not learned the full story of the Native American tribes. Deborah Miranda has written a collective tribal memoir, “Bad Indians”, drawing on ancestral memory that revealed aspects of an indigenous worldview and contributed to update our understanding of the mission system, settler colonialism and histories of American Indians about how they underwent cruel violence and exploitation. Her memoir successfully addressed past grievances of colonialism and also recognized and honored indigenous knowledge and identity.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of The English Colonists

796 Words | 4 Pages

Enraged by the conviction of three Indians for the murder of Sassamon, the Wampanoags attacked farms of the Puritans in the summer of 1675. An Englishman shot a Wampanoag three days later, and the Wampanoags reacted by assaulted a group of Puritans. Both the Indians and English suffered greatly from King Philip’s

Read More

'Skinwalker': Demise Of The Navajo Nation

2262 Words | 10 Pages

White settlers in the area created a panic fearing for their lives, however, the “war party” was never after the white men but the suspected witches (Blue). While torturing one of the Skinwalkers, the boy proclaimed that it didn’t matter if they killed him because they had “buried their belongings in the ground” and because of this curse they all were “already dead” (Blue). Under torture, the boy gave up the location of the buried items. The Navajo did not want to unearth these items themselves, so they had Charles Hubble, the white settler who was running the trading post, unearth the items. They discovered that many of the tribe’s belongings had been buried with “copies of the Treaty of 1868” wrapped around them (Blue).

Read More

The Victims Of The Mountain Meadows Massacre In Arkansas

1050 Words | 5 Pages

Other militiamen who carried out the massacre labored the rest of their lives under a horrible sense of guilt and recurring nightmares of what they had done and seen. Families of the men who masterminded the crime suffered as neighbors ostracized them or claimed curses had fallen upon them. For decades, the Paiutes also suffered unjustly as others blamed them for the crime, calling them and their descendants “wagon burners,” “savages,” and “hostiles.” The massacre became an indelible blot on the history of the region. Today, some massacre victims’ descendants and collateral relatives are Latter-day Saints.

Read More

Native Americans By Dee Brown Summary

586 Words | 3 Pages

The narrative’s topic focuses on the mistreatment of the Native Americans through the investigation of native relations with White Americans. Dee Brown argues that Americans only know the White American histories of the Native Americans. Brown claims that his narrative provides a history of the American West from the perspective of the Native American. While the monograph cites a few primary sources, the majority of Brown’s argument relies on footnotes that cite secondary works. Brown’s use of these sources enables him to provide each chapter with a history of different Native American tribes and their interactions with the United States government.

Read More

Andrew Jackson Dbq Essay

862 Words | 4 Pages

The image of “helpless Cherokee arrested and dragged from their homes” is strikingly horrifying to him (Source H). Through the summation of these instances, we can understand the breadth

Read More

Life Among The Piutes Analysis

515 Words | 3 Pages

In Life Among the Piutes, sarah winnemucca hopkins describes what happens when soldiers came to their reservation based off what white settlers tell the government. The most shocking instance of this happened when Winnemucca encountered a group of soldier who told her the white settlers accused the natives of stealing cattle, “the soldiers rode up to their [meaning the Piute’s] encampment and fired into it, and killed almost all the people that were there… after the soldiers had killed but all bur some little children and babies… the soldiers took them too… and set the camp on fire and threw them into the flames to see them burned alive”(78). This is an abhorrent act that is unthinkable in a functioning society. The natives had done nothing but want to hold some shred of land from the settlers who had taken everything from them and are exterminated like vermin. This was something that stayed hidden from many white settlers because of its barbarism and by exposing it Winnemucca truly educates the reader, past and present, on how natives are

Read More

Women In Powhatan Society

522 Words | 3 Pages

Thesis: The English were a prideful group, entangled in ethnocentrism, that caused a condescending and harsh treatment of the Native Americans, while the Native Americans were actually a dynamic and superior society, which led to the resentment and strife between the groups. P1: English view of Native Americans in VA Even though the English were subordinates of the Powhatan, they disrespected him and his chiefdom due to their preconceived beliefs that they were inferior. “Although the Country people are very barbarous, yet have they amongst them such government...that would be counted very civil… [by having] a Monarchical government” (Smith 22). John Smith acknowledges the “very civil” government of the Natives but still disrespected them by calling them “very barbarous,” which

Read More

Analysis: Coming Of Age In The Dawnland

975 Words | 4 Pages

Science journalist, Charles C. Mann, had successfully achieved his argumentative purpose about the “Coming of Age in the Dawnland.” Mann’s overall purpose of writing this argumentative was to show readers that there’s more to than just being called or being stereotyped as a savage- a cynical being. These beings are stereotyped into being called Indians, or Native Americans (as they are shorthand names), but they would rather be identified by their own tribe name. Charles Mann had talked about only one person in general but others as well without naming them. Mann had talked about an Indian named Tisquantum, but he, himself, does not want to be recognized as one; to be more recognized as the “first and foremost as a citizen of Patuxet,”(Mann 24).

Read More

More about Summary Of David Henderson's Surviving Genocide

Open Document