Oppressed Essay Research Paper The Oppressed

Oppressed Essay, Research Paper

The Oppressed Dr. Howard Zinn s A People s History of the United States might bebetter titled A Proletarian s History of the United States. In the firstthree chapters Zinn looks at not only the history of the conquerors,rulers, and leaders; but also the history of the enslaved, theoppressed, and the led. Like any American History book covering the timeperiod of 1492 until the early 1760 s, A People s History tells thestory of the discovery of America, early colonization by Europeanpowers, the governing of these colonies, and the rising discontent ofthe colonists towards their leaders. Zinn, however, stresses the role ofa number of groups and ideas that most books neglect or skim over: theplight of the Native Americans that had their numbers reduced by up to90% by European invasion, the equality of these peoples in many regardsto their European counterparts, the importation of slaves into Americaand their unspeakable travel conditions and treatment, the callousbuildup of the agricultural economy around these slaves, thediscontented colonists whose plight was ignored by the rulingbourgeoisie, and most importantly, the rising class and racial strugglesin America that Zinn correctly credits as being the root of many of theproblems that we as a nation have today. It is refreshing to see a bookthat spends space based proportionately around the people that livedthis history. When Columbus arrived on the Island of Haiti, there were39 men on board his ships compared to the 250,000 Indians on Haiti. Ifthe white race accounts for less than two hundredths of one percent ofthe island s population, it is only fair that the natives get more thanthe two or three sentences that they get in most history books. Zinncites population figures, first person accounts, and his owninterpretation of their effects to create an accurate and fair depictionof the first two and a half centuries of European life on the continentof North America. The core part of any history book is obviously history. In the firstthree chapters of the book, Zinn presents the major historical facts ofthe first 250 years of American history starting from when ChristopherColumbus s Ni a, Pinta, and Santa Maria landed in the Bahamas on October12, 1492. It was there that Europeans and Native Americans first cameinto contact; the Arawak natives came out to greet the whites, and thewhites were only interested in finding the gold. From the Bahamas,Columbus sailed to Cuba and Hispa ola, the present-day home of Haiti andthe Dominican Republic. One-hundred fifteen years later and 1,500 milesto the north, the colony of Jamestown was founded by a group of Englishsettlers led by John Smith; shortly after that the Massachusetts BayColony was founded by a group of Puritans known to us today as thePilgrims. Because of uneasy and hostile relations with the nearby PequotIndians, the Pequot War soon started between the colonists and thenatives. Needless to say, the colonists won, but it was at the expenseof several dozen of their own and thousands of Pequots. But despiteIndian conflict, exposure, starvation, famine, disease, and otherhardships, the English kept coming to America. In 1619 they were settledenough that they started bringing African slaves into the middlecolonies. Before resorting to Africans, the colonists had tried tosubdue the Indians, but that idea failed before it was created. Zinnwrites: They couldn t force the Indians to work for them, as Columbus haddone. They were outnumbered, and while, with superior firearms, theycould massacre the Indians, they would face massacre in return. Theycould not capture them and keep them enslaved; the Indians were tough,resourceful, defiant, and at home in these woods, as the transplantedEnglishmen were not. White servants had not yet been brought over in sufficientquantity…. As for free white settlers, many of them were skilledcraftsmen, or even men of leisure back in England, who were so littleinclined to work the land that John Smith… had to declare a kind ofmartial law, organize them into work gangs, and force them into thefields for survival….. Black slaves were the answer. And it was natural to consider importedblacks as slaves, even if the institution of slavers would not beregularized and legalized for several decades (25). Black slavery became an American institution that the southern andmiddle colonies began to depend on for their economic success. The firststirrings of resentment began to come not from the slaves but from theproletariat in the form of the frontier whites. Nathaniel Bacon led arevolution against Virginia governor William Berkeley and hisconciliatory Indian policies. Bacon and others who lived on the westernfrontier wanted more protection from the government against Indianattacks. Berkeley and his cronies were so concerned with their ownfinancial and political gain that they ignored Bacon s Rebellion andcontinued their policies. In the end, Bacon died a natural death (hecaught a nasty virus) and his friends were hanged, but for the firsttime ever, the government was forced to listen to the grievances of theunderclass that had been for the most part largely ignorable up to thatpoint. Meanwhile, class distinctions became sharper and the poor grew innumber. Citizens were put into work houses for debt and occasionallyrioted against the wealthy. More and more though, the anger turned frombeing just a class war to being a war of nationalities. Impress