Drawing the Color Line

"Drawing the Color line" by Zinn was about people England coming to America and bringing African Americans over to the states from Africa. They were brought over in boats, where the African Americans were kept below the deck in these small cages. The African Americans that were being transported were chained together and smashed together like sardines. The article tells how, many of the African Americans died because of suffocation, some killed others in an attempt to breathe.(p.26) The conditions were so bad that one out of three African Americans transported overseas died. Which made the English happy because this doubled the investment for one trip. The article also talked about the treatment of the African Americans once they were brought over to America and sold. They were treated as though they were not human. At one point the article talks about what happens to the African Americans if they were caught trying to run away. If they were caught running away, their punishment was up to the person who caught them.
How is it that one person can feel good or all right hurting another person just because of the color of their skin? I would like to think that if someone saw another person being hurt, they would be like hey, what are you doing and hopefully stand up and say this is not right, these are people. I think in the text where it says an African American was beat after lying next to a white man. This man was given a harsher punishment, when it sounded like it was not his idea to sleep with a white man in the first place. So I feel that the white man ordered the African American to sleep next to him, so he could get the African American in trouble.
This article made me mad because the Dutch and the English did not care about what happened to the African Americans while being transported or even when they got to America. All they saw the African Americans as, was money, and the more that died the better because then the Dutch could charge more money because the value for a slave became higher as more of them died on the way over to America. I have found out, that, so far I have had a hard time reading these articles. It has been hard for me to read these because of the violent acts that the people committed, but also because I would have never believed that this happened. I knew from grade school that the African Americans were treated poorly, but I had no idea that they were being beat and killed for nothing. I feel that I will learn a lot that I did not know about the different groups that we read about.

The Tempest in the wilderness the Racialization of Savagery

The Tempest in the wilderness the Racialization of Savagery talks about how Shakespeare used the stories about people coming to settle the new world to write different plays. The article says that the play Tempest is about America and what occurred when the settlers came to live on this land. when the people of England saw these plays they knew that it was about America, because "the play provided clever clues that the story was indeed about America." (pg. 30) In this part of the article the author tells us that Shakespeare rearranged the letters in words, to make them seem made up, but the people knew that they were his way of telling them what was going on in America. For example Shakespeare rearranged the letters in Amleth, the name of the prince in the viking tale to become Hamlet. This shows that the story of Hamlet is really a story about the Vikings.I was wondering why Shakespeare decided to tell the people of England what was going on in America through these plays instead of just walking up to someone and saying, " did you know that this is whets happening with the settlers?" As I was reading I decided that maybe Shakespeare thought that no one would believe him if he went up to someone walking down the street and told them what was going on, or maybe the king did not want the people of England to know what was going on and he thought if he told the story about America in a "made up" story no one would know the difference.While I was reading this article I was having a hard time in the middle do to the descriptions of the violent acts that the settlers were performing onto the natives. I ended up having to take a few breaks because I did not like what I was reading, I could not believe anyone could do such things to people and not show the lets bit of what if this is wrong or these are people too we can't treat them this way. Something to show that they feel bad about what they are doing.

Zinn

"A people’s History of the United States", by Howard Zinn is about the violence and torture that Columbus conflicted onto the Native American. Columbus was on a mission to find gold to take back to the king. Columbus thought the new world was covered with gold and jewels and he thought the Native American were in passion of these jewels. Columbus thought the Native Americans knew were to find the gold, because when Columbus found out that the Native Americans did not know where to find gold and jewels he believed that they were lying because the Native Americans were wearing gold earrings and necklaces. So Columbus decided to torture the Native Americans until they told him were he could find the gold. The Native Americans began to die off because they did not tell Columbus what he wanted to know because the Native Americans did not know where to get the jewels and gold. All that the Native Americans could find were bits of dust, so Columbus killed the Native Americans because they did not give him what he was in search of. Columbus was in search of gold and jewels because he was told that he would receive 10 percents of the profit.
One argument could be weather or not Columbus was responsible for his men. While I was reading this article there was no place that said Columbus told his men what to do I feel that while reading it is just assumed that Columbus told his men what to do and even how to get the information out of the Native Americans.
I was shocked when I read this article because we are taught that Columbus discover the new world and how he helped the Native Americans. When really the Native Americans wanted to help Columbus, but Columbus just wanted gold and ended up killing the Native Americans when they were unable to find the gold that Columbus felt they knew where to find it. I was told one day how we celebrate Columbus day however we really should not be because he did not find new land and he did not help the native Americans, and I never understood why a class mate told me this until I read this article and now I understand why he felt we should not celebrate Columbus day. I guess I would have to say that this article opened my eyes to what really happened and how you can not believe everything that you are told or are taught during high school.