Drawing the Color Line

Howard Zinn’s thesis in his chapter Drawing the Color Line, in his book A People’s History of the United States, is that the black slaves were treated harsher than any other slaves were by the Americans.
Zinn argues that blacks slaves were not treated the same way whites were treated. Hugh Davis, a white man had to be whipped for abusing himself because he laid with a African American woman. Another example of this is white servants ran away with an African American salve and were caught. While the white servants received slight punishments, the African American received 30 whips and was branded with the letter “R” for his master. Whites were said to be the more superior to African Americans. Whites were masters and African Americans were servants to them. If the slaves tried to form together the white slave owners would kill them in terrible ways such as hanging or burning.
Why didn’t the slaves unite together since at one point, half of the population was slaves? They could have easily taken over the whites and could have been free. They tried in small groups but it never worked and the white masters would destroy them before the slaves could do any extreme measure of destruction.
While reading this article I felt bad for the slaves. I am against slavery and think it was a terrible thing and is a terrible thing now. The way that the African Americans were shipped over like sardines in a can on a boat was awful to where it killed many of them and it lost them a lot of money since they could not sell them all. In a way it was a lose, lose situation there. I am glad slavery is over and have hopes it never comes back again.

The Temptest in the Wilderness

Ronald Takaki’s thesis of The Tempest` in the Wilderness in the book The racialization of Savegery is that the Irish and the Indians were discriminated against for their race and their civilization by the English.
The English have been said to be the founders of the new land. In school they say that the English and the Indians were great friends and got along nicely. This is all wrong though. The English were nice at first until they learned of the resources the Indians had and where they were located. After intruding on the Indians land, the English became greedy wanting more and more. This caused problems because the English were willing to kill all the Indians and/or make them their slaves. One of their main resources the English wanted was the Indians tobacco which then resulted in a huge massacre between the them. Like the Indians the Irish went through these gruesome acts by the English because the English said that the Irish lived outside of their civilization. The English colonists established laws, “Every Irishman shall be forbidden to wear English apparel or weapon upon pain of death. That no Irishman, born of Irish race and brought up Irish, shall purchase land, bear office, be chosen of any jury or admitted witness in any real or personal action” Takaki says in his chapter The Tempest` in the Wilderness.
My question for the argument is, why shouldn’t the English be greedy and take what they can? If they did not take is over they may have been killed by the Indians and got nothing. They could have risked their life by the trusting them then being turned on by the Indians. Personally I agree with the author’s opinion and that the English should not have done what they did. I think the author’s opinion gives a strong impact on his argument and makes some solid points to show his side.
While reading this I wonder why all this is not told to us when we are younger. How come we only hear of the good and never the bad? It disturbs me the way this land was found but that is how the world is today as well. Not as extreme where everyone is killing each other but people get what they want some way or another. These wants turn into war and that is how the killing occurs. I wish racism did not exist but it is part of life and the world is going to have to deal with it.

Introduction

Hey, I am Kris Giesken. I am nineteen years old. I am a sophomore at Bowling Green State University this year. I live in the Heinsight apartments with my five other roommates. My major is business supply chain management. I am from Strongsville Ohio, a town a half hour south of Cleveland. I attended Strongsville high school. I love sports and I love to participate in them. Currently I am playing flag football and softball. I have played soccer most of my life and is my favorite sport. I have two siblings, a brother named Ken, and a sister named Kylie. I am the baby of the family. I have a dog named Dock. We basically grew up together. I love to hang out and have fun but I also love being lazy and just watching television and movies all day.

Columbus, the Indians, and the Human Progress; Zinn

In the book “A People’s History of the United States,” by Howard
Zinn, I believe is thesis statement is, “When he arrived on
Hispaniola in 1508, Las Casas says, “there were 60,000 people
living on this island, including the Indians; so that from 1494
to 1508, over three million people had perished from war,
slavery, and mines. Who in future generations is going to believe
this?”
I chose this selection because he is saying that the past is
being told from a certain point of view and that view is usually
from the more powerful side of two things. Columbus told the
side of him finding this new world but never of the terrible acts
he had committed in conquering these lands and now has a holiday
named after him. Columbus in his log wrote about how giving and
welcoming the Arawak tribe are. He only sees them for what they
can give to him in benefits for himself. For example the gold
the Arawaks makes for their jewelry, Columbus wants the Arawaks
to lead him straight to the gold imagining huge field of gold.
After finding out there is not that much gold he then starts to
kill the Arawaks for not fulfilling their duties. Today Columbus
is known as a great seaman who found the Americas and not known
for this murdering.
Why was there never evidence about this murdering earlier? Since
he is making this big case about the world never knowing of
Columbus’s rampage on the Arawaks, why did he not bring this
information up to others before this. I think he has a good
point but the world is not always peaceful and war is apart of life.
I felt disgusted while I was reading this. I think that children
should know about the cruelity that the Spartans had on the
different tribes. With the welcoming that the Arawaks gave them
and then being slaved for their resources without peace was
wrong. I also did not like how he lied when he returned back to
Europe and told his king false facts about his findings then had
numerous Indians become slaves for the lack of gold there
actually was. I am great full that Columbus did find the
Americas but did it the wrong way.