Scot Ferguson11-12-96period 2The 1500’s, a time of discovery, was when the Europeans came to dominatemost of the New World. The Europeans traveled to Africa and captured Africansto help develop their land and satisfy their need for power. I feel that thetreatment of the Indians and Africans by the Europeans was completelyunjustifiable.
While the Indians and Africans were less technologicallyadvanced and the Europeans were uneducated, in this particular field, nothingcan compensate for the actions of the Europeans. As Europeans began to settle new lands they began their exploration ofthe foreign worlds. What they found was the opposite of what they expected. They found what they thought was a new breed of humans. In reality they werejust Native Americans.
These Indians were less technologically advanced thanthe Europeans. They also worshipped different and multiple gods and atedifferent foods. Europeans saw this as barbaric, so they treated them asbarbarians. In the beginning Native Americans hadn’t the faintest idea of what theEuropeans had in mind when they said trade. They figured that when the WhiteMan came and showed all that hospitality they meant it.
Of course, they didn’t,the Europeans captured the Indians to be used as slaves. They were alsoslaughtered and raped because of resistance to leave their land. If any Indiansrefused to leave their land they would be killed. The women were raped for sickand disgusting reasons.
Europeans didn’t feel that the women, or men for thatmatter, were worth anything as humans so they were beat and raped without anythought about what they might be doing. As we watched the movie Roots, I noticed a part in the movie where theywere on a ship and a man brings in a black woman, who was a slave. The manoffered her to the ship’s captain and referred to her as a belly warmer. Thatgot me to thinking what could be going on in that man’s head as he said that. When I heard that I was shocked that a man could treat someone like that.
People have feelings and cannot be treated as objects. Maybe the Europeans didn’t realize that these people were, in fact people, and that drove them to thisawful conclusion that they could treat people this way. As Europeans settled their land and began to build houses, farms andplantations, they realized that they needed servants to assist them in theirfarming. So people would travel to Africa capture blacks and then sell them tomerchants and plantation owners.
They would then beat them and put them to long,grueling work. They would treat them as they did the Indians, and for much thesame reason. They figured that since the blacks were black and appeared to beless advanced then they must be less significant. People of the next generation whose parents owned slaves and grew upthinking slaves were okay is understandable. I just don’t feel that anythingcould justify treating the slaves they way they did.
they had absolutely norespect for them. They would savagely beat them to get them to work harder thanhumanly possible and they would rape the women. I don’t think that I will everknow how any one could do such a thing. I conclusion I strongly feel that the way Europeans treated people thatwere less technologically advanced is completely and utterly wrong.
It isdifficult to contemplate what was going on in their heads as they were capturingthem, killing them and even raping them. I can not believe how they could thinkthat the color of someone’s ones skin or religious beliefs could make them lesshuman. I am glad I live in a country based on the belief that all men arecreated equal.Category: Social Issues
