The Earth Shall Weep

[Arizona Mommy]

I am about half way through reading The Earth Shall Weep, A History of Native America by James Wilson and I must say that I really wasn't prepared for all that I am reading. I knew many Indian Nations were treated badly, enslaved, raided, and purpsely poisioned, but I was not ready to basically read that one after another so far of people who came to North America, came so out of greed (except the Mayflower) and treated the Natives so horribly.

 

I'm only about half way through so I"m not sure about the French but so far it seems as if the Spanish and Britsh just cared about gold. I'm  horrified at the statment about how the British were prepared because of all their years of practice on the Irish Catholics and how herding animals was some sort of paganism. My great grandfather came here from Ireland to escape persecution and my image of Amerca, land of the free and brave will be forever tainted now. I believe he came before Ireland won their freedom from England.

 

I don't understand how Countries that are Christian could do so many horrible things like kill, enslave, and raid which is morally wrong and totally against the Christian faith. Greed is as well. The early Christians shared everything they had with one another and these early explors certainly did not.

 

I guess I'm having a hard time digesting all of this and I need some feedpack if possible.

[George D Rodriguez]

The domination over the land, the animals and his fellow man is inherent in all men. It matters not what religion, race or country your from. Even the indian tribes fought amongst themselves for slaves, horses, wives and anything else they could obtain. The stronger races have always conquered and enslaved, subjugated the weaker races. The indians were doing this long before the whiteman came. The victor writes the history and usually leaves out his bad parts. The problem with mankind is that of all the animals God placed on this earth Man is the only one who kills for fun.

[Stan H]

Very well said, George.

In fact, in earlier history, any written accounts were slanted to support the victor's version and other written records, if there were any, were destroyed. In most cases, those being conquered were illiterate so there would be no record.

In the case of our early inhabitants, in many cases there were enough survivors to vocally pass down their version of history. Oral history is the oldest form of recorded history, but one must keep in mind that this also is slanted to the views of those passing down the stories.


As with any issue in history, information should be looked at without the rose colored glasses we tend to use. I know this is difficult to do, but an honest historian would do so.

[Arizona Mommy]

Well, as I really think about it, when I've read about the ancient history of Ireland and Sicily (way before the time of Christ) when there were just Jews and Pagans, there sure was a lot of raiding, conquering, enslaving, and bad stuff going on.

I guess it's just when I think of America as the land of the free and the brave, I imagined a glorious start to it.

[Becky Coffield]

Read Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States." It's incredibly dismaying, depressing, and discouraging. Everything we've been taught is false, or slanted. Many cultures lived peacefully until the Northern European came. The Spanish destroyed whole civilizations for gold. The British were just as bad. I don't know what it is about the nature of man that he cannot live in harmony with nature or each other. Individuals who do so are looked upon as kooks or "out there." Some nations or cultures just seem to be worse than others.