1. Encounters & Foundations
Colonialism in America

2. Focus Questions
What effect did European settlement have on American Indians– the people who already lived on this vast continent?
Who were the Puritans, and what were their beliefs about human nature?
How did rationalism differ from Puritanism, and what effect did rationalism have on the new American political system?

3. Encounters Between the European “Settlers” and the Native Americans

4. “Columbus did not discover a new world; he established contact between two worlds, both already old.”
-- J.H. Parry, The Spanish Seaborne Empire

5. Europeans & American Indians
Trading led to a mutual curiosity and increasing interdependence
What did each gain from this interdependent relationship?
Settlers: NA taught them survival skills i.e. making canoes, shelters, buckskin clothes, how to plant crops, etc.
NAs: received European firearms, textiles & steel tools

6. Smallpox Epidemic What is smallpox?
Why did smallpox devastate the American Indian population so extremely?
Did the American colonists infect them on purpose?
1. Smallpox: fever, sore, cold, fever, pox (pustules which rupture and stick to sleeping mats, etc)
2. Because their ancestors crossed Pangea before it separated, the NA had no immunities to the many diseases that ravaged Europe, so their immune systems were not equipped to deal with the disease.
3. Quite possibly not. Or perhaps there were incidents of both. Perhaps the blankets were distributed to help NAs who already had smallpox. We truly don’t know…

7. Post-Epidemic Relations
Against enormous odds, some Native Americans survived the epidemics. However, the Native Americans’ usefulness to the colonists had dwindled. Why?
Since the Native Americans were no longer needed and their power in number was greatly reduced, many were eventually forced to vacate their land and homes by settlers.
What was the cost of the Puritans’ beautiful American Dream?
The NAs had already taught the colonists the skills they needed to survive.
Perhaps the cost was the NAs’ American Dream– to live freely in their homes, etc.
Follow up question: For one group’s American Dream to live, does another group’s American Dream have to die?

8. Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
1528: Landed on the coast of Florida and marched inland. Never returned. Crew waited a full year before assuming they were dead and then sailing on to Mexico.
Wandered through Texas for the next 8 years, lost, hoping to meet other Europeans who could help them return home.
Wrote vividly about his experiences being alternately a captive and a companion of the Native Americans.

9. Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
His accounts of his journey also venture inward: he transforms himself from a competent conquistador (which means_____?) and Spanish gentleman into a new American who sympathizes with and appreciates the native people he encounters. He spent much of rest of his time in America fighting for justice for them.
Do you think he shared or continued his activism upon his return to Europe?
Whatever happened to Cabeza de Vaca?: From , he explored the jungles of S. America. His humane treatment of the natives made the colonists hate him and they had him arrested on false charges and sent back to Spain in chains. For six years, he lay in a dungeon with scarcely enough light to see his hand in front of his face. It is believed that he spent his last years in loneliness and poverty.

10. Early Native American Literature
Native American worldviews, passed down through oral tradition, stress not progress but the cyclical nature of existence.
Uses myths to explain the world around them.

11. The Puritans

12. What is a Puritan?
Refers to Protestant groups that sought to “purify” the Church of England, which had been virtually inseparable from the country’s government.
Wanted to return to simpler forms of worship & church organization.
Believed religion is personal. (Clergy/ government should/could not act as intermediary between an individual and God.)

13. English Puritans Flee Persecution
The Puritans hoped to build a new society patterned after God’s word.

14. Puritan Beliefs
Sinners All
Because of Adam & Eve’s sin of disobedience, most of humanity is damned for all eternity.

15. Puritan Beliefs
2. However, God is merciful & sent his son Jesus to earth to save particular people.

16. if you are saved (the elect) or damned (the unregenerate)???
Puritan Beliefs
But how do you know
if you are saved (the elect)
or damned (the unregenerate)??? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

17. YOU DON’T!
Some clues:
If you are saved, God’s grace has come to you and you should’ve felt it in an intensely emotional fashion when it arrived.
The inner arrival of God’s grace is demonstrated by your behavior now. (You are reborn and now behave like a saint.)

18. …confused?
If you are uncertain whether you are saved, you should watch your inner life closely for signs of grace and try to lead an exemplary life.

19. T U L I P

20. U -- Unconditional election.
T -- Total depravity.
Because of Adam & Eve’s original sin, sin is in every part of one's being, including the mind and will. A man cannot save himself.
U -- Unconditional election.
God chooses to save people unconditionally; not chosen on the basis of their own merit.
L -- Limited atonement.
Only certain people will be saved– not everyone.
I -- Irresistible grace.
When God has chosen to save someone, He will.
P -- Perseverance of the saints.
Cannot lose their salvation; they will continue to believe.

21. American Puritans came to value:
self-reliance,
industriousness,
temperance and
simplicity….
which were coincidentally the ideal qualities for settling a new world!

22. Puritan Politics: Gov’t by Contract
Covenant (contract) between God & humanity served as an example for entering freely into an agreement concerning government.
…which paved
the way for…

23. On the other hand…
The Puritans believed that the saintly elect should exert great influence over politics, which is rather undemocratic.
Why might it be a problem to have the “saintly” be in charge of the government?
If the political power is given to those that are rich (a sign of God’s favor) and the “elect” (who merely claim to have been gifted with God’s grace), then there is a huge potential for misuse of power, greed, etc. Isn’t it more likely that the humble ones (who don’t make a grab for power) were actually the “elect”?

24. Salem Witch Trials
Enabling the self-identified “elect” to exert power over the government is part of what led to the Salem Witch Trials

25. How highly did the Puritans valued education?
The Bible in America
Believed the Bible was the literal word of God
 so being able to read the Bible/understand theological debates was very important
How highly did the Puritans valued education?
A: Puritans valued education very highly, and as literature was the primary force of spreading ideas, understanding literature held great emphasis.

26. How to Read Your Own Life
Puritans were trained to see life as a pilgrimage to salvation. Each Puritan learned to read his or her life the way a literary critic reads a book.
Read the Bible as a similar narrative
Looked for connections between events in his/her life & his/her community

27. Puritan Writings
Diaries and histories were important forms of Puritan literature because they were used to record the workings of God.
The Bible provided a model for Puritan writing.
Puritans favored a plain style of writing. They admired clarity of expression and avoided complicated figures of speech.
“God’s altar needs not our polishing!”

28. Rationalism/Deism

29. The Age of Reason Age of Reason= Enlightenment in Europe (1600s-1700s)
Rationalism- the belief that human beings can arrive at truth by using reason, rather than by relying on the authority of the past, on religious faith or on intuition.

30. Rationalism
Puritans saw God as actively & mysteriously involved in the workings of the universe
Sir Isaac Newton compared God to a clockmaker
Having created the perfect mechanism of this universe, God then left his creation to run on its own, like a clock
Reason= God’s special gift to humanity
Enables people to discover both scientific and spiritual truth
Using reason, everyone has the capacity to regulate and improve his or her own life.

31. Rationalists/Deists Believed:
Arrive at truth by using reason
God created the universe but does NOT interfere with its workings
People can discover God’s rules/immutable laws through reason
People are basically good and perfectible.
Since God wants people to be happy, you worship best by helping others.
Human history is marked by progress toward a more perfect existence
What differences do you see between Puritanism and Rationalism?
Differences:
R= accept naturalistic explanations for miracles in the Bible and allegorical interpretations of biblical prophesies; believed that Rationalism could reconcile religion and science
P= people are all sinners, final judgement (not improvement), divine intervention (praying for help), God’s grace (as all or nothing), etc.
Specifically, do Puritans have the capacity to improve themselves in the same way that Rationalists do?

33. Why Rationalism stuck with Americans
From the earliest Colonial days, Americans had to be generalists, tinkerers, and experimenters in order to survive.
Had to make do with what was on hand and they had to achieve results.

36. ** Deism is a philosophy based in Rationalism.