Book Review: New Worlds For All Essay, Research Paper

Themes: New Worlds for All, by Colin G. Calloway has several themes. The first theme is the failure of the settlers to acknowledge the fact that the Indians had a whole society set up before they got there. Many settlers came to the New World, not wanting to blend in with the culture that was already there, but to recreate what they had in their homeland. The second important theme is the positive and negative results of the settlers moving to the America. Some positives were that the settlers brought with them new tools and technology which enabled them to clear forests along with new animals and food that most Indians and white men could benefit from. Some negatives were the germs and diseases that Europeans brought, inexperience in survival, and the problem of using all the resources the land had to offer.

Quotes: The novel had specific quotes it getting the two themes across. European immigrants brought with them a cargo of germs, guns, goods, animals, religious zeal, land hunger, and cultural preconceptions that turned America into a new and often nightmarish, world for Indian peoples. (Calloway 6) This quote represents how the white Europeans could help and become the bane of the American Indian society. Political and diplomatic decisions rested more and more in European hands. (Calloway 115) This quote represents the lack of regard for the Indian culture. The introduction to the book has another quote that sticks out. Originally, the term American referred to Indians, the first Americans. To follow that thought, the author says, An American was now a citizen of the new country, the United States, not a Native American. (Calloway 7) In the last chapter of the book, Calloway recites a quote from a Jeffersonian philanthropist. You will unite yourselves with us, join in out great councils and form one people with us, and we shall all be Americans; you will mix with us by marriage, your blood will mix with ours, and will spread, with ours, over this great island. (Calloway 179) This quote shows how some early settlers forced to assimilate into their European way of life, destroying a culture, while others just pushed them off the land into reservations.

Questions:

1) Why did the Christian ministers feel they were obligated to convert all Native Americans to Christianity? Why did some think it was their whole purpose in coming to the New World?

2) At the battle of Lake George, why did the Mohawks decide to take the side of the English against the French and other Indian tribes?

Why