Category: Classes

Name: Eli                                                                                              March 2017

Humanities                                                Africans in NY: Creative Narrative Assignment

 

It’s a Hard Life

 

They call me Solomon Peters. I have been living in the New Amsterdam Colony ever since I was young. It is all that I know of. Today, I live on a farm with my wife and kids, I guess you could call me a proprietor It is nothing much but half freedom is better than none. My ancestors were brought from their homeland to do slave work in New Amsterdam. I am not one to brag but my family and I have more money than most slaves. I have started to write a will for when my death occurs. In this will, I have put the directions for where my property when I pass, but that is a story from another time. I am not very fond of the idea of half freedom. I think it is horrible that we slaves are treated as not human. I am predicting that in the future the land of the blacks will no longer be a thing. That half freedom will no longer be a part of us and we will be fully enslaved. I have left my entire estate in the hands of my wife. I trust that she will look after it and keep it going for generations to come. Although I am not complaining about living in The Land of the Blacks, I do believe that sometimes it is a disgrace. The only reason that they do this is so they have a buffer for attacks on New Amsterdam. It just makes us look like objects in place for protection, not real humans but thatś all we are really meant to be anyways.

In the year of 1712 there was a slave revolt. Between 25 and 50 slaves stormed New Amsterdam setting fire to buildings. They killed 9 whites and injured 6 others. In the end the slaves lost. It always seems to be this way in my mind, the slaves always lose. I haven’t known anything else. I was born in the British colonies and raised as a slave. I don’t know how my ancestors felt living totally free in their homeland, away from slavery, away from the Europeans, back in their homeland of Africa. I have not had the pleasure of having that as my reality, but now I must live enslaved for it is all that I know. My ancestors were taken from their home and piled onto a boat, hundreds of them to come over to the Colonies and serve the British. I do hope that my children will grow up and be free. I hope they can smell the sweet smell of freedom that I never got a chance to smell. The Dutch West India Company has not done anything to help us nor will they in the future. The colonists control all of our lives. I do hope that the patriots overcome the loyalist. I believe that there is good in their hearts and therefore will free us. I think they know how it feels to be controlled by someone.

In this assignment, we were supposed to write a creative writing piece from the point of an enslaved African. I learned a lot from it because it really got me into the shows of the enslaved African I was writing from. I think this assignment was a bit of a struggle for me. It was hard to right from their POV not actually knowing what they went through.

This is one of my research cards from my Colonial research. I am researching government in the Colonial Era. For these note cards we find quotes and then analyse them. The reason this is my best note card is because I analysed this one the most. The reason this is good is because the more you analyse, the more you know about your topic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notecards

Crimes Committed in Tribes

Source:

Colonial interpreter. (2015). [Personal interview by R. M].

Quote:

“What crimes were committed in different tribes, and what punishments were dealt out because of them?” 

“We had what we called blood law, and that was a major component in our law. It was basically an eye for an eye. So if I and several of my clan members were killed by another clan or tribe, we would go and seek retribution and restore the balance in our eyes by killing an equal number of people from that tribe.”

Paraphrase:

-What were the crimes in different tribes?

-What were the punishments in these tribes?

-The Natives had something called blood law.

-Blood law was a major part of their law. 

-If someone got killed in your tribe by another person in another tribe, you could go kill that person.

 

My Ideas:

The concept of blood law is so interesting to me. I am so surprised that this did not end up in everybody killing everybody else. I am guessing that if the English ever heard of this they would be horrified because this is so unlike the English. A major problem in Colonial America was the relationship between the British and the Native Americans. Before the British came over to the new world, they were shown pictures of the Natives. In these pictures they were shown how uncivilized the Natives were. Even though at the time this was a form of motivation, when the British got to the new world they were in for a rude awakening. For the whole 17th century, these to groups of people were fighting and they just could not solve it. 

The British ways were so different from the Natives and its so interesting how different they were. They didn’t know it but if they had ever allied they would have been so much stronger. Also the only reason that the British survived is because of John Smith trying to ally with the Natives and he got the colonist some food.

I feel like the Natives were more free going than the colonist. After hearing about this law I realize that they were very unsupervised, but even though they were very unsupervised they also were very organized and had a very complex form of government that was very powerful. Even though this blood law seems very small, its actually very big. It represents a part of who the natives are. Although the one problem with this is that this is the only side of the Natives that the British see. They could have allied with the Natives and seen who they really were. This would of benefited them greatly.

Was John Smith the only colonist to attempt to ally with the Natives? Did the Natives ever attempt to ally with the colonist? Was there a war between the Natives and the Colonist besides when they first got to the new world? Did everyone not want to ally with the Natives or was it a higher decision from the King or something?

History:

Created: 11/02/2016 10:45 AM

This is an example of one of my Making Thirteen Colonies papers. In social studies we are reading the book called Making Thirteen Colonies. This book is about the voyage and the settlement in the new world at perspective of the British.  There is so much information in this book and it is so interesting to read. The reason I think this is my best Making Thirteen Colonies papers is because I believe that I spent the most time thinking about this. The first chapter in this book has so much information so you need to think about it to understand it.

 

Name: Eli Harris September 2016

Humanities Making Thirteen Colonies

Directions: Finish reading chapter 1 in Making Thirteen Colonies. Answer the following questions below, responding in complete sentences and using textual evidence and analysis. This assignment is due Monday, September 12th. Proofread your work carefully.

• Halley’s comet means something bad was going to happen.
• Galileo was first to see Halley’s comet through telescope and found that it came every 75 years.
• Everything before this was rounded around religion.
• Everybody was challenging religion and everything that they knew after they heard from copernicus and galileo that the world didn’t go around earth it went around the sun.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

1.What is the main idea of this chapter?   ,” (Hakim, p. 10).

In the early 1600s change was upon Europe. The Catholic Church had been starting to break down. Was this good for Europe or were they going through a dark age? In the year of 1607 an Italian scientist Galileo Galilei was looking through his brand new telescope when he saw something. It was a comet! Halley’s comet to be exact. At this time religion ruled everything. Nobody knew what to think of this after they saw this comet. Religion had no explanation for what happened.  In this time in age everyone was taught and told that Earth was the center of the universe. After everyone saw the Comet a lot of tension rose because of it. After hearing about the comet the Polish Scientist Nicolaus Copernicus came up with the idea that the Earth is actually not the center of the universe and the Sun. Everyone was discouraged after hearing this. Was Nicolaus Copernicus questioning religion and the Pope. Even Galileo Galilei later said that Nicholas Copernicus was right. “Change is troublesome, especially to those in power”, (Hakim, p. 16). If Nicolaus Copernicus was right they everything that everybody thought to be right was wrong. Everything that the Pope said was wrong. If the Pope was wrong than everything had to be wrong people thought. Although at the time this struck conflict, in the long run it opened up opportunity. This event made many people spread because they felt like they wanted to start a new life. If everything they knew was wrong than a new life was the solution. This also opened up the Scientific Era.

2   Identify/Define the following names/terms:

(no textual evidence needed for these)

1.    Galileo Galilei:

Galileo Galilei was an Italian scientist. He saw the Comet for the first time through his brand new telescope. After seeing the comet, Polish scientist Nicolaus Copernicus said that the universe does not revolve around Earth, it revolves around the Sun.

1.    Nicholas Copernicus:

Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish scientist who lived from 1473-1543. After hearing that Galileo Galilei saw the comet through his telescope he began to think maybe the whole universe doesn’t all revolve around the Earth maybe it revolves around the sun.

3.    How did Copernicus, and later Galileo, challenge religion and tradition in the sixteenth century?

In the early 1600s religion ruled everything. If you challenged it you were thought to be evil. Since religion ruled everything that meant the Pope ruled everything on earth because he was God’s representative on earth. After Nicholas Copernicus said that Earth wasn’t the center of the universe and the sun actually was, conflict raised. People thought he was “evil” because he was questioning religion and what the bible said. “Many who watched the bold comet were frightened”, (Hakim p. 15). Even though people thought that the Polish scientist was evil. They did not know what to make of it. They were scared of what their life could become if all of religion which is their whole life was wrong.