George Westinghouse College Prep
Defining “America”
1776 – 1815
Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.
--Louis D. Brandeis, 1928
American Literature
Analysis Essay: Document-Based Question
Defining “America”
SWBAT:
Investigate the meaning of words and their possible effects on the perceptions and behavior of people
Take a position in response to the prompt
Offer some context
Provide some implications or complications of the issue
Provide some response to the counterargument
Use context to determine the appropriate meaning of some non-figurative words
Edit to ensure that commas are used correctly, especially between verbs and direct objects or before a conjunction
Proofread to ensure pronouns match obvious antecedents
Proofread to include some sentence variety
Proofread to ensure appropriate word choice
Limit (if any) referent to second person (You)
Edit and proofread text to have few grammatical errors; any errors that exist do not impede understanding
Your goal is to answer the following question using elements of the nonfiction class readings from both American Literature and United States History.
Prompting Question:
Define “America.”
Essay Requirements:
You must make a persuasive argument in response to the prompting question.
Your essay must be five (5) paragraphs in length (approximately 3 to 4 pages)
Must show evidence of revision (running your work through Criterion will be recognized and rewarded)
Outline
Final Paper
Works Cited Page in MLA format
Rubric
You may use the three culture MEL-Con writing assignments as the body paragraphs for your essay.
Your essay must follow the basic essay structure shown below.
All quotations must be correctly formatted according to MLA publication style.
Your essay must include a minimum of three (3) sources.
Grading:
Per attached rubric
Outline Structure
Use these templates to help you write your essay. The outline template will help you to organize your essay, while the templates will aide in ensuring that your essay is logically constructed.
Introduction
A. Attention Getter – relevant, appropriate and, of course, attention- getting.
B. Connector Statement – Conflict, Context, Complexity; “Some may say __________ because ________________.
C. Thesis Statement - “But I say________ because __________.”
D. Summary Statement – Summarize the sources and/or evidence you will utilize to make your argument.
Body
A. Transition + Main Idea
Example #1 (A.W.E.)
[L] Explain your point considering the counterpoint as well.
[L] Direct link to main idea.
[L] Show complexity; “This is problematic because _______.”
B. Transition + Example #2 (A.W.E.)
[L] Explain your point considering the counterpoint as well.
[L] Direct link to main idea.
[L] Show complexity; “This is problematic because _______.”
C. Transition + Example #3 (A.W.E.)
1. [L] Explain your point considering the counterpoint as well.
2. [L] Direct link to main idea.
3. [L] Show complexity; “This is problematic because _______.”
Concluding Sentence
III. Conclusion
A. Summary
B. Thesis Loop
C. Attention-Getter Loop
D. Concluding statement
K-W-L-H
Name: ________________________Period:________ Date: ______Date:_______
Topic: America
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Quotes on Governance and Colonial America
Goal:
Take a position in response to the prompt
Offer some context by providing some implications or complications
Use absolutely no unnecessary commas
Directions: Select one of the quotes below and write a MEL-Con paragraph in which you restate the quote in your own words, share your opinion on whether or not you agree and then provide three examples or pieces of evidence and their corresponding links in a 9 – 11 sentence paragraph.
A government of laws, and not of men.
Author: Unattributed Author
Topic: Government
Source: Puritan's Mistake
Fear is the foundation of most governments.
Author: John Adams
Topic: Government
Source:Thoughts on Government
God has endowed man with inalienable rights, among which are self- government, reason, and conscience. Man is properly self-governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by his Maker, divine Truth and Love.
Author: John Dryden
Topic: Democracy
Source: Absalom and Achitophel (pt. I, l. 227)
It [Calvinism] established a religion without a prelate, a government without a king.
Author: George Bancroft
Topic: Government
Source: History of the United States (vol. III, ch. VI)
No man e'er felt the halter draw
With good opinion of the law.
Source: John Trumbull
Topic: The condemned criminal facing hanging
Source: M'Fingal (1776)
Assignment for “Democratic Origins and Revolutionary Writers”
Goal:
Infer the main idea or purpose of straightforward paragraphs in uncomplicated literary narratives
Take a position in response to the prompt
Demonstrate understanding of the complexity of the issue by providing some implications and complications of the issue
Directions: Read the article, “Democratic Origins and Revolutionary Writers, 1776 – 1820.” Complete a set of Cornell notes and summary on the reading. To your summary, add your analysis of the following questions:
Why do you think American writers had to fight to have their stories told?
How does publishing become an issue of power?
1
2
3 ______________
4 Democratic Origins and Revolutionary Writers, 1776-1820
Search for a native, literature writer becomes a national obsession
By Kathryn VanSpanckeren
The hard-fought American Revolution against Britain (1775-1783) was the first modern war of liberation against a colonial power. The triumph of American independence seemed to many at the time a divine sign that America and her people were destined for greatness. Military victory fanned nationalistic hopes for a great new literature. Yet with the exception of outstanding political writing, few works of note appeared during or soon after the Revolution.
American books were harshly reviewed in England. Americans were painfully aware of their excessive dependence on English literary models. The search for a native literature became a national obsession. As one American magazine editor wrote, around 1816, "Dependence is a state of degradation fraught with disgrace, and to be dependent on a foreign mind for what we can ourselves produce is to add to the crime of indolence the weakness of stupidity."
Cultural revolutions, unlike military revolutions, cannot be successfully imposed but must grow from the soil of shared experience. Revolutions are expressions of the heart of the people; they grow gradually out of new sensibilities and wealth of experience. It would take 50 years of accumulated history for America to earn its cultural independence and to produce the first great generation of American writers: Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson. America's literary independence was slowed by a lingering identification with England, an excessive imitation of English or classical literary models, and difficult economic and political conditions that hampered publishing.
Moreover, the heady challenges of building a new nation attracted talented and educated people to politics, law, and diplomacy. These pursuits brought honor, glory, and financial security. Writing, on the other hand, did not pay. Early American writers, now separated from England, effectively had no modern publishers, no audience, and no adequate legal protection. Editorial assistance, distribution, and publicity were rudimentary.
Until 1825, most American authors paid printers to publish their work. Obviously only the leisured and independently wealthy, like Washington Irving and the New York Knickerbocker group, or the group of Connecticut poets known as the Hartford Wits, could afford to indulge their interest in writing. The exception, Benjamin Franklin, though from a poor family, was a printer by trade and could publish his own work.
Charles Brockden Brown was more typical. The author of several interesting Gothic romances, Brown was the first American author to attempt to live from his writing. But his short life ended in poverty.
The lack of an audience was another problem. The small cultivated audience in America wanted well-known European authors, partly out of the exaggerated respect with which former colonies regarded their previous rulers. This preference for English was not entirely unreasonable, considering the inferiority of American output, but it worsened the situation by depriving American authors of an audience. Only journalism offered financial remuneration, but the mass audience wanted light, undemanding verse and short topical essays – not long or experimental work.
The absence of adequate copyright laws was perhaps the clearest cause of literary stagnation. American printers pirating English best-sellers understandably were unwilling to pay an American author for unknown material. The unauthorized reprinting of foreign books was originally seen as a service to the colonies as well as a source of profit for printers like Franklin, who reprinted works of the classics and great European books to educate the American public.
Printers everywhere in America followed his lead. There are notorious examples of pirating. Matthew Carey, an important American publisher, paid a London agent – a sort of literary spy – to send copies of unbound pages, or even proofs, to him in fast ships that could sail to America in a month. Carey's men would sail out to meet the incoming ships in the harbor and speed the pirated books into print using typesetters who divided the book into sections and worked in shifts around the clock. Such a pirated English book could be reprinted in a day and placed on the shelves for sale in American bookstores almost as fast as in England.
Because imported authorized editions were more expensive and could not compete with pirated ones, the copyright situation damaged foreign authors such as Sir Walter Scott and Charles Dickens, along with American authors. But at least the foreign authors had already been paid by their original publishers and were already well known. Americans such as James Fenimore Cooper not only failed to receive adequate payment, but they had to suffer seeing their works pirated under their noses. Cooper's first successful book, The Spy (1821), was pirated by four different printers within a month of its appearance.
Ironically, the copyright law of 1790, which allowed pirating, was nationalistic in intent. Drafted by Noah Webster, the great lexicographer who later compiled an American dictionary, the law protected only the work of American authors; it was felt that English writers should look out for themselves.
Bad as the law was, none of the early publishers were willing to have it changed because it proved profitable for them. Piracy starved the first generation of revolutionary American writers; not surprisingly, the generation after them produced even less work of merit. The high point of piracy, in 1815, corresponds with the low point of American writing. Nevertheless, the cheap and plentiful supply of pirated foreign books and classics in the first 50 years of the new country did educate Americans, including the first great writers, who began to make their appearance around 1825.
Source:
U.S. Department of State publication, Outline of American Literature. . 28.9.2010.
Writing Assignment for “Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
Context for The Political Pamphlet”
Goal:
Search for clues that suggest the viewpoint from which a literary text is written or told and determine whether or not the author's or narrator's viewpoint is valid or biased.
Analyze the relationship between an author's or narrator's intended message and the rhetorical devices used to convey that message (e.g., language used, evidence provided)
Directions: Read both the Context for the Political Pamphlet and Thomas Paine's “Common Sense.” Complete both a SOAPSTone and a LIDDS reading strategy for the texts. When you have finished write a paragraph in which you analyze the relationship between what Paine may have intended to say to his audience and what he said. Is his point of view credible or is he biased? What evidence can you find to support your position?
SOAPSTone Reading Strategy
|Subject | |
|The general topic, content, and ideas contained in the | |
|text. You should be able to state the subject in a few | |
|words or a phrase. | |
|Occasion | |
|The time and place of the piece; the context that | |
|encouraged the writing to happen. Writing does not | |
|occur in a vacuum. There is the larger occasion: an | |
|environment of ideas and emotions that swirl around a | |
|broad issue. Then there is the immediate occasion: an | |
|event or situation that catches the writer’s attention | |
|and triggers a response. | |
|Audience | |
|The group of readers to whom this piece is directed. | |
|The audience may be one person, a small group, or a | |
|large group; it may be a certain person or a certain | |
|people. | |
|Purpose | |
|The reason behind the text. Consider the purpose of the| |
|text in order to examine the argument and its logic. | |
|You should ask yourself, “What does the speaker want the| |
|audience to think or do as a result of reading this | |
|text?” | |
|Speaker | |
|The voice that tells the story. The author and the | |
|speaker are NOT necessarily the same. An author may | |
|choose to tell the story from any number of different | |
|points of view. In non-fiction consider important facts| |
|about speaker that will help assess his/her point of | |
|view / position. | |
|Tone | |
|The attitude of the author. The spoken word can convey | |
|the speaker’s attitude, and, thus, help to impart | |
|meaning, through tone of voice. With the written work, | |
|it is tone that extends meaning beyond the literal. | |
|Tone can be determined by examining the author’s diction| |
|(choice of words), syntax (sentence construction), and | |
|imagery (vivid descriptions that appeal to the senses). | |
LIDDS Reading Strategy: Use A.W.E. in this chart
|Language | |
| | |
|What type of language does the writer use? Formal, | |
|informal? Sophisticated and bombastic or simple and | |
|straightforward? | |
| | |
| | |
|Imagery | |
| | |
|What descriptions are included in the text? | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
|Diction | |
| | |
|What can you tell about the writer from this text from | |
|the words that he or she uses? | |
| | |
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|Details | |
| | |
|What details does the author include? What details does | |
|the author exclude? | |
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|Syntax | |
| | |
|What type of sentences does the writer use? Long, short?| |
|Formal, informal? | |
Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
Context for The Political Pamphlet
The passion of Revolutionary literature is found in pamphlets, the most popular form of political literature of the day. Over 2,000 pamphlets were published during the Revolution. The pamphlets thrilled patriots and threatened loyalists; they filled the role of drama, as they were often read aloud in public to excite audiences. American soldiers read them aloud in their camps; British Loyalists threw them into public bonfires.
Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense sold over 100,000 copies in the first three months of its publication. It is still rousing today. "The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind," Paine wrote, voicing the idea of American exceptionalism still strong in the United States – that in some fundamental sense, since America is a democratic experiment and a country theoretically open to all immigrants, the fate of America foreshadows the fate of humanity at large.
Political writings in a democracy had to be clear to appeal to the voters. And to have informed voters, universal education was promoted by many of the founding fathers. One indication of the vigorous, if simple, literary life was the proliferation of newspapers. More newspapers were read in America during the Revolution than anywhere else in the world. Immigration also mandated a simple style. Clarity was vital to a newcomer, for whom English might be a second language. Thomas Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence is clear and logical, but his committee's modifications made it even simpler. The Federalist Papers, written in support of the Constitution, are also lucid, logical arguments, suitable for debate in a democratic nation.
Excerpt from “Common Sense: On the Origin and Design of Government in General”
Thomas Paine
SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.
Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him, out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others.
In order to gain a clear and just idea of the design and end of government, let us suppose a small number of persons settled in some sequestered part of the earth, unconnected with the rest; they will then represent the first peopling of any country, or of the world. In this state of natural liberty, society will be their first thought. A thousand motives will excite them thereto; the strength of one man is so unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted for perpetual solitude, that he is soon obliged to seek assistance and relief of another, who in his turn requires the same. Four or five united would be able to raise a tolerable dwelling in the midst of a wilderness, but one man might labour out the common period of life without accomplishing any thing; when he had felled his timber he could not remove it, nor erect it after it was removed; hunger in the mean time would urge him to quit his work, and every different want would call him a different way. Disease, nay even misfortune, would be death; for, though neither might be mortal, yet either would disable him from living, and reduce him to a state in which he might rather be said to perish than to die.
Thus necessity, like a gravitating power, would soon form our newly arrived emigrants into society, the reciprocal blessings of which would supersede, and render the obligations of law and government unnecessary while they remained perfectly just to each other; but as nothing but Heaven is impregnable to vice, it will unavoidably happen that in proportion as they surmount the first difficulties of emigration, which bound them together in a common cause, they will begin to relax in their duty and attachment to each other: and this remissness will point out the necessity of establishing some form of government to supply the defect of moral virtue.
Some convenient tree will afford them a State House, under the branches of which the whole Colony may assemble to deliberate on public matters. It is more than probable that their first laws will have the title only of Regulations and be enforced by no other penalty than public disesteem. In this first parliament every man by natural right will have a seat.
But as the Colony encreases, the public concerns will encrease likewise, and the distance at which the members may be separated, will render it too inconvenient for all of them to meet on every occasion as at first, when their number was small, their habitations near, and the public concerns few and trifling. This will point out the convenience of their consenting to leave the legislative part to be managed by a select number chosen from the whole body, who are supposed to have the same concerns at stake which those have who appointed them, and who will act in the same manner as the whole body would act were they present. If the colony continue encreasing, it will become necessary to augment the number of representatives, and that the interest of every part of the colony may be attended to, it will be found best to divide the whole into convenient parts, each part sending its proper number: and that the ELECTED might never form to themselves an interest separate from the ELECTORS, prudence will point out the propriety of having elections often: because as the ELECTED might by that means return and mix again with the general body of the ELECTORS in a few months, their fidelity to the public will be secured by the prudent reflection of not making a rod for themselves. And as this frequent interchange will establish a common interest with every part of the community, they will mutually and naturally support each other, and on this, (not on the unmeaning name of king,) depends the STRENGTH OF GOVERNMENT, AND THE HAPPINESS OF THE GOVERNED.
Source:
Copyright ©1999-2009 by the Independence Hall Association, electronically publishing as . Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 4 Jul 1995. 28 Sept 2010.
____________________
Assignment for Reading “Phyllis Wheatley”
Goal for Reading this Text:
Search for clues that suggest the viewpoint from which a literary text is written or told and determine whether or not the author's or narrator's viewpoint is valid or biased.
Understand the overall approach taken by the author or narrator (e.g. point of view) in uncomplicated passages
Infer the main idea or purpose of straightforward paragraphs in uncomplicated literary narratives
Directions: Complete the SOAPSTone for both poems “On Being Brought from Africa to America” and “To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth” by Phyllis Wheatley. Provide evidence in your SOAPSTone from the poems that supports your conclusions. Use A.W.E. and cite the source.
SOAPSTone Reading Strategy
| | |To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth |
|Element |On Being Brought from Africa to America | |
|Subject | | |
|The general topic, content, and ideas| | |
|contained in the text. You should be| | |
|able to state the subject in a few | | |
|words or a phrase. | | |
|Occasion | | |
|The time and place of the piece; the | | |
|context that encouraged the writing | | |
|to happen. Writing does not occur in| | |
|a vacuum. There is the larger | | |
|occasion: an environment of ideas | | |
|and emotions that swirl around a | | |
|broad issue. Then there is the | | |
|immediate occasion: an event or | | |
|situation that catches the writer’s | | |
|attention and triggers a response. | | |
|Audience | | |
|The group of readers to whom this | | |
|piece is directed. The audience may | | |
|be one person, a small group, or a | | |
|large group; it may be a certain | | |
|person or a certain people. | | |
|Purpose | | |
|The reason behind the text. Consider| | |
|the purpose of the text in order to | | |
|examine the argument and its logic. | | |
|You should ask yourself, “What does | | |
|the speaker want the audience to | | |
|think or do as a result of reading | | |
|this text?” | | |
|Speaker | | |
|The voice that tells the story. The | | |
|author and the speaker are NOT | | |
|necessarily the same. An author may | | |
|choose to tell the story from any | | |
|number of different points of view. | | |
|In non-fiction consider important | | |
|facts about speaker that will help | | |
|assess his/her point of view / | | |
|position. | | |
|Tone | | |
|The attitude of the author. The | | |
|spoken word can convey the speaker’s | | |
|attitude, and, thus, help to impart | | |
|meaning, through tone of voice. With| | |
|the written work, it is tone that | | |
|extends meaning beyond the literal. | | |
|Tone can be determined by examining | | |
|the author’s diction (choice of | | |
|words), syntax (sentence | | |
|construction), and imagery (vivid | | |
|descriptions that appeal to the | | |
|senses). | | |
Biography: Phyllis Wheatley
Given the hardships of life in early America, it is ironic that some of the best poetry of the period was written by an exceptional slave woman. The first African-American author of importance in the United States, Phillis Wheatley was born in Africa and brought to Boston, Massachusetts, when she was about seven, where she was purchased by the pious and wealthy tailor John Wheatley to be a companion for his wife. The Wheatleys recognized Phillis's remarkable intelligence and, with the help of their daughter, Mary, Phillis learned to read and write.
Wheatley's poetic themes are religious, and her style, like that of Philip Freneau, is neoclassical. Among her best-known poems are "To S.M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works," a poem of praise and encouragement for another talented black, and a short poem showing her strong religious sensitivity filtered through her experience of Christian conversion. This poem unsettles some contemporary critics – whites because they find it conventional, and blacks because the poem does not protest the immorality of slavery. Yet the work is a sincere expression; it confronts white racism and asserts spiritual equality. Indeed, Wheatley was the first to address such issues confidently in verse, as in "On Being Brought from Africa to America.”
On Being Brought from Africa to America
Phyllis Wheatley
'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Savior too;
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their colour is a diabolic dye."
Remember, Christians, negroes, black as Cain,
May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.
Source:
U.S. Department of State publication, Outline of American Literature. . 28.9.2010.
To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth
Phyllis Wheatley
1773
To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth, His
Mayesty’s Principal Secretary of State for North-America, Etc.
Hail, happy day, when, smiling like the morn,
Fair Freedom rose New-England to adorn:
The northern clime beneath her genial ray,
Dartmouth, congratulates thy blissful sway:
Elate with hope her race no longer mourns,
Each soul expands, each grateful bosom burns,
While in thine hand with pleasure we behold
The silken reins, and Freedom’s charms unfold.
Long lost to realms beneath the northern skies
She shines supreme, while hated faction dies:
Soon as appear’d the Goddess long desir’d,
Sick at the view, she lanquish’d and expir’d;
Thus from the splendors of the morning light
The owl in sadness seeks the caves of night.
No more, America, in mournful strain
Of wrongs, and grievance unredress’d complain,
No longer shalt thou dread the iron chain,
Which wanton Tyranny with lawless hand
Had made, and with it meant t’ enslave the land.
Should you, my lord, while you peruse my song,
Wonder from whence my love of Freedom sprung,
Whence flow these wishes for the common good,
By feeling hearts alone best understood,
I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate
Was snatcli’d from Afric’s fancy’d happy seat:
What pangs excruciating must molest,
What sorrows labour in my parent’s breast?
Steel’d was that son] and by no misery mov’d
That from a father seiz’d his babe belov’d:
Such, such my case. And can I then but pray
Others may never feel tyrannic sway?
For favours past, great Sir, our thanks are due,
And thee we ask thy favors to renew,
Since in thy pow’r, as in thy will before,
To sooth the griefs, which thou did’st once deplore.
May heav’nly race the sacred sanction give
To all thy worts, and thou for ever live
Not onlv on the wings of fleeting Fame,
Though praise immortal crowns the patriot’s name,
But to conduct to heav’ns refulgent fane,
May fiery coursers sweep th’ ethereal plain,
And bear thee upwards to that blest abode,
Where, like the prophet, thou shalt find thy God.
Source:
Teaching American History. © 2006-08 Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs | Design by Capital Idea Ventures, Inc. (CiV) . 28 Sept 2010.
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Reading Assignment for Phillip Freneau's Poem,
“On the Emigration to America”
Goal for Reading This Text:
Use context to determine the appropriate meaning of figurative and non-figurative words, phrases and statements in uncomplicated passages.
Identify a clear main idea or purpose of any paragraph or paragraphs in uncomplicated passages.
Directions: Complete the SOAPSTone below for Freneau's poem, “On the Emigration to America.”
SOAPSTone Reading Strategy
|Speaker | |
|The voice that tells the story. The author and | |
|the speaker are NOT necessarily the same. An | |
|author may choose to tell the story from any | |
|number of different points of view. In | |
|non-fiction consider important facts about | |
|speaker that will help assess his/her point of | |
|view / position. | |
|Occasion | |
|The time and place of the piece; the context | |
|that encouraged the writing to happen. Writing | |
|does not occur in a vacuum. There is the larger| |
|occasion: an environment of ideas and emotions | |
|that swirl around a broad issue. Then there is | |
|the immediate occasion: an event or situation | |
|that catches the writer’s attention and triggers| |
|a response. | |
|Audience | |
|The group of readers to whom this piece is | |
|directed. The audience may be one person, a | |
|small group, or a large group; it may be a | |
|certain person or a certain people. | |
| | |
|Purpose | |
|The reason behind the text. Consider the | |
|purpose of the text in order to examine the | |
|argument and its logic. You should ask | |
|yourself, “What does the speaker want the | |
|audience to think or do as a result of reading | |
|this text?” | |
|Subject | |
|The general topic, content, and ideas contained | |
|in the text. You should be able to state the | |
|subject in a few words or a phrase. | |
|Tone | |
|The attitude of the author. The spoken word can| |
|convey the speaker’s attitude, and, thus, help | |
|to impart meaning, through tone of voice. With | |
|the written work, it is tone that extends | |
|meaning beyond the literal. Tone can be | |
|determined by examining the author’s diction | |
|(choice of words), syntax (sentence | |
|construction), and imagery (vivid descriptions | |
|that appeal to the senses). | |
Writing Application for “On the Emigration to America”
SWBAT:
Use context to determine the appropriate meaning of some figurative and non-figurative words, phrases, and statements in uncomplicated passages.
Investigate the meanings of words and their possible effect(s) on the perceptions and behavior of people
Infer the main idea or purpose of straightforward paragraphs in uncomplicated literary narratives
Directions: Use your understanding of Freneau's poem, “On the Emigration to America,” to infer how he might define the ideology of America? On loose-leaf paper, write a MEL-Con paragraph that answers this question. Use A.W.E. to support the definition. Remember to cite your source in MLA format.
Biography: Philip Freneau (1752-1832)
Poet of the American Revolution
One poet, Philip Freneau, incorporated the new stirrings of European Romanticism and escaped the imitativeness and vague universality of the Hartford Wits. The key to both his success and his failure was his passionately democratic spirit combined with an inflexible temper.
The Hartford Wits, all of them undoubted patriots, reflected the general cultural conservatism of the educated classes. Freneau set himself against this holdover of old Tory attitudes, complaining of "the writings of an aristocratic, speculating faction at Hartford, in favor of monarchy and titular distinctions." Although Freneau received a fine education and was as well acquainted with the classics as any Hartford Wit, he embraced liberal and democratic causes.
From a Huguenot (radical French Protestant) background, Freneau fought as a militiaman during the Revolutionary War. In 1780, he was captured and imprisoned in two British ships, where he almost died before his family managed to get him released. His poem "The British Prison Ship" is a bitter condemnation of the cruelties of the British, who wished "to stain the world with gore." This piece and other revolutionary works, including "Eutaw Springs," "American Liberty," "A Political Litany," "A Midnight Consultation," and "George the Third's Soliloquy," brought him fame as the "Poet of the American Revolution."
Freneau edited a number of journals during his life, always mindful of the great cause of democracy. When Thomas Jefferson helped him establish the militant, anti-Federalist National Gazette in 1791, Freneau became the first powerful, crusading newspaper editor in America, and the literary predecessor of William Cullen Bryant, William Lloyd Garrison, and H.L. Mencken.
As a poet and editor, Freneau adhered to his democratic ideals. His popular poems, published in newspapers for the average reader, regularly celebrated American subjects. "The Virtue of Tobacco" concerns the indigenous plant, a mainstay of the southern economy, while "The Jug of Rum" celebrates the alcoholic drink of the West Indies, a crucial commodity of early American trade and a major New World export. Common American characters lived in "The Pilot of Hatteras," as well as in poems about quack doctors and bombastic evangelists.
Freneau commanded a natural and colloquial style appropriate to a genuine democracy, but he could also rise to refined neoclassic lyricism in often-anthologized works such as "The Wild Honeysuckle" (1786), which evokes a sweet-smelling native shrub. Not until the "American Renaissance" that began in the 1820s would American poetry surpass the heights that Freneau had scaled 40 years earlier.
Additional groundwork for later literary achievement was laid during the early years. Nationalism inspired publications in many fields, leading to a new appreciation of things American. Noah Webster (1758-1843) devised an American Dictionary, as well as an important reader and speller for the schools. His Spelling Book sold more than 100 million copies over the years. Updated Webster's dictionaries are still standard today. The American Geography, by Jedidiah Morse, another landmark reference work, promoted knowledge of the vast and expanding American land itself. Some of the most interesting if nonliterary writings of the period are the journals of frontiersmen and explorers such as Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) and Zebulon Pike (1779-1813), who wrote accounts of expeditions across the Louisiana Territory, the vast portion of the North American continent that Thomas Jefferson purchased from Napoleon in 1803.
Source:
U.S. Department of State publication, Outline of American Literature. . 28.9.2010.
On the Emigration to America
1785
On the Emigration to America and Peopling the Western Country
To western woods, and lonely plains,
Palemon from the crowd departs,
Where Nature's wildest genius reigns,
To tame the soil, and plant the arts--
What wonders there shall freedom show,
What might states successive grow!
From Europe's proud, despotic shores
Hither the stranger takes his way,
And in our new found world explores
A happier soil, a milder sway,
Where no proud despot holds him down,
No slaves insult him with a crown.
What charming scenes attract the eye,
On wild Ohio's savage stream!
There Nature reigns, whose works outvie
The boldest pattern art can frame;
There ages past have rolled away,
And forests bloomed but to decay.
From these fair plains, these rural seats,
So long concealed, so lately known,
The unsocial Indian far retreats,
To make some other clime his own,
When other streams, less pleasing flow,
And darker forests round him grow.
Great Sire of floods! whose varied wave
Through climes and countries take its way,
To whom creating Nature gave
Ten thousand streams to swell thy sway!
No longer shall they useless prove,
Nor idly through the forests rove;
Nor longer shall your princely flood
From distant lakes be swelled in vain,
Nor longer through a darksome wood
Advance, unnoticed to the main,
Far other ends, the heavens decree--
And commerce plans new freights for thee.
While virtue warms the generous breast,
There heaven-born freedom shall reside,
Nor shall the voice of war molest,
Nor Europe's all-aspiring pride--
There Reason shall new laws devise,
And order from confusion rise.
Forsaking kings and regal state,
With all their pomp and fancied bliss,
The traveller owns, convinced though late,
No realm so free, so blest as this--
The east is half to slaves consigned,
Where kings and priests enchain the mind.
O come the time, and haste the day,
When man shall man to longer crush,
When Reason shall enforce her sway,
Nor these fair regions raise our blush,
Where still the African complains,
And mourns his yet unbroken chains.
Far brighter scenes a future age,
The muse predicts, these States will hail,
Whose genius may the world engage,
Whose deeds may over death prevail,
And happier systems bring to view
Than all the eastern sages knew.
Source:
. 28 Sept 2010.
Writing Assignment for “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Oloudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself (1789)”
SWBAT:
Use context to determine the appropriate meaning of some figurative and non-figurative words, phrases and statements in uncomplicated passages.
Synthesize information from challenging texts to clarify understanding of important concepts and ideas
Investigate the meanings of words and their possible effect(s) on the perceptions and behavior of people
Infer the main idea or purpose of straightforward paragraphs in uncomplicated literary narratives
Search for clues that suggest the viewpoint from which a literary text is written or told and determine whether the author's or narrator's point of view is valid or biased
Prompt: How would Olaudah Equiano define the ideology of America? On loose-leaf, write your response in MEL-Con format using A.W.E. from the text to support the definition. Remember to cite your source in MLA format.
______________________
From The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Oloudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself (1789)
Gustavus Vassa [Olaudah Equiano] [1745 – 1797]
CHAP. II.
The author's being kidnapped with his sister--Their separation--Surprise at meeting again--Are finally separated--Account of the different places and incidents the author met with till his arrival on the coast--The effect the sight of a slave ship had on him--He sails for the West Indies--Horrors of a slave ship.
One day, as I was watching at the top of a tree in our yard, I saw one of those people come into the yard of our next neighbour but one, to kidnap, there being many stout young people in it. Immediately on this I gave the alarm of the rogue, and he was surrounded by the stoutest of them, who entangled him with cords, so that he could not escape till some of the grown people came and secured him. But alas! ere long it was my fate to be thus attacked, and to be carried off, when none of the grown people were nigh. One day, when all our people were gone out to their works as usual, and only I and my dear sister were left to mind the house, two men and a woman got over our walls, and in a moment seized us both, and, without giving us time to cry out, or make resistance, they stopped our mouths, and ran off with us into the nearest wood. Here they tied our hands, and continued to carry us far as they could, till night came on, when we reached a small house, where the robbers halted for refreshment, and spent the night. We were then unbound, but were unable to take any food; and, being quite overpowered by fatigue and grief, our only relief was some sleep, which allayed our misfortune for a short time. The next morning we left the house, and continued travelling all the day. For a long time we had kept the woods, but at last we came into a road which I believed I knew. I had now some hopes of being delivered; for we had advanced but a little way before I discovered some people at a distance, on which I began to cry out for their assistance: but my cries had no other effect than to make them tie me faster and stop my mouth, and then they put me into a large sack. They also stopped my sister's mouth, and tied her hands; and in this manner we proceeded till we were out of the sight of these people. When we went to rest the following night they offered us some victuals; but we refused it; and the only comfort we had was in being in one another's arms all that night, and bathing each other with our tears. But alas! we were soon deprived of even the small comfort of weeping together. The next day proved a day of greater sorrow than I had yet experienced; for my sister and I were then separated, while we lay clasped in each other's arms. It was in vain that we besought them not to part us; she was torn from me, and immediately carried away, while I was left in a state of distraction not to be described. I cried and grieved continually; and for several days I did not eat any thing but what they forced into my mouth. At length, after many days traveling, during which I had often changed masters, I got into the hands of a chieftain, in a very pleasant country. This man had two wives and some children, and they all used me extremely well, and did all they could to comfort me; particularly the first wife, who was something like my mother. Although I was a great many days journey from my father's house, yet these people spoke exactly the same language with us. This first master of mine, as I may call him, was a smith, and my principal employment was working his bellows, which were the same kind as I had seen in my vicinity. They were in some respects not unlike the stoves here in gentlemen's kitchens; and were covered over with leather; and in the middle of that leather a stick was fixed, and a person stood up, and worked it, in the same manner as is done to pump water out of a cask with a hand pump. I believe it was gold he worked, for it was of a lovely bright yellow colour, and was worn by the women on their wrists and ancles. I was there I suppose about a month, and they at last used to trust me some little distance from the house. This liberty I used in embracing every opportunity to inquire the way to my own home: and I also sometimes, for the same purpose, went with the maidens, in the cool of the evenings, to bring pitchers of water from the springs for the use of the house. I had also remarked where the sun rose in the morning, and set in the evening, as I had travelled along; and I had observed that my father's house was towards the rising of the sun. I therefore determined to seize the first opportunity of making my escape, and to shape my course for that quarter; for I was quite oppressed and weighed down by grief after my mother and friends; and my love of liberty, ever great, was strengthened by the mortifying circumstance of not daring to eat with the free-born children, although I was mostly their companion. While I was projecting my escape, one day an unlucky event happened, which quite disconcerted my plan, and put an end to my hopes. I used to be sometimes employed in assisting an elderly woman slave to cook and take care of the poultry; and one morning, while I was feeding some chickens, I happened to toss a small pebble at one of them, which hit it on the middle and directly killed it. The old slave, having soon after missed the chicken, inquired after it; and on my relating the accident (for I told her the truth, because my mother would never suffer me to tell a lie) she flew into a violent passion, threatened that I should suffer for it; and, my master being out, she immediately went and told her mistress what I had done. This alarmed me very much, and I expected an instant flogging, which to me was uncommonly dreadful; for I had seldom been beaten at home. I therefore resolved to fly; and accordingly I ran into a thicket that was hard by, and hid myself in the bushes. Soon afterwards my mistress and the slave returned, and, not seeing me, they searched all the house, but not finding me, and I not making answer when they called to me, they thought I had run away, and the whole neighbourhood was raised in the pursuit of me. In that part of the country (as in ours) the houses and villages were skirted with woods, or shrubberies, and the bushes were so thick that a man could readily conceal himself in them, so as to elude the strictest search. The neighbours continued the whole day looking for me, and several times many of them came within a few yards of the place where I lay hid. I then gave myself up for lost entirely, and expected every moment, when I heard a rustling among the trees, to be found out, and punished by my master: but they never discovered me, though they were often so near that I even heard their conjectures as they were looking about for me; and I now learned from them, that any attempt to return home would be hopeless. Most of them supposed I had fled towards home; but the distance was so great, and the way so intricate, that they thought I could never reach it, and that I should be lost in the woods. When I heard this I was seized with a violent panic, and abandoned myself to despair. Night too began to approach, and aggravated all my fears. I had before entertained hopes of getting home, and I had determined when it should be dark to make the attempt; but I was now convinced it was fruitless, and I began to consider that, if possibly I could escape all other animals, I could not those of the human kind; and that, not knowing the way, I must perish in the woods. Thus was I like the hunted deer:
--"Ev'ry leaf and ev'ry whisp ring breath
"Convey'd a foe, and ev'ry foe a death."
I heard frequent rustlings among the leaves; and being pretty sure they were snakes I expected every instant to be stung by them. This increased my anguish, and the horror of my situa- became now quite insupportable. I at length quitted the thicket, very faint and hungry, for I had not eaten or drank any thing all the day; and crept to my master's kitchen, from whence I set out at first, and which was an open shed, and laid myself down in the ashes with an anxious wish for death to relieve me from all my pains. I was scarcely awake in the morning when the old woman slave, who was the first up, came to light the fire, and saw me in the fire place. She was very much surprised to see me, and could scarcely believe her own eyes. She now promised to intercede for me, and went for her master, who soon after came, and, having slightly reprimanded e, ordered me to be taken care of, and not to be ill-treated.
Soon after this my master's only daughter, and child by his first wife, sickened and died, which affected him so much that for some time he was almost frantic, and really would have killed himself, had he not been watched and prevented. However, in a small time afterwards he recovered, and I was again sold. I was now carried to the left of the sun's rising, through many different countries, and a number of large woods. The people I was sold to used to carry me very often, when I was tired, either on their shoulders or on their backs. I saw many convenient well-built sheds along the roads, at proper distances, to accommodate the merchants and travellers, who lay in those buildings along with their wives, who often accompany them; and they always go well armed.
From the time I left my own nation I always found somebody that understood me till I came to the sea coast. The languages of different nations did not totally differ, nor were they so copious as those of the Europeans, particularly the English. They were therefore easily learned; and, while I was journeying thus through Africa, I acquired two or three different tongues. In this manner I had been travelling for a considerable time, when one evening, to my great surprise, whom should I see brought to the house where I was but my dear sister! As soon as she saw me she gave a loud shriek, and ran into my arms--I was quite overpowered: neither of us could speak; but, for a considerable time, clung to each other in mutual embraces, unable to do any thing but weep. Our meeting affected all who saw us; and indeed I must acknowledge, in honour of those sable destroyers of human rights, that I never met with any ill treatment, or saw any offered to their slaves, except tying them, when necessary, to keep them from running away. When these people knew we were brother and sister they indulged us together; and the man, to whom I supposed we belonged, lay with us, he in the middle, while she and I held one another by the hands across his breast all night; and thus for a while we forgot our misfortunes in the joy of being together: but even this small comfort was soon to have an end; for scarcely had the fatal morning appeared, when she was again torn from me for ever! I was now more miserable, if possible, than before. The small relief which her presence gave me from pain was gone, and the wretchedness of my situation was redoubled by my anxiety after her fate, and my apprehensions left her sufferings should be greater than mine, when I could not be with her to alleviate them. Yes, thou dear partner of all my childish sports! thou sharer of my joys and sorrows! happy should I have ever esteemed myself to encounter every misery for you, and to procure your freedom by the sacrifice of my own. Though you were early forced from my arms, your image has been always rivetted in my heart, from which neither time nor fortune have been able to remove it; so that, while the thoughts of your sufferings have damped my prosperity, they have mingled with adversity and increased its bitterness. To that Heaven which protects the weak from the strong, I commit the care of your innocence and virtues, if they have not already received their full reward, and if your youth and delicacy have not long since fallen victims to the violence of the African trader, the pestilential stench of a Guinea ship, the seasoning in the European colonies, or the lash and lust of a brutal and unrelenting overseer.
I did not long remain after my sister. I was again sold, and carried through a number of places, till, after travelling a considerable time, I came to a town called Tinmah, in the most beautiful country I had yet seen in Africa. It was extremely rich, and there were many rivulets which flowed through it, and supplied a large pond in the centre of the town, where the people washed. Here I first saw and tasted cocoa-nuts, which I thought superior to any nuts I had ever tasted before; and the trees, which were loaded, were also interspersed amongst the houses, which had commodious shades adjoining, and were in the same manner as ours, the insides being neatly plastered and whitewashed. Here I also saw and tasted for the first time sugar-cane. Their money consisted of little white shells, the size of the finger nail. I was sold here for one hundred and seventy-two of them by a merchant who lived and brought me there. I had been about two or three days at his house, when a wealthy widow, a neighbour of his, came there one evening, and brought with her an only son, a young gentleman about my own age and size. Here they saw me; and, having taken a fancy to me, I was bought of the merchant, and went home with them. Her house and premises were situated close to one of those rivulets I have mentioned, and were the finest I ever saw in Africa: they were very extensive, and she had a number of slaves to attend her. The next day I was washed and perfumed, and when meal-time came I was led into the presence of my mistress, and ate and drank before her with her son. This filled me with astonishment; and I could scarce help expressing my surprise that the young gentleman should suffer me, who was bound, to eat with him who was free; and not only so, but that he would not at any time either eat or drink till I had taken first, because I was the eldest, which was agreeable to our custom. Indeed every thing here, and all their treatment of me, made me forget that I was a slave. The language of these people resembled ours so nearly, that we understood each other perfectly. They had also the very same customs as we. There were likewise slaves daily to attend us, while my young master and I with other boys sported with our darts and bows and arrows, as I had been used to do at home. In this resemblance to my former happy state I passed about two months; and I now began to think I was to be adopted into the family, and was beginning to be rereconciled to my situation, and to forget by degrees my misfortunes, when all at once the delusion vanished; for, without the least previous knowledge, one morning early, while my dear master and companion was still asleep, I was wakened out of my reverie to fresh sorrow, and hurried away even amongst the uncircumcised.
Thus, at the very moment I dreamed of the greatest happiness, I found myself most miserable; and it seemed as if fortune wished to give me this taste of joy, only to render the reverse more poignant. The change I now experienced was as painful as it was sudden and unexpected. It was a change indeed from a state of bliss to a scene which is inexpressible by me, as it discovered to me an element I had never before beheld, and till then had no idea of, and wherein such instances of hardship and cruelty continually occurred as I can never reflect on but with horror.
All the nations and people I had hitherto passed through resembled our own in their manners, customs, and language: but I came at length to a country, the inhabitants of which differed from us in all those particulars. I was very much struck with this difference, especially when I came among a people who did not circumcise, and ate without washing their hands. They cooked also in iron pots, and had European cutlasses and cross, bows, which were unknown to us, and fought with their fists amongst themselves. Their women were not so modest as ours, for they ate, and drank, and slept, with their men. But, above all, I was amazed to see no sacrifices or offerings among them. In some of those places the people ornamented themselves with scars, and likewise filed their teeth very sharp. They wanted sometimes to ornament me in the same manner, but I would not suffer them; hoping that I might some time be among a people who did not thus disfigure themselves, as I thought they did. At last I came to the banks of a large river, which was covered with canoes, in which the people appeared to live
with their household utensils and provisions of all kinds. I was beyond measure astonished at this, as I had never before seen any water larger than a pond or a rivulet: and my surprise was mingled with no small fear when I was put into one of these canoes, and we began to paddle and move along the river. We continued going on thus till night; and when we came to land, and made fires on the banks, each family by themselves, some dragged their canoes on shore, others stayed and cooked in theirs, and laid in them all night. Those on the land had mats, of which they made tents, some in the shape of little houses: in these we slept; and after the morning meal we embarked again and proceeded as before. I was often very much astonished to see some of the women, as well as the men, jump into the water, dive to the bottom, come up again, and swim about. Thus I continued to travel, sometimes by land, sometimes by water, through different countries and various nations, till, at the end of six or seven months after I had been kidnapped, I arrived at the sea coast. It would be tedious and uninteresting to relate all the incidents which befell me during this journey, and which I have not yet forgotten; of the various hands I passed through, and the manners and customs of all the different people among whom I lived: I shall therefore only observe, that in all the places where I was the soil was exceedingly rich; the pomkins, eadas, plantains, yams, &c. &c. were in great abundance, and of incredible size. There were also vast quantities of different gums, though not used for any purpose; and every where a great deal oftobacco. The cotton even grew quite wild; and there was plenty of red-wood. I saw no mechanics whatever in all the way, except such as I have mentioned. The chief employment in all these countries was agriculture, and both the males and females, as with us, were brought up to it, and trained in the arts of war.
The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast was the sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding at anchor, and waiting for its cargo. These filled me with astonishment, which was soon converted into terror when I was carried on board. I was immediately handled and tossed up to see if I were sound by some of the crew; and I was now persuaded that I had gotten into a world of bad spirits, and that they were going to kill me. Their complexions too differing so much from ours, their long hair, and the language they spoke, (which was very different from any I had ever heard) united to confirm me in this belief. Indeed such were the horrors of my views and fears at the moment, that, if ten thousand worlds had been my own, I would have freely parted with them all to have exchanged my condition with that of the meanest slave in my own country. When I looked round the ship too and saw a large furnace or copper boiling, and a multitude of black people of every description chained together, every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow, I no longer doubted of my fate; and, quite overpowered with horror and anguish, I fell motionless on the deck and fainted. When I recovered a little I found some black people about me, who I believed were some of those who brought me on board, and had been receiving their pay; they talked to me in order to cheer me, but all in vain. I asked them if we were not to be eaten by those white men with horrible looks, red faces, and loose hair. They told me I was not; and one of the crew brought me a small portion of spirituous liquor in a wine glass; but, being afraid of him, I would not take it out of his hand. One of the blacks therefore took it from him and gave it to me, and I took a little down my palate, which, instead of reviving me, as they thought it would, threw me into the greatest consternation at the strange feeling it produced, having never tasted any such liquor before. Soon after this the blacks who brought me on board went off, and left me abandoned to despair. I now saw myself deprived of all chance of returning to my native country, or even the least glimpse of hope of gaining the shore, which I now considered as friendly; and I even wished for my former slavery in preference to my present situation, which was filled with horrors of every kind, still heightened by my ignorance of what I was to undergo. I was not long suffered to indulge my grief; I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life: so that, with the loathsomeness of the stench, and crying together, I became so sick and low that I was not able to cat, nor had I the least desire to taste any thing. I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me; but soon, to my grief, two of the white men offered me eatables; and, on my refusing to eat one of them held me fast by the hands, and laid me across I think the windlass, and tied my feet, while the other flogged me severely. I had never experienced any thing of this kind before; and although, not being used to the water, I naturally feared that element the first time I saw it, yet nevertheless, could I have got over the nettings, I would have jumped over the side, but I could not; and, besides, the crew used to watch us very closely who were not chained down to the decks, lest we should leap into the water: and I have seen some of these poor African prisoners most severely cut for attempting to do so, and hourly whipped for not eating. This indeed was often the case with myself. In a little time after, amongst the poor chained men, I found some of my own nation, which in a small degree gave ease to my mind. I inquired of these what was to be done with us; they gave me to understand we were to be carried to these white people's country to work for them. I then was a little revived, and thought, if it were no worse than working, my situation was not so desperate: but still I feared I should be put to death, the white people looked and acted, as I thought, in so savage a manner; for I had never seen among any people such instances of brutal cruelty; and this not only shewn towards us blacks, but also to some of the whites themselves. One white man in particular I saw, when we were permitted to be on deck, flogged so unmercifully with a large rope near the foremast, that he died in consequence of it; and they tossed him over the side as they would have done a brute. This made me fear these people the more; and I expected nothing less than to be treated in the same manner. I could not help expressing my fears and apprehensions to some of my countrymen: I asked them if these people had no country, but lived in this hollow place (the ship): they told me they did not, but came from a distant one. 'Then,' said I, 'how comes it in all our country we never heard of them?' They told me because they lived so very far off. I then asked where were their women? had they any like themselves? I was told they had: 'and why,' said I, 'do we not see them?' they answered, because they were left behind. I asked how the vessel could go? they told me they could not tell; but that there were cloths put upon the masts by the help of the ropes I saw, and then the vessel went on; and the white men had some spell or magic they put in the water when they liked in order to stop the vessel. I was exceedingly amazed at this account, and really thought they were spirits. I therefore wished much to be from amongst them, for I expected they would sacrifice me: but my wishes were vain; for we were so quartered that it was impossible for any of us to make our escape. While we stayed on the coast I was mostly on deck; and one day, to my great astonishment, I saw one of these vessels coming in with the sails up. As soon as the whites saw it, they gave a great shout, at which we were amazed; and the more so as the vessel appeared larger by approaching nearer. At last she came to an anchor in my sight, and when the anchor was let go I and my countrymen who saw it were lost in astonishment to observe the vessel stop; and were now convinced it was done by magic. Soon after this the other ship got her boats out, and they came on board of us, and the people of both ships seemed very glad to see each other. Several of the strangers also shook hands with us black people, and made motions with their hands, signifying I suppose we were to go to their country; but we did not understand them. At last, when the ship we were in had got in all her cargo, they made ready with many fearful noises, and we were all put under deck, so that we could not see how they managed the vessel. But this disappointment was the least of my sorrow. The stench of the hold while we were on the coast was so intolerably loathsome, that it was dangerous to remain there for any time, and some of us had been permitted to stay on the deck for the fresh air; but now that the whole ship's cargo were confined together, it became absolutely pestilential. The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died, thus falling victims to the improvident avarice, as I may call it, of their purchasers. This wretched situation was again aggravated by the galling of the chains, now become insupportable; and the filth of the necessary tubs, into which the children often fell, and were almost suffocated. The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable. Happily perhaps for myself I was soon reduced so low here that it was thought necessary to keep me almost always on deck; and from my extreme youth I was not put in fetters. In this situation I expected every hour to share the fate of my companions, some of whom were almost daily brought upon deck at the point of death, which I began to hope would soon put an end to my miseries. Often did I think many of the inhabitants of the deep much more happy than myself. I envied them the freedom they enjoyed, and as often wished I could change my condition for theirs. Every circumstance I met with served only to render my state more painful, and heighten my apprehensions, and my opinion of the cruelty of the whites. One day they had taken a number of fishes; and when they had killed and satisfied themselves with as many as they thought fit, to our astonishment who were on the deck, rather than give any of them to us to eat as we expected, they tossed the remaining fish into the sea again, although we begged and prayed for some as well as we could, but in vain; and some of my countrymen, being pressed by hunger, took an opportunity, when they thought no one saw them, of trying to get a little privately; but they were discovered, and the attempt procured them some very severe floggings. One day, when we had a smooth sea and moderate wind, two of my wearied countrymen who were chained together (I was near them at the time), preferring death to such a life of misery, somehow made through the nettings and jumped into the sea: immediately another quite dejected fellow, who, on account of his illness, was suffered to be out of irons, also followed their example; and I believe many more would very soon have done the same if they had not been prevented by the ship's crew, who were instantly alarmed. Those of us that were the most active were in a moment put down under the deck, and there was such a noise and confusion amongst the people of the ship as I never heard before, to stop her, and get the boat out to go after the slaves. However two of the wretches were drowned, but they got the other, and afterwards flogged him unmercifully for thus attempting to prefer death to slavery. In this manner we continued to undergo more hardships than I can now relate, hardships which are inseparable from this accursed trade. Many a time we were near suffocation from the want of fresh air, which we were often without for whole days together. This, and the stench of the necessary tubs, carried off many. During our passage I first saw flying fishes, which surprised me very much: they used frequently to fly across the ship, and many of them fell on the deck. I also now first saw the use of the quadrant; I had often with astonishment seen the mariners make observations with it, and I could not think what it meant. They at last took notice of my surprise; and one of them, willing to increase it, as well as to gratify my curiosity, made me one day look through it. The clouds appeared to me to be land, which disappeared as they passed along. This heightened my wonder; and I was now more persuaded than ever that I was in another world, and that every thing about me was magic. At last we came in sight of the island of Barbadoes, at which the whites on board gave a great shout, and made many signs of joy to us. We did not know what to think of this; but as the vessel drew nearer we plainly saw the harbour, and other ships of different kinds and sizes; and we soon anchored amongst them off Bridge Town. Many merchants and planters now came on board, though it was in the evening. They put us in separate parcels, and examined us attentively. They also made us jump, and pointed to the land, signifying we were to go there. We thought by this we should be eaten by these ugly men, as they appeared to us; and, when soon after we were all put down under the deck again, there was much dread and trembling among us, and nothing but bitter cries to be heard all the night from these apprehensions, insomuch that at last the white people got some old slaves from the land to pacify us. They told us we were not to be eaten, but to work, and were soon to go on land, where we should see many of our country people. This report eased us much; and sure enough, soon after we were landed, there came to us Africans of all languages. We were conducted immediately to the merchant's yard, where we were all pent up together like so many sheep in a fold, without regard to sex or age. As every object was new to me every thing I saw filled me with surprise. What struck me first was that the houses were built with stories, and in every other respect different from those in Africa: but I was still more astonished on seeing people on horseback. I did not know what this could mean; and indeed I thought these people were full of nothing but magical arts. While I was in this astonishment one of my fellow prisoners spoke to a countryman of his about the horses, who said they were the same kind they had in their country. I understood them, though they were from a distant part of Africa, and I thought it odd I had not seen any horses there; but afterwards, when I came to converse with different Africans, I found they had many horses amongst them, and much larger than those I then saw. We were not many days in the merchant's custody before we were sold after their usual manner, which is this:--On a signal given, (as the beat of a drum) the buyers rush at once into the yard where the slaves are confined, and make choice of that parcel they like best. The noise and clamour with which this is attended, and the eagerness visible in the countenances of the buyers, serve not a little to increase the apprehensions of the terrified Africans, who may well be supposed to consider them as the ministers of that destruction to which they think themselves devoted. In this manner, without scruple, are relations and friends separated, most of them never to see each other again. I remember in the vessel in which I was brought over, in the men's apartment, there were several brothers, who, in the sale, were sold in different lots; and it was very moving on this occasion to see and hear their cries at parting. O, ye nominal Christians! might not an African ask you, learned you this from your God, who says unto you, Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you? Is it not enough that we are torn from our country and friends to toil for your luxury and lust of gain? Must every tender feeling be likewise sacrificed to your avarice?
Are the dearest friends and relations, now rendered more dear by their separation from their kindred, still to be parted from each other, and thus prevented from cheering the gloom of slavery with the small comfort of being together and mingling their sufferings and sorrows? Why are parents to lose their children, brothers their sisters, or husbands their wives? Surely this is a new refinement in cruelty, which, while it has no advantage to atone for it, thus aggravates distress, and adds fresh horrors even to the wretchedness of slavery.
Compare/Contrast Thinking Assignment:
Freanau and Equiano
Goal:
Understand the overall approach taken by an author or narrator (e.g., point of view, kinds of evidence used)
Acknowledge the counterargument
Determine how an inference might change based on the inclusion of additional information
Distinguish between key concepts and subordinate ideas in a texts and write a concise summary
Search for clues that suggest the viewpoint from which a literary text is told and determine whether the author's or narrator's point of view is valid or biased
Directions: Complete a Venn diagram comparing the works read by Freneau and Equiano. Determine three (3) main ideas that both writers address or main ideas that one of the writers address and the other does not) as your points of comparison.
Reading Assignment for “The Declaration of Independence”
Goal:
Understand the overall approach taken by an author or narrator (e.g., point of view, kinds of evidence used)
Identify a clear main idea or purpose of any paragraph or paragraphs in uncomplicated passages.
Directions: Complete the LIDDS reading strategy for this text. Use A.W.E. as evidence of your findings.
|Language | |
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|What type of language does the writer | |
|use? Formal, informal? Sophisticated and| |
|bombastic or simple and straightforward?| |
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|Imagery | |
| | |
|What descriptions are included in the | |
|text? | |
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|Diction | |
| | |
|What can you tell about the writer from | |
|this text from the words that he or she | |
|uses? | |
| | |
| | |
|Details | |
| | |
|What details does the author include? | |
|What details does the author exclude? | |
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|Syntax | |
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|What type of sentences does the writer | |
|use? Long, short? Formal, informal? | |
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State the main idea of “The Declaration of Independence:
Writing Assignment for “The Declaration of Independence”
Goal:
Show competent use of language
Employ most conventions of standard English grammar
Use some precise and varied vocabulary
Use several kinds of sentence structures to vary pace
Understand the overall approach taken by an author
Role: Yourself
Audience: Whomever you feel is being oppressive to your freedom (ie. Parents, significant other)
Format: A parody of the “Declaration of Independence” that imitates Jefferson's sentence structures and organization. You will need to imitate at least three patterns of syntax found in Jefferson's “Declaration.”
Topic: Declare independence from a person you perceive as being oppressive to your freedoms.
A Transcription
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Brita
in, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Source:
t.html
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Writing Assignment for “Information to Those Who Would Remve to America”
SWBAT:
Use context to determine the appropriate meaning of some figurative and non-figurative words, phrases and statements in uncomplicated passages.
Synthesize information from challenging texts to clarify understanding of important concepts and ideas
Investigate the meanings of words and their possible effect(s) on the perceptions and behavior of people
Infer the main idea or purpose of straightforward paragraphs in uncomplicated literary narratives
Search for clues that suggest the viewpoint from which a literary text is written or told and determine whether the author's or narrator's point of view is valid or biased
Directions: Based on your reading, how would Benjamin Franklin define the ideology of “America”? On loose-leaf paper, write a MEL-Con paragraph to answer this question and use A.W.E. When citing your evidence. Make sure to use proper MLA citation.
________________
From “Information to Those Who Would Remve to America”
Benjamin Franklin
November 1782
Many Persons in Europe, having directly or by Letters, express'd to the Writer of this, who is well acquainted with North America, their Desire of transporting and establishing themselves in that Country; but who appear to have formed, thro' Ignorance, mistaken Ideas and Expectations of what is to be obtained there; he thinks it may be useful, and prevent inconvenient, expensive, and fruitless Removals and Voyages of improper Persons, if he gives some clearer and truer Notions of that part of the World, than appear to have hitherto prevailed. He finds it is imagined by Numbers, that the Inhabitants of North America are rich, capable of rewarding, and dispos'd to reward, all sorts of Ingenuity; that they are at the same time ignorant of all the Sciences, and, consequently, that Strangers, possessing Talents in the Belles-Lettres, fine Arts, &c., must be highly esteemed, and so well paid, as to become easily rich themselves; that there are also abundance of profitable Offices to be disposed of, which the Natives are not qualified to fill; and that, having few Persons of Family among them, Strangers of Birth must be greatly respected, and of course easily obtain the best of those Offices, which will make all their Fortunes; that the Governments too, to encourage Emigrations from Europe, not only pay the Expence of personal Transportation, but give Lands gratis to Strangers, with Negroes to work for them, Utensils of Husbandry, and Stocks of Cattle. These are all wild Imaginations; and those who go to America with Expectations founded upon them will surely find themselves disappointed.
Source:
2006-08 Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs | Design by Capital Idea Ventures, Inc. (CiV) . 28 Sept 2010.
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Writing Assignment for “Chief Joseph”
SWBAT:
Use context to determine the appropriate meaning of some figurative and non-figurative words, phrases and statements in uncomplicated passages.
Synthesize information from challenging texts to clarify understanding of important concepts and ideas
Investigate the meanings of words and their possible effect(s) on the perceptions and behavior of people
Infer the main idea or purpose of straightforward paragraphs in uncomplicated literary narratives
Search for clues that suggest the viewpoint from which a literary text is written or told and determine whether the author's or narrator's point of view is valid or biased
Directions: Based on your reading, how would Chief Joseph define the ideology of “America”? On loose-leaf paper, write a MEL-Con paragraph to answer this question and use A.W.E. When citing your evidence. Make sure to use proper MLA citation.
The Speech of Chief Joseph
|My friends, I have been asked to show you my heart. I am glad to have a chance to do so. I want the white people to understand my people. Some of|
|you think an Indian is like a wild animal. This is a great mistake. I will tell you all about our people, and then you can judge whether an |
|Indian is a man or not. I believe much trouble and blood would be saved if we opened our hearts more. I will tell you in my way how the Indian |
|sees things. The white man has more words to tell you how they look to him, but it does not require many words to speak the truth. What I have to|
|say will come from my heart, and I will speak with a straight tongue. Ah-cum-kin-i-ma-me-hut (the Great Spirit) is looking at me, and will hear |
|me. |
|My name is In-mut-too-yah-lat-lat (Thunder traveling over the Mountains). I am chief of the Wal-lam-wat-kin band of Chute-pa-lu, or Nez Perces |
|(nose-pierced Indians). I was born in eastern Oregon, thirty-eight winters ago. My father was chief before me. When a young man, he was called |
|Joseph by Mr. Spaulding, a missionary. He died a few years ago. There was no stain on his hands of the blood of a white man. He left a good name |
|on the earth. He advised me well for my people. |
|Our fathers gave us many laws, which they had learned from their fathers. These laws were good. They told us to treat all men as they treated us;|
|that we should never be the first to break a bargain; that it was a disgrace to tell a lie; that we should speak only the truth; that it was a |
|shame for one man to take from another his wife, or his property without paying for it. We were taught to believe that the Great Spirit sees and |
|hears everything, and that he never forgets; that hereafter he will give every man a spirit-home according to his deserts: if he has been a good |
|man, he will have a good home; if he has been a bad man, he will have a bad home. This I believe, and all my people believe the same. |
|We did not know there were other people besides the Indian until about one hundred winters ago, when some men with white faces came to our |
|country. They brought many things with them to trade for furs and skins. They brought tobacco, which was new to us. They brought guns with flint |
|stones on them, which frightened our women and children. Our people could not talk with these white-faced men, but they used signs which all |
|people understand. These men were Frenchmen, and they called our people ``Nez Perces,'' because they wore rings in their noses for ornaments. |
|Although very few of our people wear them now, we are still called by the same name. These French trappers said a great many things to our |
|fathers, which have been planted in our hearts. Some were good for us, but some were bad. Our people were divided in opinion about these men. |
|Some thought they taught more bad than good. An Indian respects a brave man, but he despises a coward. He loves a straight tongue, but he hates a|
|forked tongue. The French trappers told us some truths and some lies. |
|The first white men of your people who came to our country were named Lewis and Clarke. They also brought many things that our people had never |
|seen. They talked straight, and our people gave them a great feast, as a proof that their hearts were friendly. These men were very kind. They |
|made presents to our chiefs and our people made presents to them. We had a great many horses, of which we gave them what they needed, and they |
|gave us guns and tobacco in return. All the Nez Perces made friends with Lewis and Clarke, and agreed to let them pass through their country, and|
|never to make war on white men. This promise the Nez Perces have never broken. No white man can accuse them of bad faith, and speak with a |
|straight tongue. It has always been the pride of the Nez Perces that they were the friends of the white men. When my father was a young man there|
|came to our country a white man (Rev. Mr. Spaulding) who talked spirit law. He won the affections of our people because he spoke good things to |
|them. At first he did not say anything about white men wanting to settle on our lands. Nothing was said about that until about twenty winters |
|ago, when a number of white people came into our country and built houses and made farms. At first our people made no complaint. They thought |
|there was room enough for all to live in peace, and they were learning many things from the white men that seemed to be good. But we soon found |
|that the white men were growing rich very fast, and were greedy to possess everything the Indian had. My father was the first to see through the |
|schemes of the white men, and he warned his tribe to be careful about trading with them. He had suspicion of men who seemed so anxious to make |
|money. I was a boy then, but I remember well my father's caution. He had sharper eyes than the rest of our people. |
| |
|Next there came a white officer (Governor Stevens), who invited all the Nez Perces to a treaty council. After the council was opened he made |
|known his heart. He said there were a great many white people in the country and many more would come; that he wanted the land marked out so that|
|the Indians and white men could be separated. If they were to live in peace it was necessary, he said, that the Indians should have a country set|
|apart for them, and in that country they must stay. My father, who represented his band, refused to have anything to do with the council, because|
|he wished to be a free man. He claimed that no man owned any part of the earth, and a man could not sell what he did not own. |
|Mr. Spaulding took hold of my father's arm and said,``Come and sign the treaty.'' My father pushed him away, and said: ``Why do you ask me to |
|sign away my country? It is your business to talk to us about spirit matters, not to talk to us about parting with our land.'' Governor Stevens |
|urged my father to sign his treaty, but he refused. ``I will not sign your paper,'' he said; ``you go where you please, so do I; you are not a |
|child, I am no child; I can think for myself. No man can think for me. I have no other home than this. I will not give it up to any man. My |
|people would have no home. Take away your paper. I will not touch it with my hand.'' |
|My father left the council. Some of the chiefs of the other bands of the Nez Perces signed the treaty, and then Governor Stevens gave them |
|presents of blankets. My father cautioned his people to take no presents, for ``after a while,'' he said, ``they will claim that you have |
|accepted pay for your country.'' Since that time four bands of the Nez Perces have received annuities from the United States. My father was |
|invited to many councils, and they tried hard to make him sign the treaty, but he was firm as the rock, and would not sign away his home. His |
|refusal caused a difference among the Nez Perces. |
|Eight years later (1863) was the next treaty council. A chief called Lawyer, bemuse he was a great talker, took the lead in this council, and |
|sold nearly all the Nez Perces country. My father was not there. He said to me: ``When you go into council with the white man, always remember |
|your country. Do not give it away. The white man will cheat you out of your home. I have taken no pay from the United States. I have never sold |
|our land.'' In this treaty Lawyer acted without authority from our band. He had no right to sell the Wallowa (winding water) country. That had |
|always belonged to my father's own people, and the other bands had never disputed our right to it. No other Indians ever claimed Wallowa. |
|In order to have all people understand how much land we owned, my father planted poles around it and said: |
|``Inside is the home of my people -- the white man may take the land outside. Inside this boundary all our people were born. It circles around |
|the graves of our fathers, and we will never give up these graves to any man.'' |
|The United States claimed that they had bought all the Nez Perces country outside of Lapwai Reservation, from Lawyer and other chiefs, but we |
|continued to live on this land in peace until eight years ago, when white men began to come inside the bounds my father had set. We warned them |
|against this great wrong, but they would not leave our land, and some bad blood was raised. The white men represented that we were going on the |
|war-path. They reported many things that were false. |
|The United States Government asked for a treaty council. My father had become blind and feeble. He could no longer speak for his people. It was |
|then that I took my father's place as chief. In this council I made my first speech to white men. I said to the agent who held the council: |
|``I did not want to come to this council, but I came hoping that we could save blood. The white man has no right to come here and take our |
|country. We have never accepted any presents from the Government. Neither Lawyer nor any other chief had authority to sell this land. It has |
|always belonged to my people. It came unclouded to them from our fathers, and we will defend this land as long as a drop of Indian blood warms |
|the hearts of our men.'' |
|The agent said he had orders, from the Great White Chief at Washington, for us to go upon the Lapwai Reservation, and that if we obeyed he would |
|help us in many ways. ``You must move to the agency,'' he said. I answered him: ``I will not. I do not need your help; we have plenty, and we are|
|contented and happy if the white man will let us alone. The reservation is too small for so many people with all their stock. You can keep your |
|presents; we can go to your towns and pay for all we need; we have plenty of horses and cattle to sell, and we won't have any help from you; we |
|are free now; we can go where we please. Our fathers were born here. Here they lived, here they died, here are their graves. We will never leave |
|them.'' The agent went away, and we had peace for a little while. |
|Soon after this my father sent for me. I saw he was dying. I took his hand in mine. He said: ``My son, my body is returning to my mother Earth, |
|and my spirit is going very soon to see the Great Spirit Chief. When I am gone, think of your country. You are the chief of these people. They |
|look to you to guide them. Always remember that your father never sold his country. You must stop your ears whenever you are asked to sign a |
|treaty selling your home. A few years more, and white men will be all around you. They have their eyes on this land. My son, never forget my |
|dying words. This country holds your father's body. Never sell the bones of your father and your mother.'' I pressed my father's hand and told |
|him I would protect his grave with my life. My father smiled and passed away to the spirit-land. I buried him in that beautiful valley of winding|
|waters. I love that land more than all the rest of the world. A man who would not love his father's grave is worse than a wild animal. |
|For a short time we lived quietly. But this could not last. White men had found gold in the mountains around the land of winding water. They |
|stole a great many horses from us, and we could not get them back because we were Indians. The white men told lies for each other. They drove off|
|a great many of our cattle. Some white men branded our young cattle so they could claim them. We had no friend who would plead our cause before |
|the law councils. It seemed to me that some of the white men in Wallowa were doing these things on purpose to get up a war. They knew that we |
|were not strong enough to fight them. I labored hard to avoid trouble and bloodshed. We gave up some of our country to the white men, thinking |
|that then we could have peace. We were mistaken. The white man would not let us alone. We could have avenged our wrongs many times, but we did |
|not. Whenever the Government has asked us to help them against other Indians, we have never refused. When the white men were few and we were |
|strong we could have killed them all off, but the Nez Perces wished to live at peace. |
|If we have not done so, we have not been to blame. I believe that the old treaty has never been correctly reported. If we ever owned the land we |
|own it still, for we never sold it. In the treaty councils the commissioners have claimed that our country had been sold to the Government. |
|Suppose a white man should come to me and say, ``Joseph, I like your horses, and I want to buy them.'' I say to him, ``No, my horses suit me, I |
|will not sell them.'' Then he goes to my neighbor, and says to him: ``Joseph has some good horses. I want to buy them, but he refuses to sell.'' |
|My neighbor answers, ``Pay me the money, and I will sell you Joseph's horses.'' The white man returns to me, and says, ``Joseph, I have bought |
|your horses, and you must let me have them.'' If we sold our lands to the Government, this is the way they were bought. |
|On account of the treaty made by the other bands of the Nez Perces, the white men claimed my lands. We were troubled greatly by white men |
|crowding over the line. Some of these were good men, and we lived on peaceful terms with them, but they were not all good. |
|Nearly every year the agent came over from Lapwai and ordered us on to the reservation. We always replied that we were satisfied to live in |
|Wallowa. We were careful to refuse the presents or annuities which he offered. |
|Through all the years since the white men came to Wallowa we have been threatened and taunted by them and the treaty Nez Perces. They have given |
|us no rest. We have had a few good friends among white men, and they have always advised my people to bear these taunts without fighting. Our |
|young men were quick-tempered, and I have had great trouble in keeping them from doing rash things. I have carried a heavy load on my back ever |
|since I was a boy. I learned then that we were but few, while the white men were many, and that we could not hold our own with them. We were like|
|deer. They were like grizzly bears. We had a small country. Their country was large. We were contented to let things remain as the Great Spirit |
|Chief made them. They were not; and would change the rivers and mountains if they did not suit them. |
|Year after year we have been threatened, but no war was made upon my people until General Howard came to our country two years ago and told us |
|that he was the white war-chief of all that country. He said: ``I have a great many soldiers at my back. I am going to bring them up here, and |
|then I will talk to you again. I will not let white men laugh at me the next time I come. The country belongs to the Government, and I intend to |
|make you go upon the reservation.'' |
|I remonstrated with him against bringing more soldiers to the Nez Perces country. He had one house full of troops all the time at Fort Lapwai. |
|The next spring the agent at Umatilla agency sent an Indian runner to tell me to meet General Howard at Walla Walla. I could not go myself, but I|
|sent my brother and five other head men to meet him, and they had a long talk. |
|General Howard said: ``You have talked straight, and it is all right. You can stay in Wallowa.'' He insisted that my brother and his company |
|should go with him to Fort Lapwai. When the party arrived there General Howard sent out runners and called all the Indians in to a grand council.|
|I was in that council. I said to General Howard, ``We are ready to listen.'' He answered that he would not talk then, but would hold a council |
|next day, when he would talk plainly. I said to General Howard: ``I am ready to talk to-day. I have been in a great many councils, but I am no |
|wiser. We are all sprung from a woman, although we are unlike in many things. We can not be made over again. You are as you were made, and as you|
|were made you can remain. We are just as we were made by the Great Spirit, and you can not change us; then why should children of one mother and |
|one father quarrel? Why should one try to cheat the other? I do not believe that the Great Spirit Chief gave one kind of men the right to tell |
|another kind of men what they must do.'' |
|General Howard replied: ``You deny my authority, do you? You want to dictate to me, do you?'' |
|Then one of my chiefs -- Too-hool-hool-suit -- rose in the council and said to General Howard: ``The Great Spirit Chief made the world as it is, |
|and as he wanted it, and he made a part of it for us to live upon. I do not see where you get authority to say that we shall not live where he |
|placed us.'' |
|General Howard lost his temper and said: ``Shut up! I don't want to hear any more of such talk. The law says you shall go upon the reservation to|
|live, and I want you to do so, but you persist in disobeying the law'' (meaning the treaty). ``If you do not move, I will take the matter into my|
|own hand, and make you suffer for your disobedience.'' |
|Too-hool-hool-suit answered: ``Who are you, that you ask us to talk, and then tell me I sha'n't talk? Are you the Great Spirit? Did you make the |
|world? Did you make the sun? Did you make the rivers to run for us to drink? Did you make the grass to grow? Did you make all these things, that |
|you talk to us as though we were boys? If you did, then you have the right to talk as you do.'' |
|General Howard replied: ``You are an impudent fellow, and I will put you in the guard-house,'' and then ordered a soldier to arrest him. |
|Too-hool-hool-suit made no resistance. He asked General Howard: ``Is that your order? I don't care. I have expressed my heart to you. I have |
|nothing to take back. I have spoken for my country. You can arrest me, but you can not change me or make me take back what I have said.'' |
|The soldiers came forward and seized my friend and took him to the guard-house. My men whispered among themselves whether they should let this |
|thing be done. I counseled them to submit. I knew if we resisted that all the white men present, including General Howard would be killed in a |
|moment, and we would be blamed. If I had said nothing, General Howard would never have given another unjust order against my men. I saw the |
|danger, and, while they dragged Too-hool-hool-suit to prison, I arose and said: ``I am going to talk now. I don't care whether you arrest me or |
|not.'' I turned to my people and said: ``The arrest of Too-hool-hool-suit was wrong, but we will not resent the insult. We were invited to this |
|council to express our hearts, and we have done so.'' Too-hool-hool-suit was a prisoner for five days before he was released. |
|The council broke up for that day. On the next morning General Howard came to my lodge, and invited me to go with him and White-Bird and |
|Looking-Glass, to look for land for my people. As we rode along we came to some good land that was already occupied by Indians and white people. |
|General Howard, pointing to this land, said: ``If you will come on to the reservation, I will give you these lands and move these people off.'' |
|I replied: ``No. It would be wrong to disturb these people. I have no right to take their homes. I have never taken what did not belong to me. I |
|will not now.'' |
|We rode all day upon the reservation, and found no good land unoccupied. I have been informed by men who do not lie that General Howard sent a |
|letter that night, telling the soldiers at Walla Walla to go to Wallowa Valley, and drive us out upon our return home. |
|In the council, next day, General Howard informed me, in a haughty spirit, that he would give my people thirty days to go back home, collect all |
|their stock, and move on to the reservation, saying, ``If you are not here in that time, I shall consider that you want to fight, and will send |
|my soldiers to drive you on.'' |
|I said: ``War can be avoided, and it ought to be avoided. I want no war. My people have always been the friends of the white man. Why are you in |
|such a hurry? I can not get ready to move in thirty days. Our stock is scattered, and Snake River is very high. Let us wait until fall, then the |
|river will be low. We want time to hunt up our stock and gather supplies for winter.'' |
|General Howard replied, ``If you let the time run over one day, the soldiers will be there to drive you on to the reservation, and all your |
|cattle and horses outside of the reservation at that time will fall into the hands of the white men.'' |
| |
|I knew I had never sold my country, and that I had no land in Lapwai; but I did not want bloodshed. I did not want my people killed. I did not |
|want anybody killed. Some of my people had been murdered by white men, and the white murderers were never punished for it. I told General Howard |
|about this, and again said I wanted no war. I wanted the people who lived upon the lands I was to occupy at Lapwai to have time to gather their |
|harvest. |
|I said in my heart that, rather than have war, I would give up my country. I would give up my father's grave. I would give up everything rather |
|than have the blood of white men upon the hands of my people. |
|General Howard refused to allow me more than thirty days to move my people and their stock. I am sure that he began to prepare for war at once. |
|When I returned to Wallowa I found my people very much excited upon discovering that the soldiers were already in the Wallowa Valley. We held a |
|council, and decided to move immediately, to avoid bloodshed. |
|Too-hool-hool-suit, who felt outraged by his imprisonment, talked for war, and made many of my young men willing to fight rather than be driven |
|like dogs from the land where they were born. He declared that blood alone would wash out the disgrace General Howard had put upon him. It |
|required a strong heart to stand up against such talk, but I urged my people to be quiet, and not to begin a war. |
|We gathered all the stock we could find, and made an attempt to move. We left many of our horses and cattle in Wallowa, and we lost several |
|hundred in crossing the river. All of my people succeeded in getting across in safety. Many of the Nez Perces came together in Rocky Canon to |
|hold a grand council. I went with all my people. This council lasted ten days. There was a great deal of war-talk, and a great deal of |
|excitement. There was one young brave present whose father had been killed by a white man five years before. This man's blood was bad against |
|white men, and he left the council calling for revenge. |
|Again I counseled peace, and I thought the danger was past. We had not complied with General Howard's order because we could not, but we intended|
|to do so as soon as possible. I was leaving the council to kill beef for my family, when news came that the young man whose father had been |
|killed had gone out with several other hot-blooded young braves and killed four white men. He rode up to the council and shouted: ``Why do you |
|sit here like women? The war has begun already.'' I was deeply grieved. All the lodges were moved except my brother's and my own. I saw clearly |
|that the war was upon us when I learned that my young men had been secretly buying ammunition. I heard then that Too-hool-hool-suit, who had been|
|imprisoned by General Howard, had succeeded in organizing a war-party. I knew that their acts would involve all my people. I saw that the war |
|could not then be prevented. The time had passed. I counseled peace from the beginning. I knew that we were too weak to fight the United States. |
|We had many grievances, but I knew that war would bring more. We had good white friends, who advised us against taking the war-path. My friend |
|and brother, Mr. Chapman,who has been with us since the surrender, told us just how the war would end. Mr. Chapman took sides against us, and |
|helped General Howard. I do not blame him for doing so. He tried hard to prevent bloodshed. We hoped the white settlers would not join the |
|soldiers. Before the war commenced we had discussed this matter all over, and many of my people were in favor of warning them that if they took |
|no part against us they should not be molested in the event of war being begun by General Howard. This plan was voted down in the war-council. |
|There were bad men among my people who had quarreled with white men. They talked of their wrongs until they roused all the bad hearts in the |
|council. Still I could not believe that they would begin the war. I know that my young men did a great wrong, but I ask, Who was first to blame? |
|They had been insulted a thousand times; their fathers and brothers had been killed; their mothers and wives had been disgraced; they had been |
|driven to madness by whisky sold to them by white men; they had been told by General Howard that all their horses and cattle which they had been |
|unable to drive out of Wallowa were to fall into the hands of white men; and, added to all this, they were homeless and desperate. |
|I would have given my own life if I could have undone the killing of white men by my people. I blame my young men and I blame the white men. I |
|blame General Howard for not giving my people time to get their stock away from Wallowa. I do not acknowledge that he had the right to order me |
|to leave Wallowa at any time. I deny that either my father or myself ever sold that land. It is still our land. It may never again be our home, |
|but my father sleeps there, and I love it as I love my mother. I left there, hoping to avoid bloodshed. |
|If General Howard had given me plenty of time to gather up my stock, and treated Too-hool-hool-suit as a man should be treated, there would have |
|been no war. |
|My friends among white men have blamed me for the war. I am not to blame. When my young men began the killing, my heart was hurt. Although I did |
|not justify them, I remembered all the insults I had endured, and my blood was on fire. Still I would have taken my people to the buffalo country|
|without fighting, if possible. |
|I could see no other way to avoid a war. We moved over to White Bird Creek, sixteen miles away, and there encamped, intending to collect our |
|stock before leaving; but the soldiers attacked us, and the first battle was fought. We numbered in that battle sixty men, and the soldiers a |
|hundred. The fight lasted but a few minutes, when the soldiers retreated before us for twelve miles. They lost thirty-three killed, and had seven|
|wounded. When an Indian fights, he only shoots to kill; but soldiers shoot at random. None of the soldiers were scalped. We do not believe in |
|scalping, nor in killing wounded men. Soldiers do not kill many Indians unless they are wounded and left upon the battle-field. Then they kill |
|Indians. |
|Seven days after the first battle, General Howard arrived in the Nez Perces country, bringing seven hundred more soldiers. It was now war in |
|earnest. We crossed over Salmon River, hoping General Howard would follow. We were not disappointed. He did follow us, and we got back between |
|him and his supplies, and cut him off for three days. He sent out two companies to open the way. We attacked them, killing one officer, two |
|guides, and ten men. |
|We withdrew, hoping the soldiers would follow, but they had got fighting enough for that day. They intrenched themselves, and next day we |
|attacked them again. The battle lasted all day, and was renewed next morning. We killed four and wounded seven or eight. |
|About this time General Howard found out that we were in his rear. Five days later he attacked us with three hundred and fifty soldiers and |
|settlers. We had two hundred and fifty warriors. The fight lasted twenty-seven hours. We lost four killed and several wounded. General Howard's |
|loss was twenty-nine men killed and sixty wounded. |
|The following day the soldiers charged upon us, and we retreated with our families and stock a few miles, leaving eighty lodges to fall into |
|General Howard's hands. |
|Finding that we were outnumbered, we retreated to Bitter Root Valley. Here another body of soldiers came upon us and demanded our surrender. We |
|refused. They said, ``You can not get by us.'' We answered, ``We are going by you without fighting if you will let us, but we are going by you |
|anyhow.'' We then made a treaty with these soldiers. We agreed not to molest any one, and they agreed that we might pass through the Bitter Root |
|country in peace. We bought provisions and traded stock with white men there. |
|We understood that there was to be no more war. We intended to go peaceably to the buffalo country, and leave the question of returning to our |
|country to be settled afterward. |
|With this understanding we traveled on for four days, and, thinking that the trouble was all over, we stopped and prepared tent-poles to take |
|with us. We started again, and at the end of two days we saw three white men passing our camp. Thinking that peace had been made, we did not |
|molest them. We could have killed or taken them prisoners, but we did not suspect them of being spies, which they were. |
|That night the soldiers surrounded our camp. About day-break one of my men went out to look after his horses. The soldiers saw him and shot him |
|down like a coyote. I have since learned that these soldiers were not those we had left behind. They had come upon us from another direction. The|
|new white war-chief's name was Gibbon. He charged upon us while some of my people were still asleep. We had a hard fight. Some of my men crept |
|around and attacked the soldiers from the rear. In this battle we lost nearly all our lodges, but we finally drove General Gibbon back. Finding |
|that he was unable to capture us, he sent to his camp a few miles away for his big guns (cannons), but my men had captured them and all the |
|ammunition. We damaged the big guns all we could, and carried away the powder and lead. In the fight with General Gibbon we lost fifty women and |
|children and thirty fighting men. We remained long enough to bury our dead. The Nez Perces never make war on women and children; we could have |
|killed a great many women and children while the war lasted, but we would feel ashamed to do so cowardly an act. |
|We never scalp our enemies, but when General Howard came up and joined General Gibbon, their Indian scouts dug up our dead and scalped them. I |
|have been told that General Howard did not order this great shame to be done. |
|We retreated as rapidly as we could toward the buffalo country. After six days General Howard came close to us, and we went out and attacked him,|
|and captured nearly all his horses and mules (about two hundred and fifty head). |
|We then marched on to the Yellowstone Basin. On the way we captured one white man and two white women. We released them at the end of three days.|
|They were treated kindly. The women were not insulted. Can the white soldiers tell me of one time when Indian women were taken prisoners, and |
|held three days and then released without being insulted? Were the Nez Perces women who fell into the hands of General Howard's soldiers treated |
|with as much respect? I deny that a Nez Perce was ever guilty of such a crime. |
|A few days later we captured two more white men. One of them stole a horse and escaped. We gave the other a poor horse and told him he was free. |
|Nine days' march brought us to the mouth of Clarke's Fork of the Yellowstone. We did not know what had become of General Howard, but we supposed |
|that he had sent for more horses and mules. He did not come up, but another new war-chief (General Sturgis) attacked us. We held him in check |
|while we moved all our women and children and stock out of danger, leaving a few men to cover our retreat. |
| |
|Several days passed, and we heard nothing of General Howard, or Gibbon, or Sturgis. We had repulsed each in turn, and began to feel secure, when |
|another army, under General Miles, struck us. This was the fourth army, each of which outnumbered our fighting force, that we had encountered |
|within sixty days. |
|We had no knowledge of General Miles's army until a short time before he made a charge upon us, cutting our camp in two and capturing nearly all |
|our horses. About seventy men, myself among them, were cut off. My little daughter, twelve years of age, was with me. I gave her a rope, and told|
|her to catch a horse and join the others who were cut off from the camp. I have not seen her since, but I have learned that she is alive and |
|well. |
|I thought of my wife and children, who were now surrounded by soldiers, and I resolved to go to them or die. With a prayer in my mouth to the |
|Great Spirit Chief who rules above, I dashed unarmed through the line of soldiers. It seemed to me that there were guns on every side, before and|
|behind me. My clothes were cut to pieces and my horse was wounded, but I was not hurt. As I reached the door of my lodge, my wife handed me my |
|rifle, saying: ``Here's your gun. Fight!'' |
|The soldiers kept up a continuous fire. Six of my men were killed in one spot near me. Ten or twelve soldiers charged into our camp and got |
|possession of two lodges, killing three Nez Perces and losing three of their men, who fell inside our lines. I called my men to drive them back. |
|We fought at close range, not more than twenty steps apart, and drove the soldiers back upon their main line, leaving their dead in our hands. We|
|secured their arms and ammunition. We lost, the first day and night, eighteen men and three women. General Miles lost twenty-six killed and forty|
|wounded. The following day General Miles sent a messenger into my camp under protection of a white flag. I sent my friend Yellow Bull to meet |
|him. |
|Yellow Bull understood the messenger to say that General Miles wished me to consider the situation; that he did not want to kill my people |
|unnecessarily. Yellow Bull understood this to be a demand for me to surrender and save blood. Upon reporting this message to me, Yellow Bull said|
|he wondered whether General Miles was in earnest. I sent him back with my answer, that I had not made up my mind, but would think about it and |
|send word soon. A little later he sent some Cheyenne scouts with another message. I went out to meet them. They said they believed that General |
|Miles was sincere and really wanted peace. I walked on to General Miles's tent. He met me and we shook hands. He said, ``Come, let us sit down by|
|the fire and talk this matter over.'' I remained with him all night; next morning Yellow Bull came over to see if I was alive, and why I did not |
|return. |
|General Miles would not let me leave the tent to see my friend alone. |
| |
|Yellow Bull said to me: ``They have got you in their power, and I am afraid they will never let you go again. I have an officer in our camp, and |
|I will hold him until they let you go free.'' |
|I said: ``I do not know what they mean to do with me, but if they kill me you must not kill the officer. It will do no good to avenge my death by|
|killing him.'' Yellow Bull returned to my camp. I did not make any agreement that day with General Miles. The battle was renewed while I was with|
|him. I was very anxious about my people. I knew that we were near Sitting Bull's camp in King George's land, and I thought maybe the Nez Perces |
|who had escaped would return with assistance. No great damage was done to either party during the night. On the following morning I returned to |
|my camp by agreement, meeting the officer who had been held a prisoner in my camp at the flag of truce. My people were divided about |
|surrendering. We could have escaped from Bear Paw Mountain if we had left our wounded, old women, and children behind. We were unwilling to do |
|this. We had never heard of a wounded Indian recovering while in the hands of white men. On the evening of the fourth day General Howard came in |
|with a small escort, together with my friend Chapman. We could now talk understandingly. General Miles said to me in plain words, ``If you will |
|come out and give up your arms, I will spare your lives and send you to your reservation.'' I do not know what passed between General Miles and |
|General Howard. |
|I could not bear to see my wounded men and women suffer any longer; we had lost enough already. General Miles had promised that we might return |
|to our own country with what stock we had left. I thought we could start again. I believed General Miles or I never would have surrendered. I |
|have heard that he has been censured for making the promise to return us to Lapwai. He could not have made any other terms with me at that time. |
|I would have held him in check until my friends came to my assistance and then neither of the generals nor their soldiers would have ever left |
|Bear Paw Mountain alive. |
|On the fifth day I went to General Miles and gave up my gun, and said, ``From where the sun now stands I will fight no more.'' My people needed |
|rest -- we wanted peace. I was told we could go with General Miles to Tongue River and stay there until spring, when we would be sent back to our|
|country. Finally it was decided that we were to be taken to Tongue River. We had nothing to say about it. After our arrival at Tongue River, |
|General Miles received orders to take us to Bismarck. The reason given was, that subsistence would be cheaper there. |
|General Miles was opposed to this order. He said: ``You must not blame me. I have endeavored to keep my word, but the chief who is over me has |
|given the order, and I must obey it or resign. That would do you no good. Some other officer would carry out the order.'' |
| |
|I believe General Miles would have kept his word if he could have done so. I do not blame him for what we have suffered since the surrender. I do|
|not know who is to blame. We gave up all our horses (over eleven hundred) and all our saddles (over one hundred) and we have not heard from them |
|since. Somebody has got our horses. |
|General Miles turned my people over to another soldier, and we were taken to Bismarck. Captain Johnson, who now had charge of us, received an |
|order to take us to Fort Leavenworth. At Leavenworth we were placed on a low river bottom, with no water except river-water to drink and cook |
|with. We had always lived in a healthy country, where the mountains were high and the water was cold and clear. Many of my people sickened and |
|died, and we buried them in this strange land. I can not tell how much my heart suffered for my people while at Leavenworth. The Great Spirit |
|Chief who rules above seemed to be looking some other way, and did not see what was being done to my people. During the hot days (July, 1878) we |
|received notice that we were to be moved farther away from our own country. We were not asked if we were willing to go. We were ordered to get |
|into the railroad-cars. Three of my people died on the way to Baxter Springs. It was worse to die there than to die fighting in the mountains. We|
|were moved from Baxter Springs (Kansas) to the Indian Territory, and set down without our lodges. We had but little medicine, and we were nearly |
|all sick. Seventy of my people have died since we moved there. |
|We have had a great many visitors who have talked many ways. Some of the chiefs (General Fish and Colonel Stickney) from Washington came to see |
|us, and selected land for us to live upon. We have not moved to that land, for it is not a good place to live. The Commissioner Chief (E. A. |
|Hayt) came to see us. I told him, as I told every one, that I expected General Miles's word would be carried out. He said it ``could not be done;|
|that white men now lived in my country and all the land was taken up; that, if I returned to Wallowa, I could not live in peace; that law-papers |
|were out against my young men who began the war, and that the Government could not protect my people.'' This talk fell like a heavy stone upon my|
|heart. I saw that I could not gain anything by talking to him. Other law chiefs (Congressional Committee) came to see me and said they would help|
|me to get a healthy country. I did not know who to believe. The white people have too many chiefs. They do not understand each other. They do not|
|all talk alike. |
|The Commissioner Chief (Mr. Hayt) invited me to go with him and hunt for a better home than we have now. I like the land we found (west of the |
|Osage reservation) better than any place I have seen in that country; but it is not a healthy land. There are no mountains and rivers. The water |
|is warm. It is not a good country for stock. I do not believe my people can live there. I am afraid they will all die. The Indians who occupy |
|that country are dying off. I promised Chief Hayt to go there, and do the best I could until the Government got ready to make good General |
|Miles's word. I was not satisfied, but I could not help myself. Then the Inspector Chief (General McNiel) came to my camp and we had a long talk.|
|He said I ought to have a home in the mountain country north, and that he would write a letter to the Great Chief at Washington. Again the hope |
|of seeing the mountains of Idaho and Oregon grew up in my heart. |
|At last I was granted permission to come to Washington and bring my friend Yellow Bull and our interpreter with me. I am glad we came. I have |
|shaken hands with a great many friends, but there are some things I want to know which no one seems able to explain. I can not understand how the|
|Government sends a man out to fight us, as it did General Miles, and then breaks his word. Such a Government has something wrong about it. I can |
|not understand why so many chiefs are allowed to talk so many different ways, and promise so many different things. I have seen the Great Father |
|Chief (the President), the next Great Chief (Secretary of the Interior), the Commissioner Chief (Hayt), the Law Chief (General Butler), and many |
|other law chiefs (Congressmen), and they all say they are my friends, and that I shall have justice, but while their mouths all talk right I do |
|not understand why nothing is done for my people. I have heard talk and talk, but nothing is done. Good words do not last long unless they amount|
|to something. Words do not pay for my dead people. They do not pay for my country, now overrun by white men. They do not protect my father's |
|grave. They do not pay for all my horses and cattle. Good words will not give me back my children. Good words will not make good the promise of |
|your War Chief General Miles. Good words will not give my people good health and stop them from dying. Good words will not get my people a home |
|where they can live in peace and take care of themselves. |
|I am tired of talk that comes to nothing. It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and all the broken promises. There has been |
|too much talking by men who had no right to talk. Too many misrepresentations have been made, too many misunderstandings have come up between the|
|white men about the Indians. If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian he can live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all |
|men alike. Give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are |
|all brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect the rivers to run |
|backward as that any man who was born a free man should be contented when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. If you tie a horse|
|to a stake, do you expect he will grow fat? If you pen an Indian up on a small spot of earth, and compel him to stay there, he will not be |
|contented, nor will he grow and prosper. I have asked some of the great white chiefs where they get their authority to say to the Indian that he |
|shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. They can not tell me. |
|I only ask of the Government to be treated as all other men are treated. If I can not go to my own home, let me have a home in some country where|
|my people will not die so fast. I would like to go to Bitter Root Valley. There my people would et me be a free man -- free to travel, free to |
|stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to think and |
|talk and act for myself -- and I will obey every law, or submit to the penalty. |
|Whenever the white man treats the Indian as they treat each other, then we will have no more wars. We shall all be alike --brothers of one father|
|and one mother, with one sky above us and one country around us, and one government for all. Then the Great Spirit Chief who rules above will |
|smile upon this land, and send rain to wash out the bloody spots made by brothers' hands from the face of the earth. For this time the Indian |
|race are waiting and praying. I hope that no more groans of wounded men and women will ever go to the ear of the Great Spirit Chief above, and |
|that all people may be one people. |
|In-mut-too-yah-lat-lat has spoken for his people. |
|Young Joseph. |
|Washington City, D.C. |
| |
| |
|_________________________________________________________________________ |
Source:
“Spokane Outdoors.” . 4 Oct. 2010.
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