"But presently, all on the sudden, they heard a great and strange cry, which they knew to be the same voices they heard in the night, though they varied their notes; and one of their company being abroad came running in and cried, "Men, Indians! Indians!" And withal, their arrows came flying amongst them. Their men ran with all speed to recover their arms, as by the good providence of God they did. In the meantime, of those that were there ready, two muskets were discharged at them, and two more stood ready in the entrance of their rendezvous but were commanded not to shoot till they could take full aim at them. And the other two charged again with-all speed, for there were only four had arms there, and defended the barricade, which was first assaulted. The cry of the Indians was dreadful, especially when they saw the men run out of the rendezvous toward the shallop to recover their arms, the Indians wheeling about upon them. But some running out with coats of mail on, and cutlasses in their hands, they soon got their arms land let fly amongst them and quickly stopped their violence. Yet there was a lusty man, and no less valiant, stood behind a tree within half a musket shot, and let his arrows fly at them; he was seen [to] shoot three arrows, which were all avoided. He stood three shots of a musket, till one taking full aim at him and made the bark or splinters of the tree fly about his ears, after which he gave an extraordinary shriek and away they went, all of them. They' left some to keep the shallop and followed them about a quarter of a mile and shouted once or twice, and shot off two or three pieces, and so returned. This they did that they might conceive that they were not afraid of them or any way discouraged. Thus it pleased God to vanquish their enemies and give them deliverance; and by His special providence so to dispose that not any one of them were either hurt or hit, though their arrows came close by them and on every side [of] them; and sundry of their coats, which hung up in the barricade, were shot through and through. Afterwards they gave God solemn thanks and praise for their deliverance, and gathered up a bundle of their arrows and sent them into England afterward by the master of the ship, and called that place the First Encounter" (5 Bradford).
Bradford, William. “Plymouth Plantation”, 14 June 2004. 23 March 2008.
<http://spider.georgetowncollege.edu/english/coke/bradford.htm>
Reflection
The Pilgrims came to America to seek a new beginning and to leave behind their lack of independence in the power hungry country of England. In doing this they were able to free themselves, with a little bit of effort, from the iron grips of the government of England. However, they began to use this freedom wrongly through the coercion of the Native Americans to move westward so that the selfish Americans could expand due to their "Manifest Destiny". Also, the Americans began to fight over land about whose was whose. All of this lead to catastrophe in the sense that karma acted bitterly. Because of the Americans' wrongdoings, they suffered the consequences such as the major debt that they began to assume and the control that the English still held over them. I found the part about the Americans invading the space of the Native Americans the most interesting because I am American and I have many friends that have Native American backgrounds and I just don't understand how my relatives could treat my friends’ relatives with such harsh actions.
Dear Diary,
My name is Uriah Thomas and I am from England traveling to the new world America to try and start a new life. Many others have also joined in the search for a new beginning but the trip so far has brought us many hardships. Many had suffered from illnesses and have even succumbed to death. Luckily, however, god gave me the strength to persevere and continue the lengthy trip in good health. However, along the trip I lost many family members and friends which saddened me but I knew that they would want me to continue my journey. My daughter Elizabeth is my only relative left and we together survived the trip.
We arrived only two days ago and the update is that we have landed and unpacked everything from our boat. We sent out explorers before, of course, though, and they responded that they had found no existence of other human life. Today however while walking through the woods to gather wood and food from the various plentiful plants of the wild, my daughter and I came across an opening where we could see smoke in the distance. As we advanced further and further into the opening we began to come to what seemed like a little village.
So as not to be too intrusive we slipped away from the camp and alerted our people and the leaders of our community. The solution of our small problem was to greet them with all respect and try to associate ourselves with them and teach them our ways. However, they seemed to disagree with us so they became our enemies and hostile.
Political Extension:
Essential Question Answer:
The Puritan Era was full of immigration of English settlers trying to make their way to what they thought would be a better life but what they soon realized was that their "American Dream" had not turned out quite the way they had wanted it to. This is true in the sense that I find the American Dream to be portrayed as a stimulation of success through opportunity, however, the inaccessibility to achieve the goal of completing the dream is devastating to those who can not succeed and do not have that same opportunity. The English settlers are of course the immigrants in this case, but not all of the English were able to travel from their homeland to find new life in the Americas. This might have been because they did not have the money for the trip or because they had not been able to work off debts, or even because they needed to stay with their family who were not able to travel. In this sense does my essential question fit the understanding that the "American Dream" is something that has opened some peoples eyes to the realization of the world and that some people are able to advance themselves in society for htey have a certain opportunity where as those who do not have the opportunity can not become as successful.
2 comments:
I agree with most of your reflection. I've always thought it strange that although many settlers came to America to escape the oppression of England they soon opressed many others (primarily Native Americans and Africans). It's awkward to think that our ancestors may have mistreated different races, even though we today are disgusted by the instances of oppression we read about.
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