Friday 11 October 2013

http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/aj/id/4799

Linked above is a first hand account, written by George Percy in 1606. The account (of the Jamestown settlement in Virginia) covers where the settlement is located, how long they had been there, and the settlers first meeting with Native Americans.

I think the thing first stood out at me was the way Percy calls the Natives savages,
 'The first night of our landing, about midnight, there came some savages sayling close to our quarter'.
Although Percy and the other settlers had never before seen a Native American, they still label them as savages, which to me suggests that Percy thought himself and the others to be better than the natives.

'Wee came to a savage town, where wee found but few people...we had of them strawberries and other things'. Percy then goes on to say how one of the savages offered them each tobacco and fruit. I think that this part of the article stands out to me because even though the Natives are being welcoming and peaceful, offering fruit and tobacco, the settlers still refer to them as Savage, suggesting that possibly the settlers believe that they are inherently better, more civilised people, as the continued use of the word savage, to me, shows distrust and dubiousness.

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