Hansen 1
Henry Hansen
Dr. Eastman
English 2130
9 September 2018
Question #4
Cultural Differences in Early America
The present-day United States is often referred to as a ‘melting pot’. The people in the melting pot are from many different parts of the world, making the present-day US a very diverse nation, with many different cultures. Digging deeper into the pot, each culture has a different race, religion, and ethnicity. In the early colonial times, there were many cultural differences between the colonists and the Native Americans. The two different cultures had many conflicts in colonial America due to the differences between the two cultures. How the two groups perceived each other, the development of each culture and education are the three main differences between the colonists and the Native Americans.
The early colonists perceived the Native Americans as savages. In Mary Rowlandson’s narrative, she describes in exquisite detail of how the Native Americans squandered her little village and showed no mercy in the attack. “The Indians getting up upon the room of the barn, had the advantage to shoot down upon them over their fortification. Thus these murderous wretches went on, burning and destroying before them” (Rowlandson 269). The way she describes the Native Americans is a perfect example of how the colonists felt that the Native Americans were indeed savages. The way that the Native Americans are described in this story, is very similar to the Dothraki in George R.R. Martin’s widely popular series “Game of Thrones”. In the series, the Dothraki are a tribe of people who are, like the Native Americans from the colonist perception, savages. In the award-winning HBO television show, the Dothraki show no remorse during their battles and live a nomadic lifestyle. The Dothraki also worship multiple gods and remain cast away from other civilizations, similar to the Native Americans in colonial America (Winter is Coming). Because the Native Americans also showed no remorse, lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle, and were isolated from other civilizations, there are direct comparisons between the two cultures.
Another cultural difference between the colonists and the Native Americans was that the colonists were far more developed than the Native Americans. The colonists had a steady lifestyle that they adopted from their mother country, while the Native Americans lived a lifestyle that could be considered undeveloped. The colonists had a far greater education than the Native Americans. Colleges such as the prestigious Harvard were open to colonists to further increase their studies after their prior education. The Native Americans did not have any schools or colleges that were available to them. Instead, they relied on families and designated teachers in their villages. Another way to show t...
