Discovering

A New World

Pre-Colonial

America

Lecture Expectations• Write on loose-leaf paper (no curly edges)• Use the Roman numeral system seen in the

presentation, but realize that some areas need additional information from your textbook…leave space!!

• Use blue/black ink or pencil; no marker• Raise your hand if you have a question• Draw a star in your notes if you need further

explanation• Do not disturb your neighbor

*You are creating an outline with Roman Numerals (just as you see the information in the presentation)*You will decide which parts are important information; write down key terms/dates/facts, NOT every word!

I. Introduction: America, Land of Immigrants

A. Modes of transportation

1. by foot

2. by wooden sailing ships

3. by steerage ships

4. by flimsy rafts

B. Migrants 1. hunters crossing the Bering land

bridge

2. traveled from Siberia to Alaska, migrating southward

3. 20-40,000 years ago

C. Inhabitants 1. Over 300 Native

American culturesby 15th century

2. European diseases killed

up to 90% of some tribes, thus destroyingtheir culture and history.

3. Descendants remain, spread throughout the nation.

D. Native American Culture and Literature

1) Native Americans told their stories of their people in what is known as the oral tradition

2) One of the most common stories was the origin myth, which explained the creation of the earth and its people

3) These stories would be verbally passed down to future generations, instead of written down

4) Origin myths often included various animal spirits

II. The Europeans Arrive: The Explorers

A. Importance of Arrival and Discoveries

1. Written observations by French and Spanish sailors/explorers during the 15-16th centuries

2. eyewitness accounts of the “discovery” of the New World are considered to be the first literature of the Americas

3. Provided insight into the personal challenges and moral conflicts that shaped so much of our colonial culture

“Europeans did not find a wilderness here; rather, however involuntarily, they made one. Jamestown, Plymouth, Salem, Boston, Providence, New Amsterdam, Philadelphia—all grew upon sites previously occupied by Indian communities…the so-called settlement of America was a resettlement, a reoccupation of a land made waste by the diseases and demoralization introduced by the newcomers.”

~Francis Jennings, The Invasion of America (1975)

B. Prominent Explorers/Writers 1. Christopher Columbus

2. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca 3. John Smith

4. William Bradford

C. Purposes for Explorationa. God

b. Goldc. Glory

Christopher Columbus“Columbus did not discover a new world; he

established contact between two worlds, both already old”

(Parry, The Spanish Seaborne Empire 1966)

http://www.bestscalemodels.com/santamaria.html

“They willingly traded everything they owned…they were well-built,

with good bodies and handsome features…They do not bear arms…

they would make fine servants.”(from the journal of Columbus)

D. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca1) landed in 1528 on the

West Coast of what is now Florida, marching inland

2) fleet waited for an entire year for them, then went to Mexico

3) the explorers were thought to be dead, but de Vaca wandered for 8yrs in the Texas Gulf area

4) this leads to the first-hand account of the habits of the indigenous people & flora/fauna

5) spent most of his time in America fighting for the just treatment of the indigenous people

“He undertakes an inward journey transforming himself from a competent conquistador and

gentleman into a new American who sympathizes with, and appreciates, the native people he

encounters” (Holt 8).

E. Thomas Harriot1) Wrote A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia2) Described beautiful natural resources and Native American life.

• 3) Illustrations and descriptions gave

English readers their first glimpse

of daily life in North America.

» » http://uh.edu/engines/epi2267.htm

John Smith"I call them my children," he says of the American

settlements,"for they have been my wife, my hawks, my hounds, my

cards,my dice and in totall, my best content, as indifferent to my

heart as my left hand to my right." ~from 1922 New England Trials`

http://www.preservationvirginia.org/rediscovery/page.php?page_id=25

"For God did make the world to be inhabited with mankind," further Smith says " And here in Florida, Virginia, New England, and Cannada, is more land than all the people in Christendome can manure (cultivate), and yet more to spare than all the natives of those countries can use and culturate (cultivate)." yet he says , "for a copper knife and a few toys, as beads and hatchets, they will sell you a whole Countrey (district); and for a small matter, their houses and the ground they dewell upon; but those of Massachusets have resigned theirs freely". ~Advertisements

http://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/jamestown.htm

F. Captain John Smith1580-1631

"An Ambityous unworthy and vayneglorious fellowe” Smith had various roles

throughout his lifetime: 1) Known for his leadership

skills and military experience

2) A writer of exuberant travelers' tales

3) an explorer3) a mapmaker4) a geographer5) an ethnographer 6) Hired by the Va. Company

to govern Jamestown (1607)7) Peacemaker with Native

Americans, such as Powhatan’s tribe

The Situation at Jamestown: 1) Experienced a multitude of troubles while

in the colony: mutiny of inhabitants, and death/deposition of presidents

2) Led the colony down a path of greed resulting in havoc and despair

3) Narrowly escaped execution for the deaths of two (possibly three) colonists under his leadership

4) Captured by the Powhatan Indians (1607)

5) Romanticized the role of Pocahontas, age 10

You will need to short-hand it! Do NOT copy verbatim!

E. William Bradford

*1620: left Holland on the ship, the Mayflower*1621: landed at Plymouth on the dunes of Cape Cod*seeking a community free to worship according to their beliefs*suffered loss, hardship and terrible conditions while on the voyage

to the New World*1622: elected Governor (30 different times during his life)*made with contact with native peoples, bartering for supplies and

food*Mayflower Compact: outlined government in an agreement, which

prepared the grounds for American constitutional democracy*1630: began writing the account of the Plymouth settlement,

attempting to inspire future generations to carry on Pilgrim’s ideals