An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States: Chapters 2–3

Treating differences as a threat enables one society to dehumanize the other.

This painting shows peasants toiling in a field while an overseer wields a staff.

Although many commoners converted to Christianity, they held on to many aspects of their pre-Christian life. This included the esteem accorded to women who held life-giving roles as healers and midwives.

The notion of blood purity led to brutal persecution of Jews, Muslims, and many others during the Inquisition and the Crusades.

Some nineteenth-century English scientists misused Darwin’s ideas to peddle the notion that the Irish and people of color descended from apes.

Earlier in this chapter, we discussed the way in which the aristocratic classes of Britain and the rest of Europe created a permanent class of impoverished people by taking over the commons—land that had once belonged to communities to be used for crops and livestock.

Gold fever drove monarchs and others with wealth to fund colonizing ventures to find the metal.

In a religious context, cult refers to a relatively small group of people dedicated to a set of beliefs that are outside mainstream theology.

They had developed sophisticated philosophies of government, traditions of diplomacy, and policies of international relations.

Some significant ideas about religion and culture provided justification and incentive for what happened.

This Mayflower Compact invoked their god’s name and declared that they and their fellow passengers on the Mayflower were
■ loyal subjects of the king of England

■ the “First Colony” in North America
■ in a covenant that would be governed by “just and equal laws” that they promised to obey

At times, these depictions defy logic: showing people nearly naked in the dead of winter, as if they didn’t know better, were impervious to cold, or were more animallike than human.

The men who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 proclaimed that they would, “with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence,” “pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

People tend to speak of them with reverence, and students may even be required to memorize and recite key passages.

This means that, unlike the European monarchies that colonized the Americas, the United States is not supposed to be governed by a particular class or interest group, and the phrase implies that its actions should be considered beyond reproach.

In fact, exceptionalist ideology has been used from the very beginning to justify appropriation of the continent and then domination of the rest of the world.

From its beginning, the United States and its citizens have welcomed, solicited, bribed, and forced people from other places to come to lands it said were “cleansed” of their Indigenous inhabitants.

This citizenship process includes taking the Naturalization Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America, which says, in part: I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic...

Many of these cash-poor Ulster Scots didn’t have enough money to get to the colonies and chose to become indentured servants, which meant they agreed to work a set number of years for someone who would pay their passage.

In wresting the lands from Indigenous peoples, they used the same violent tactics they had used against the Irish.

However, with no such protection, the Indigenous peoples stood their ground against ongoing incursions into their homelands.

For example, Theodore Roosevelt once said that his Scotch-Irish forebears were “a stern, virile, bold and hardy people who formed the kernel of that American stock who were the pioneers of our people in the march westwards.”

For example, Theodore Roosevelt once said that his Scotch-Irish forebears were “a stern, virile, bold and hardy people who formed the kernel of that American stock who were the pioneers of our people in the march westwards.”

In addition to serving as presidents, educators, and businessmen, the Ulster Scots instilled in mainstream US culture a strong set of Calvinism’s individualist values.

As the country grew, some descendants of the first Ulster Scots settlers were able to gain entry to the ruling class. When they did, they usually left behind their Calvinist denominations and became members of the elite church linked to the state Church of England.