The Frontier in American History
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American history involves a mixture of histories, cultures, and national backgrounds brought together in what was truly the New World when it was discovered by European settlers. At the time, there were several Indian tribes in North America and the larger civilization of the Aztecs in South America. The settlers from Europe brought their culture with them, and they only broke away from that culture slowly over a period of time as they created something new. With the advent of slavery in the plantation economy of the South, blacks from Africa were brought to the Americas and introduced elements of their culture. These different forces mixed and interacted over time to become the underpinnings of American history and what would become a distinctive American culture. The frontier played an important part in American history, both as a reality and as an idea, and the idea continues to do so today long after the physical frontier has disappeared. That disappearance was announced by Frederick Jackson Turner in his book The Frontier in American History, a book in which the author also discussed the significance of the frontier in American history. The fact that the frontier continues to play an important role in American life is evident in the way Americans seem to keep searching for a new frontier to replace the old. Every challenge is designated some form of "new frontier," from the exploration of space to the plumbing of the depths of t
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a form of deep religious expression, for to their Christian minds, these were deplorable pagan rites. Worship of more than one deity, and sacrificial offerings directed at the natural world, stamped Indians as a misguided, lesser form of mankind. The attitude of the Christian Europeans toward the Native Americans was paternalistic as a consequence. The result was that the Native Americans were treated like children and also were made to labor for their Christian betters as a way of atoning for their paganism. The Native Americans, of course, saw things differently:
Unimpressed with most settler practices, they saw little reason to replace what they valued in their own culture. When they observed the colonists' systems of law and justice, religion, education, family organization, and child rearing, Native Americans often concluded that their own ways were superior. (Nash 106)
English tactics against Native Americans crossed the line between strategic deception and outright immorality in the view of many (Utley and Washburn 23). The English could justify this because they had made Native Americans into brutes in their minds. The goal was to eliminate "Indianness" and to make the heathen as much like the Europeans as possibl
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2119
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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