Melissa Sandifer, “Unity Through Diversity: This is America”

This course so far has been very interesting.  I am not sure I was aware that there was such a vast array of literature to be found concerning the early stories of America.  The most surprising is that these early American texts are so multicultural.  Columbus was a great European man who documented his travels and his discovery of America.  Then there is Mary Rowlandson, a white-female, second generation Puritan, who wrote a detailed description of her captivity by the Indians.  There is also the narrative of an African slave named Olaudah Equiano, who tells of his life in slavery and the hardships he endured.   These texts are so very important for the fact that modern Americans can acknowledge that our country was not only founded by white men, but by an assortment of different cultures. 

Due to modern America being so diverse today, it is a must that early American literature is taught in a diverse way.  This means not only acknowledging the author of the text, but also acknowledging who the author was writing about.  Due to the Indians being such a large part of early American history, many authors documented the Indians ways and culture.  Columbus and Mary Rowlandson did this; in their attempt to tell their story, they also told someone else’s story as well.  Through their stories we see can see changes in the Indian culture over an almost two hundred year span.  Equiano’s narrative also gives information about not only him, but others around him.  He too told of the different cultures he crossed paths with and their ways of life.  The story of America is not a simple one and therefore it must be taught by the readings of many different authors from many different backgrounds. 

The letters of Columbus are of particular importance, because they explain his discovery of what we now call America and the hardships he had to face while traveling and attempting to socialize with the Indians.  His letters also provide readers with some insight to the way the Indians lived and what was important to them.  These letters document the treatment of the Indians by the Europeans.  Through Columbus’ letters readers learn that the Indians were peaceful and had no weapons.  Columbus explains, “they (Indians) are well-made men of commanding stature, they appear extraordinarily timid. The only arms they have are sticks of cane…and they are afraid to use these.”  This is significant, because the reader learns that the Indians are not looking to fight the Europeans.  These are men of peace who live off what the Earth provides for them.  Had it not been for Columbus explaining this, would future Americans have ever known that the Indians were peaceful when Columbus landed?  This is not a question that must be answered, because we are lucky enough to have Columbus’ documentation.  Columbus continues to explain to the reader how trusting and kind the Indians are to his people.  His people try to take advantage of the Indians and Columbus will not allow this, because the Indians have been kind to them.  The readers of Columbus’ letters are told that the Indians are smart when it comes to land and water and they have made “a great many canoes, something like rowing boats, of all sizes, and most of them are larger than an eighteen-oared galley.”  Once again this is more insight to how the Indians lived and how skilled they were at crafting objects they needed.  Not only do we learn about the Indians through Columbus’ letters, but we also learn about the hardships he faced, especially when the Indians turned on him and his men.  Columbus explains that he did not make his voyages to “plunder” but he did it to explore and discover what was behind his own homeland.  Without Christopher Columbus’ letters Americans would know nothing of how their country was founded.

Even though her story is different from Columbus’, Americans still learn plenty about Indians through Mary Rowlandson’s captivity story.  Mary Rowlandson, through her documentation of her kidnapping, allows readers an insight into the Native Americans.  Through Mary’s story we learn that the Indians were coming into small towns, killing the men and capturing the women.  They did this and then later were paid a type of ransom by the captive’s family.  This once again is a very important and interesting part of our history that would be lost, had Mary Rowlandson not written it down.  This can be considered as diverse piece of literature, because it was written by a woman, and that was not common in the sixteen hundreds.  In her story, Mary explains how the Indians travel, what they ate, and some of the special celebrations they had while she was with them.  Her account tells the reader that the Indians were not all together merciless killers, some were very kind to her and she developed a way to earn food, money, and other miscellaneous items.  She eventually seems to identify with her kidnappers, “We went on our travel. I having got one handful of ground nuts, for my support that day.”  At times she does seem to write as if she was one of them, they were her people.  Mary’s story is a great depiction of how rough the frontier could be in the sixteen hundreds.  If reading both Columbus’ letters and Mary Rowland’s narrative it can be seen that there are two somewhat different depictions of the Indians in both stories.   

Olaudah Equiano’s story is similar to Mary Rowlandson’s in the fact that he also wrote his personal captivity narrative, but Equiano was an African American and no one was searching for him.  He was a slave to his many different masters, but through Equiano we learn about a part of American history.  There was at one time a slave trade and all Americans have to face this fact.  It was not pretty, but it is our history and very important to know about.  After being captured as a child with his sister, Olaudah Equiano is sold over and over again to many different people.  Some conditions he was in were not so pleasant, “This wretched situation was again aggravated by the galling of the chains, now become insupportable; and the filth off the necessary tubs, into which the children often fell, and were almost suffocated.”  This passage shows the ugly side of the slave trade back then.  It was horrible and terrible for these people who were stolen from their homes and sold into this life against their will.  Not only does Equiano show his readers the unfortunate side of the slave trade, but he also talks about the good masters he had.  He was taught to read, write, and do some arithmetic.  He was introduced to religion and even became baptized.  Daniel Queen is a master that Equiano speaks of in his narrative.  This man helped Equiano understand the Bible, and taught him how to cut hair, but just as he thought he might be free, Queen sold him to a new master.  This was particularly heartbreaking for Olaudah Equiano.  In chapter five he says, “Thus, at the moment I expected all my toils to end, was I plunged, as I supposed, in a new slavery.”  Equiano also speaks of the different cultures, languages, and people he comes across while being a slave. This story is important to our how America is taught today.  The America that was founded by white men with ease is not the true America.

This kind of documentation and history is very powerful, because it is America’s history.  Today, America is constructed out of such great diversity, that it is only right to learn our history through a myriad of diverse people.  Our history can only be told properly by men and women of many different races and cultural backgrounds.  As Americans, we are united in our diversity.  When teaching the early founders of the North, one cannot teach the writings of only one type of person.  The writings of many must be taught for a person to understand what America is based upon.  Even though we are different from each other, we still experience some of the same things.  Take Equiano and Rowlandson for example, they come from completely different cultures but they have similar stories.  Both were kidnapped and held against their will and both saw death all around them.  This may not be a great deal in common, but I believe it would be enough to unite them in a way.